1. L’image des Inuit dans La rivière sans repos de Gabrielle Roy.
- Author
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VAUCHERET, Étienne
- Subjects
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SHORT story collections , *WHITE men , *AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL memory , *HAPPINESS , *INUIT , *GENERATION gap , *AUTOBIOGRAPHY - Abstract
François Ricard submits that there are two approaches in Gabrielle Roy’s work: the first is directed mainly towards social concerns, as exemplified in Bonheur d’occasion, while the second is more idyllic and emphasizes autobiographical memories to a greater extent. The collection of short stories, La rivière sans repos, in which the author sheds light on the drama of contact between different civilisations, is an instance of the first approach. A number of symbolic images attempt to show that the intrusion of the White man into the Inuit world transforms the latters’ thinking and introduces issues of progress: a plane appearing in the «Great North» sky («Les satellites») or the fly-over of Fort Chimo by a G.I. and an Inuit woman’s son («La rivière sans repos»); the telephone, a game which Barnaby soon tires of, and the wheelchair whose usefulness Old Isaac finds debatable. Whether in the guise of films that disturb the imagination, or the bewildering modern comforts that create conflicts between the generations and make any re-adaptation to traditional ways more difficult, do the Inuit not see progress as a source of alienation rather than a cause for happiness? Even the most resistant among them are victims of this all-invasive progress, leaving them totally at sea before the problems of disease, old age and death. In «La rivière sans repos», Elsa experiences, body and soul, this drama of the clash of civilisations. At different times in her life, she tries in vain to raise her child, adapt to change, go back to life with the immutable Inuit, and ultimately return to the White man’s city. She fails, and as her son grows up, he retreats from her, drawn towards his father’s land. A pessimistic vision that conveys Gabrielle Roy’s sensitivity to human anguish. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2022
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