From animal story to animal as symbol

Title: From animal story to animal as symbol
Variant title:
  • De l'histoire sur les animaux à l'animal comme symbole
Author: Bottez, Monica
Source document: The Central European journal of Canadian studies. 2014, vol. 9, iss. [1], pp. 73-83
Extent
73-83
  • ISSN
    1213-7715 (print)
    2336-4556 (online)
Type: Article
Language
License: Not specified license
Rights access
embargoed access
 

Notice: These citations are automatically created and might not follow citation rules properly.

Abstract(s)
This paper starts with an analysis of a representative Canadian naturalist animal story, Charles Roberts' "Do Seek Their Meat from God," and then passes to a discussion of two more short stories in order to demonstrate that in the modern Canadian narrative discourse animal images usually work as symbols. For example, in Margaret Laurence's "The Loons" the bird images in the title appear as a symbol of a character's state of mind and fate, while in Guy Vanderhaeghe's "Dancing Bear" the bear image illuminates the protagonist with a feeling of brotherhood with all God's creatures. This makes him experience a strong psychological identification with the bear, which thus becomes a symbol of his humiliated dignity and pride, before finally becoming a metaphor of death.
L'étude part de l'analyse du récit naturaliste avec des animaux intitulé "Do Seek Their Meat from God" ["Et ils cherchèrent la nourriture de Dieu"], représentatif du Canadien Charles Robert, pour poursuivre avec l'analyse de deux autres nouvelles afin de démontrer que, dans le discours narratif moderne, l'image de l'animal fonctionne d'habitude comme un symbole : dans "The Loons" ["Les Huards"] de Margaret Laurence, l'image de l'oiseau du titre apparaît comme un symbole de l'état d'esprit et du sort d'un personnage, tandis que dans "Dancing Bear" ["L'Ours qui danse"] de Guy Vanderhaeghe, l'image de l'ours illumine le protagoniste d'un sentiment de fraternité avec toutes les créatures de Dieu et lui fait ensuite vivre une forte identification psychologique avec l'ours devenu ainsi le symbole de sa dignité et fierté humiliées, avant de devenir finalement une métaphore de la mort.
References
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