1. Objectifs

Intentions :
«I should like to pose the question of the ascent of the patriarchy in nineteenth-century Quebec from a slightly different perspective, that of masculinity, as patriarchy may oppress men too, both those who are excluded from the family, that primary seat of masculine power, and those who submit to an unwilled fatherhood out of a desire to conform.» (p. 186)

2. Méthode

Échantillon/Matériau :
«This essay will analyze a highly regarded novel of the second half of the nineteenth century, Jean Rivard, and exceptionally rich text which, among other things, places the figure of the father in opposition to that of the unmarried man.» (p. 186)

Type de traitement des données :
Analyse littéraire

3. Résumé

The author concluded that, «[s]upported by the clerical and liberal elites, these changes all came together in a stengthening of the paternal figure as the exclusive repository of political authority, which evidently militated against public humiliation, secrecy being a necessary condition of its exercise and legitimacy. Here may be observed both a very sophisticated process of a disciplining the man (the confessional) and the social promotion of the father (his presence in the family pew) and of ensuring his domestic power (he and the parish priest being the theoretical masters of the internal management of familial deviances). Here we have the deepest meaning of the elite discourse in general – to erect a model of masculine conformity centred on fatherhood in order to counteract the destabilizing effects of modernity. […] The father, a new guarantor of the norm and of social conformity, was able to move beyond social division and the reconfiguration of the rules of social interaction prompted by the transition to capitalism and to employ the institutional implements of control now established in place of the tradition forms of restraint.» (p. 204-205)