On the Threshold: Haunting Transgressions in Gaétan Soucy’s The Little Girl Who Was Too Fond of Matches
The main aim of this article is to show how Gaétan Soucy’s 1998 bestselling novel The Little Girl Who Was Too Fond of Matches both extends and complicates the Canadian Gothic tradition. The first part focuses on Canada as a “haunted culture,” and attempts to identify the ghosts which haunt Canada an...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Maria Curie-Sklodowska University
2017-10-01
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| Series: | Avant |
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| Online Access: | http://avant.edu.pl/wp-content/uploads/Szatanik-On-the-Treshold.pdf |
| _version_ | 1797669337429966848 |
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| author | Zuzanna Szatanik |
| author_facet | Zuzanna Szatanik |
| author_sort | Zuzanna Szatanik |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The main aim of this article is to show how Gaétan Soucy’s 1998 bestselling novel The Little Girl Who Was Too Fond of Matches both extends and complicates the Canadian Gothic tradition. The first part focuses on Canada as a “haunted culture,” and attempts to identify the ghosts which haunt Canada and make themselves manifest in the nation’s gothic literature. I ponder the postcolonial character of Canadian Gothic, and reflect on the representations of monstrous nature in Canada’s early fiction. A short section is devoted to the characteristics of French-Canadian Gothic. The second part of my article proposes a reading of Soucy’s novel which concentrates on gothic transgressions the story revolves around. One of my assumptions is that the novel invites ecocritical and ecofeminist interpretations, and that its representations of nature also reveal the subversive character of the text whose narrator, by her own admission, locates herself on the threshold of things. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-11T20:42:49Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-cf1c24aefac74607a9d30ceba5448e86 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2082-6710 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-11T20:42:49Z |
| publishDate | 2017-10-01 |
| publisher | Maria Curie-Sklodowska University |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Avant |
| spelling | doaj.art-cf1c24aefac74607a9d30ceba5448e862023-10-02T01:12:06ZengMaria Curie-Sklodowska UniversityAvant2082-67102017-10-0182798710.26913/80202017.0112.0006On the Threshold: Haunting Transgressions in Gaétan Soucy’s The Little Girl Who Was Too Fond of MatchesZuzanna SzatanikThe main aim of this article is to show how Gaétan Soucy’s 1998 bestselling novel The Little Girl Who Was Too Fond of Matches both extends and complicates the Canadian Gothic tradition. The first part focuses on Canada as a “haunted culture,” and attempts to identify the ghosts which haunt Canada and make themselves manifest in the nation’s gothic literature. I ponder the postcolonial character of Canadian Gothic, and reflect on the representations of monstrous nature in Canada’s early fiction. A short section is devoted to the characteristics of French-Canadian Gothic. The second part of my article proposes a reading of Soucy’s novel which concentrates on gothic transgressions the story revolves around. One of my assumptions is that the novel invites ecocritical and ecofeminist interpretations, and that its representations of nature also reveal the subversive character of the text whose narrator, by her own admission, locates herself on the threshold of things.http://avant.edu.pl/wp-content/uploads/Szatanik-On-the-Treshold.pdfCanadian literatureQuebec literatureCanadian GothicGaétan Soucytransgression |
| spellingShingle | Zuzanna Szatanik On the Threshold: Haunting Transgressions in Gaétan Soucy’s The Little Girl Who Was Too Fond of Matches Avant Canadian literature Quebec literature Canadian Gothic Gaétan Soucy transgression |
| title | On the Threshold: Haunting Transgressions in Gaétan Soucy’s The Little Girl Who Was Too Fond of Matches |
| title_full | On the Threshold: Haunting Transgressions in Gaétan Soucy’s The Little Girl Who Was Too Fond of Matches |
| title_fullStr | On the Threshold: Haunting Transgressions in Gaétan Soucy’s The Little Girl Who Was Too Fond of Matches |
| title_full_unstemmed | On the Threshold: Haunting Transgressions in Gaétan Soucy’s The Little Girl Who Was Too Fond of Matches |
| title_short | On the Threshold: Haunting Transgressions in Gaétan Soucy’s The Little Girl Who Was Too Fond of Matches |
| title_sort | on the threshold haunting transgressions in gaetan soucy s the little girl who was too fond of matches |
| topic | Canadian literature Quebec literature Canadian Gothic Gaétan Soucy transgression |
| url | http://avant.edu.pl/wp-content/uploads/Szatanik-On-the-Treshold.pdf |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT zuzannaszatanik onthethresholdhauntingtransgressionsingaetansoucysthelittlegirlwhowastoofondofmatches |