Du livre brûlé au livre ressuscité : le père face à quatre personnages féminins clés dans l’oeuvre royenne

This article more closely examines the illuminating role of the «little sister» (who is in sharp contrast with the father) in the body of Gabrielle Roy’s works. In fact both Dédette and the father seem to play a fundamental role in the development of Gabrielle Roy’s literary vocation as well as in the gradual edification of her work. Accordingly, we contrast the character of Dédette with her father’s (born and raised in the dark shadow of an unhappy life), to more closely emphasize the continuity between the grandmother, the mother and the two sisters – Dédette and Gabrielle/Christine. These four key female characters all seem to have been born to create and impart joy, thanks to their remarkable artistic gifts; they in fact are a sort of Russian doll, for Gabrielle envelops Dédette, her mother and her maternal grandmother within herself, and all her stories (particularly those «stacked» within the autobiography) embrace them, in the full meaning of the word, and become different mises en abîme. We can even say that the four kindred women are nestled one within the other, just like the stories they (directly or indirectly) give rise to, for example, of the family’s exodus from Québec, which is the key to all the other stories where the grandmother is the heroine and the mother the principal narrator, and which is retold by her daughter Gabrielle. In the same way as their artistic gifts (with their extraordinary powers of consolation) are communicated from mother to daughter, the four «sorceresses» spring forth from each other and spawn the stories (marvellous examples of self-revealing writings) that make up Roy’s work as a whole. Her work may consequently be seen as one great artist’s body of work, or Künstlerroman, in which she vindicates the suffering, not only of her father, but of all those close to her. Thus, in place of the father’s book the destruction of which is recounted in the autobiography, Gabrielle Roy’s great masterworks spring to life. Il est intéressant de constater à quel point trois textes-clés de Gabrielle Roy: Rue Deschambault, La détresse et l’enchantement et Ma chère petite soeur, lettres à Bernadette 1943-1970, sont interdépendants et, en outre, qu’on peut considérer l’ensemble 56 CAHIERS FRANCO-CANADIENS DE L'OUEST, PRINTEMPS 1991