Strategies of self-disclosure in the first-person narratives of Gabrielle Roy
Hahn, Cynthia T.
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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/19473
Description
Title
Strategies of self-disclosure in the first-person narratives of Gabrielle Roy
Author(s)
Hahn, Cynthia T.
Issue Date
1990
Department of Study
French
Discipline
French
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
Literature, Canadian (English)
Language
eng
fre
Abstract
"All of Gabrielle Roy's first person narratives exhibit evidence of a quest to understand the self. These narratives demonstrate both an evolution in the textual construction of the self portrait and a consistency of perspective with regard to textual self-disclosure. This can be explained by the dual nature of the ""I;"" both self-character and narrating persona are fused in the first person narratorial voice chosen for Roy's semi-autobiographical works. Roy affirmed the importance of an explicit first person narrator in certain texts to convey a tone of authenticity to the reader."
"""Self-disclosure"" refers to the narrative process of self revelation, the diachronic and synchronic unfolding of the self portrait across a text. Self-disclosure occurs within a text when evidence of the writer's narrative artistry is used by the reader to reconstruct a portrait of the self."
This thesis examines strategies of self-disclosure, from Roy's earliest first person narratives (short stories, anecdotes and story-articles of the 1930's and 1940's), to the subsequent lengthier and more complex short story sequences and autobiography. We find more developed self portraits and a greater focus on the self-experience in the later first person narratives, though certain strategies of self-disclosure present themselves in the earlier text.
Internal emotional duality (the divided self), self-plurality, and expansion of the self-experience into a universal emotional experience, constitute three major aspects of the self portrait examined in this discussion. While thematic studies of Roy's later works are abundant, to date little attention has been paid to the early narratives and to ways in which Roy's narrative techniques or strategies produce meaning in her text. This thesis discusses self-representation as a system of signification in Roy's first person narratives and examines the interplay of thematic, structural and linguistic elements which together promote the creation of multi-dimensional self portraits in these narratives.
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