Semiotics and the Modern Quebec Novel: A Greimassian analysis of Th?riault's Agaguk 9781442683884

Table of contents :
Contents
Acknowledgments
1. Introduction
2. The Semiotics of the Novel
3. Agaguk: A Synopsis
4. Segmentation
5. The Canonic Relation
6. Actantial Topology
7. System of Modalities
8. Actantial Transformations
9. System of Modalities and Sequential Order
10. Conclusion
Notes
Glossary
Bibliography
Index

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SEMIOTICS AND THE MODERN QUEBEC NOVEL: A Greimassian Analysis of Theriault's Agaguk

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PAUL PERRON

Semiotics and the Modern

Quebec Novel: A Greimassian Analysis of Theriault's Agaguk

UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO PRESS Toronto Buffalo London

www.utppublishing.com © University of Toronto Press Incorporated 1996 Toronto Buffalo London Printed in Canada ISBN 0-8020-0926-3

Printed on acid-free paper Toronto Studies in Semiotics Editors: Marcel Danesi, Umberto Eco, Paul Perron, and Thomas A. Sebeok Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data Perron, Paul Semiotics and the modern Quebec novel (Toronto studies in semiotics) Includes index. ISBN 0-8020-0926-3 1. Theriault, Yves, 1915-1983. Agaguk. 2. Greimas, Algirdas Julien. 3. Canadian fiction (French) - History and criticism.* 4. Semiotics and literature. I. Title. II. Series. PS8539.H43A653 1996 C843'.54 C96-931082-X PQ3919.T44A653 1996

University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial assistance to its publishing program of the Canada Council and the Ontario Arts Council. This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Humanities and Social Sciences Federation of Canada, using funds provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

For Jacqueline

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Contents

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

XI

1 Introduction 3 Historiography and the Novel 4 The Historical Novel: Les anciens Canadiens 5 The Agrarian Novel: Maria Chapdelaine 7 The Urban Novel: Bonheur d'occasion 11 The Wilderness Novel: Agaguk 17 2 The Semiotics of the Novel 19 The Semiotic Project 19 Literary Semiotics 20 An Attempt at a Method 21 Linguistics and Semiotics 21 Semiological Systems 22 Semiotics and Discourse Analysis 24 Paris School Semiotics 26 The Semantic Universe 28 Semiotics and the Social Sciences 29 Towards a Socio-Semiotics 31 3 Agaguk: A Synopsis 33 4 Segmentation

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5 The Canonic Relation 38 Morphology of the Modalities of /doing/ and /being/ 40

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Contents Objects of Value 41 Practical Objects of Value 41 /goods/ as Objects of Value 42 Primary /goods/ 43 Secondary /goods/ 47 Narrative Programs 52 Mythical Objects of Value 55 Monogamy and Polygamy 56 Exclusivity and Promiscuity 58 Life and Sexuality 58 Procreation and Sexuality 60 The Subject and Sexuality 62 Love and Sexuality 64

6 Actantial Topology 68 The Portrait 68 Actantial Topoi 74 Actantial Topoi: The Actantial Topoi: The Actantial Topoi: The Actantial Topoi: The

Physical Environment 75 Fauna 80 Social Environment 84 Environment of the Couple

7 System of Modalities 92 Power: Social 95 Power: Practical 96 Power: Mythical 97 Knowledge: Practical 98 Knowledge: Instinctive 100 Knowledge: Social 102 Knowledge: Mythical 103 Will: Social 105 Will: Individual-Intransitive 106 Will: Individual-Transitive 107 Duty 109 8 Actantial Transformations 113 Leadership: The Chief and the Social Contract 113 Leadership: The Chief and Self-interest 116 The Couple: Subjection and Emancipation 118 The Couple: Emancipation and the Family 119

87

Contents The The The The

Couple: Paternity, Instinct, and Knowledge 121 Couple: Woman, Instinct, and Knowledge 122 Couple: Man, Knowlege, and Instinct 123 Confirmation of the Couple 125

9 System of Modalities and Sequential Order 128 10 Conclusion

135

NOTES 143 GLOSSARY 155 BIBLIOGRAPHY 159 INDEX 165

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Acknowledgments

I would like to thank the Fellows of the Camargo Foundation for the opportunity to discuss some of the theoretical assumptions behind this work, which were elaborated during my stay in Cassis in the spring of 1994. I am also grateful to Arlene, Michael, and Collin Lewis-Beck, who made our stay memorable. Grateful acknowledgments should be given to Michael Pretina, the Director of the Camargo Foundation, and to Anne-Marie Franco, the Assistant Director, who were ever present and vigilant in ministering to our daily material and intellectual needs. Special appreciation to everyone associated with the Camargo Foundation, for providing us with the possibility of spending a semester in such splendid quarters. Finally, I would like to thank sincerely my colleagues Mariel O'Neill-Karch and Janet Paterson, who read versions of this manuscript and gave me much-needed advice. Toronto, 8 April 1996

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SEMIOTICS AND THE MODERN QUEBEC NOVEL: A Greimassian Analysis of Theriault's Agaguk

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1 Introduction

The choice of an object of study is neither arbitrary nor innocent, and the same holds true for the theoretical underpinnings that ground any methodology or perspective adopted. The aims of this study are threefold: first, to present to an English-speaking audience a new reading of a novel in translation, Agaguk, by Yves Theriault, published just before the Quiet Revolution, a period of major socio-political and cultural transformations at the beginning of the 1960s that radically altered Quebec society; second, to examine a specific theory of European semiotics that has centred around Algirdas Julien Greimas's work, known as the Paris School, in an attempt to develop a coherent methodology for the analysis of a specific literary genre, the novel; and third, to demonstrate the heuristic value of this rather complex theory and methodology, which has not been worked out in detail, with respect to long prose texts in English. Much like all other cultural artefacts, novels do not appear in a void, but rather bear traces of complex interrelations with other texts and objects belonging to various cultural series. And so they are written both for and against other narratives and are considered as spinning intricate intertextual webs with diverse texts that take on disparate forms. In 1958, Agaguk virtually exploded on the intellectual scene in Quebec and has been widely read and discussed ever since. In order to understand the impact this work had we will briefly examine the status of earlier FrenchCanadian novels.1 My purpose here is not to present a detailed overview of the socio-historical conditions that govern the emergence of the French-Canadian novel,2 nor to attempt a socio-critical evaluation of prose works that appeared before 1958,3 nor to write a history of the Quebec novel,4 which

4 Semiotics and the Modern Quebec Novel certainly would be out of place in a semiological analysis; rather, my object is to attempt to map schematically, from an elementary socio-semiotic perspective, the various options open to writers from 1837 onwards, when the first novel, L'influence d'un lime, by Philippe Aubert de Gaspe, fils, appeared in Quebec. HISTORIOGRAPHY AND THE NOVEL

In the Introduction to their seminal work Le roman canadien-franfais du vingtieme siecle, Rejean Robidoux and Andre Renaud (1966) state that 'French-Canadian literature has its roots in history and is a child of history' (10).5 An examination of the 530-odd novels published from 1837 to 1958 certainly bears this out. For those with even a cursory knowledge of the history of French Canada, it is not surprising that the emergence of the novel is linked to events that shaped the aspirations and the imagination of successive generations. Until 1944, with the publication of Roger Lemelin's Au pied de la pente douce, followed in 1945 by Gabrielle Roy's internationally acclaimed Bonheur d'occasion, when the novel definitively migrated to the city, nationalistic and patriotic aspirations, by which characters were defined, measured, and valorized, were presented primarily through historical and agricultural works. Yet, in French Canada, more than in other societies, the rise of the novel is closely linked to the advent of historiography. It is noteworthy that no histories of French Canada appeared from the time of the Conquest in 1759 until shortly after the Durham Report of 1839. However, the monumental Histoire du Canada by Franfois-Xavier Garneau, published in three volumes in 1845, 1846, and 1848, can be viewed as a partial response to Lord Durham's famous definition of French Canadians as a 'people without a history and without a literature.' Following Garneau, over the next forty years, seventeen other histories dealing with such topics as New France before the Conquest, Canada under English domination, famous French families of Canada, parishes, famous religious personages of New France, Amerindians, institutions, law, and even popular history were published in an attempt to define the specific human, geographic, and historical identity of French Canadians before and after the Conquest. This quest for origins and identity was closely mirrored in literary works produced during the same period. Of the fifty-three novels published in Quebec in the nineteenth century, twenty-six can be defined as historical novels, dealing mainly with New France before the Conquest, the Conquest, the Canada-U.S. War of

Introduction

5

1812, the Rebellions of 1837 and 1838, and the Acadian Diaspora. This period saw the consolidation and propagation of an imaginary FrenchCanadian subject who anchored and constructed his or her origins in historicity, thereby creating personae rooted in the long-term periodicity of the ancien regime, with its codes of behaviour, valour, and honour predating the Conquest. Such subjects periodically confirmed their lineage at critical historical moments, by reincarnating, re-enacting, reliving, and redramatizing the codes in question, thereby systematically projecting a cultural heritage that defined, at the level of the imaginary, the nation.6 Although the percentage of historical novels among works published in the twentieth century diminished progressively, their actual number still remained high. THE HISTORICAL NOVEL: LES ANCIENS

CANADIENS

The most popular and widely read historical novel written in Quebec is Les anciens Canadiens, or The Canadians of Old, by Philippe Aubert de Gaspe, published in 1863. Indeed, the value systems or axiology it develops and displays served as models for subsequent historical novels, especially with respect to the construction of the French-Canadian subject. The plot is rather straightforward. The novel opens with two friends, Jules d'Haberville and Archibald Cameron of Locheill, leaving school in Quebec City in the spring of 1757, the former to serve in the French army, the latter in the English. Archibald visits Jules's father's manor, and the first part of the novel deals with the seigneurial system in New France, the mores and customs of the inhabitants. The second section of the novel opens in the spring of 1759 with the British invasion of New France, during which Jules and Archibald oppose each other in battle. Jules is wounded, the d'Haberville family is ruined, and Archibald, victorious, is promoted to the rank of major. Unbeknownst to them, he helps the family by ingratiating himself with General Murray. After the fall, both he and Jules leave Canada, the former going back to England and the latter to France. They both return to Canada seven years later, Jules having married a nameless English woman and sworn allegiance to the Crown, whereas Archibald, who was in love with Jules's sister Blanche, finds his love unrequited, as she wishes to remain faithful to the old order, the only way she can prove her patriotism and fidelity to the past. Both Blanche7 and Archibald swear not to wed anyone else, and the Scotsman settles on land next to the d'Habervilles' and participates in helping raise Jules's family, while he himself remains unwed.

6 Semiotics and the Modern Quebec Novel Within a semiotic framework, where subjects are defined in a conjunctive or disjunctive relation with an object of value desired by other subjects, one could rewrite the previous script in the following way. Initially, before the British invasion, both masculine subjects evolve in an ordered world that articulates the values of the seigneurial system. Intersubjective relationships are predicated on the existence of a contractual universe, whether those linking the seigneur to the clergy or to the 'habitants,' or even members of the seigneurial class among themselves. If one assumes that for a subject to be able to perform, it must be competent to do so, then the question arises as to the nature of the competence of the performing subject in this universe. A simple solution is to posit the existence of a limited number of modalities that define the performing agent. In order to act, a subject must be-able-to, want-to, have-to and know-how-to. This we shall call the modal series that is at the origin of any performance. When examining the actions of all the agents or subjects in the universe of The Canadians of Old in terms of the modalities, one notes that all subjects8 of European origin have different types of knowledge (habitant vs. seigneur vs. clergy) that co-exist in harmony. However, all of this knowledge is rooted in tradition handed down from France, and adapted to Canada. The same holds true for wanting-to or desire, where each agent possesses different desires, desires regulated by a specific social and cultural order. As for being-able-to or power, individuals are differentiated according to physical characteristics linked to genetics and/or race - both Archibald and Jules are stereotypes, the former being tall, blond, blue-eyed, freckled, with a prominent chin, extremely strong and calm; the latter being slight, short, dark, blackeyed, lively, agitated, and quick. The women also have similar traits, thus corresponding to recognizable nationalistic stereotypes. However, what defines each and every agent is his or her having-to-do or having-to-be. In The Canadians of Old, this deontic modality governs all the others in the series - that is, for a subject to do or to be, it has to do or be in the mode of duty, whether from a social, religious, educational, political, or ethical point of view. Hence, duty permits the subject or agent to perform or to be. From this perspective, one can see that all interacting subjects, be they polemical or contractual, are governed by a deontic modality anchored in a universe of traditional values that ensure the cohesion of the group. There is no room here for agents whose behaviour or performance is regulated by the modality of desire. In this universe, the energized subject is never an individual erotic subject, but must act according to preset patterns handed down from the past. Tradi-

Introduction

7

tion and fidelity - to language, race, and religion - are the senders that motivate behaviour and guarantee the survival, and even prosperity, of a conquered homogeneous nation, receiver. In short, this imaginary universe sets in play a subject that we can call a collective subject, since it can only reproduce and realize the perceived values of the group. No individual agent can want or desire for itself and by itself. Nor can two subjects reciprocally desire each other and actualize this desire outside of the norms of wedlock and family, sanctioned by the group. Here the subject, or 'I,' is, in fact, another, or 'We.' THE AGRARIAN NOVEL: MARIA

CHAPDELAINE

The second major form of the novel in the nineteenth century, and the most dominant during the first forty years of the twentieth, circumscribes the subject's activity within the confines of a clearly defined homogeneous topography or territory. Valorized agents can realize and fulfil their destiny from a social, political, ethical, and religious perspective only within a specific space. Other forms of the novel obviously existed during this period - that is, the novel of manners, the moralistic novel9 but they never attained the popularity of what Bernard Proulx (1987) calls 'le roman du territoire,' or the novel of the land. The first such novel, La terre paternelle, published by Patrice Lacombe in 1846, established a pattern that would continue for over one hundred years. From the point of view of literary technique and popularity, though, the genre would reach its zenith with Louis Hemon's Maria Chapdelaine (1916),10 Ringuet's Trente arpents (1938), and it would more or less come to an end with Germaine Guevremont's Marie-Didace11 (1947). As Jean-Pierre Duquet (1982) wrote, 'with the appearance of this work, exactly one century of the traditional Quebec novel comes to a close; the rural novel, the novel of the land, the regionalist novel, the novel of fidelity, under these various classifications, the first one hundred years of the production of the novel are greatly dominated by the theme of the land' (611). Space, the mapping of space, boundaries, and frontiers now become the topoi by and within which the subject's identity is constructed. For the sake of this analysis, I would like to distinguish two types of novels of the land: the novel of the paternal farm, transmitted from one generation to the other along family lines, for example, La terre paternelle12 and Trente arpents\ and the novel of colonization, as exemplified by Maria Chapdelaine and Marie-Didace, in which the clearing of land and the de-

8 Semiotics and the Modern Quebec Novel marcation of the frontier mime the original gesture of delimiting the space that delineates the agent's domains of activity. However, in so far as each of these novels integrates or ejects subjects within clearly identifiable boundaries that vary in degree, we have decided to focus on Maria Chapdelaine,13 the most widely read and filmed 'Quebec' novel of the twentieth century. The plot line is rather straightforward. At the beginning of the century, a small community of individuals is engaged in clearing land in a distant territory being colonized. Their ideal, encouraged by the clergy, is to transform the forest into agricultural land and to occupy it to ensure their cultural survival. The Chapdelaine family is presented as a microcosm of this community of land clearers and, by extension, of the entire Quebec population. The narrative is organized around the central character, Maria, a young woman to whom three different suitors of common French-Canadian origin, but from very distinct milieux, propose marriage, within a one-year period. Maria falls in love with Francois Paradis, who has sold the family land and become a 'coureur de bois,' trading furs with the Indians from the wilderness beyond ('the forest knows magic to attract you,' Mrs Chapdelaine tells him [34-5]). The other two suitors are Eutrope Gagnon, a neighbour who, like the Chapdelaines, is clearing land, and Lorenzo Surprenant, an urban dweller, who emigrated to a major eastern city in the United States and who, like Francois Paradis, is about to sell the family farm after the death of his father. Attempting to rejoin Maria at Christmas time, Frangois sets out on foot alone, gets lost in a snowstorm, and disappears forever in the forest. Time and social pressure have their way. Maria, resigned to her fate, now listens to the voices of reason that stifle those of the magic of the forests beyond (obedience to the priest, the example of her parents, etc.) but feels alienated from nature and her surroundings. When Lorenzo returns from the United States to sell the family farm, he visits Maria and asks for her hand in marriage. She does not answer immediately but listens to his voice and dreams of abandoning the frontier, attracted by the 'magic of the cities' (155). The third suitor, Eutrope Gagnon, then declares his feelings for her, but Maria again listens in silence and makes no promise. In the spring, her mother dies suddenly and Maria decides to marry Lorenzo and leave for the United States. But her father praises his wife by recounting his past life with her and, while dreaming of those vast American cities, Maria hears three voices that evoke her very origins. The first, a murmur, brings to her memory 'the marvel of reappearing

Introduction

9

earth in spring time'; the second speaks of the French roots and origins of her country; and the third, the voice of Quebec, speaks of ancestral faith and language, and invites her to stay in this land, where 'naught shall die and naught shall suffer silence.' Maria decides to stay and promises to marry Eutrope Gagnon.14 Four distinct spaces, or topoi, are clearly delineated in this novel, defining the spheres where specific subjects can or cannot interact: frontier, wilderness, village, and city. Moreover, whereas Maria's three suitors occupy three of these spaces - wilderness, city, and frontier - her mother symbolically occupies the fourth, the village, in so far as she constantly refers to her early years spent there within the confines of the parish and church.15 Initially, Maria is portrayed as belonging to the class of agents whose modalities are governed by duty to church, family, language, and origins. Her knowledge, like that of the other members of her group, is practical, domestic, non-theoretical, handed down from family tradition, and essential for her to be able to function either on the frontier or in the village. The same holds true for her father, mother, brothers, the hired hand, and Eutrope Gagnon. Her being-able-to, or power, is attributable to her genetic make-up and so is that of the other individuals of her group. For any subject to function successfully in this imaginary universe, its modal series must be governed by having-to or duty, 'We.' However, when Maria falls in love with Francois Paradis (betrayal of the paternal farm - wilderness) the modal series informing her actions are governed by wanting or desire. It is noteworthy that Maria becomes a feeling, sentient individual agent, capable of affirming herself and saying 'I,' only after she experiences in her flesh her love for Francois.16 To marry Francois Paradis would mean to choose the wilderness, the /open/17 space of hunting, trading, and gathering, the beyond of 'individual activity' (desire and love), the world of the tribe, superstition, the tent and open fire, instead of the frontier, the /closed/ space of husbandry and land clearing, the here of 'family activity' (duty), the world of daily prayer, the house and stove. She again begins to assert herself as an individual, desiring subject when she is tempted by Lorenzo Surprenant (betrayal of the paternal farm - comfort and technology) to emigrate and accept the material comfort of city life in the United States. To marry Lorenzo would mean to reject the frontier and choose the city, the /non-closed/ space of manufacturing and science, the elsewhere of 'city life' (desire and comfort), the world of idolatry, of buildings, factories, and electricity. But the voices Maria hears do not allow her to assert herself by emigrating. In marrying Eutrope Gagnon (fidelity and creation of

10 Semiotics and the Modern Quebec Novel the farm - family and origins), not only would Maria occupy the central space of the frontier, here, but she would also have access to the village, the /non-open/ space of gardening and commerce, the there of 'communal activity' (duty and parish), the world of faith and prayer, the home and hearth. In terms of the value system or axiology at play in the text, four distinct topoi are established in which the subject operators function and acquire or lose the object of value: the frontier (necessity), the wilderness (impossibility), the village (possibility), and the city (contingency). Contrary to the third voice that Maria hears at the end of the novel, 'in this land of Quebec nothing has changed ... In this land of Quebec naught must die and naught must change' (198), one subject, the main protagonist, undergoes radical modal transformations. Before Maria meets Francois she can be defined as being motivated by passive obedience (duty unquestionably governs the subject's modal series). When she falls in love, she exercises active will and says T (the actant's modal series is governed by desire or wanting-to); when she is tempted by material comfort, a weaker form of desire or passive will governs the modal series, and when she finally accepts her destiny as laid out by the third voice,18 the initial state of passive obedience has been transformed into active obedience. To remain true to historical, social, cultural, and religious values Maria must not cross the limits of the frontier or house, /closed/, and the village, /non-open/, which guarantee the identity of a self, grounded in the shared and undisputed values of a homogeneous group rooted in history. To cross over into the magical universe of the /open/ or the technological one of the /non-closed/ inevitably leads to loss of identity and the dissolution of the collective subject. In other words, what is being replayed in this imaginary universe is the ongoing struggle between the births of nationalism (represented by Lionel Groulx) and cosmopolitanism (represented by Wilfrid Laurier), between those who believe that the identity of the subject can best be guaranteed by a policy of closure (unity of language, race, and religion - homogeneity) and those who believe it can be maintained by opening up onto the world (mixture of language, race, and religion - heterogeneity). Although Maria Chapdelaine explores a number of hypothetical solutions to the question of identity by setting out various options, it ultimately proposes an 'ideal' solution for guaranteeing a national or collective distinctiveness. Both the wilderness and the city are forbidden spaces, leading, on the one hand, to tribalism and sexuality and, on the

Introduction

11

other, to cosmopolitanism and the couple. They are the beyond, the elsewhere, the contingency, the impossibility that dissolves the subject into an ego defining itself in and by its own desire. What the novel does is to establish the boundaries within which the subject can determine itself, in terms of the collective aspirations of the group. The frontier and the village are permitted, even necessary; they lead directly to nationalism and the family. They are the here and the there, the necessity and the possibility of the survival, the continuity and the prosperity of the French-Canadian nation. THE URBAN NOVEL: BONHEUR D 'OCCASION

Yet, in spite of this widely iterated nationalistic program, by the end of the Second World War the subject of the novel became firmly ensconced in the city. Whereas historical and territorial novels clearly delimited the positive spaces in which the individual could define and affirm his or her cultural identity - the manor, the village, or the frontier - they also determined the negative spaces - the city19 and the wilderness20 - in which one's identity was dissipated and lost. With Bonheur d'occasion, or The Tin Flute, the most widely read postwar Quebec novel of the forties and fifties,21 not only do individuals migrate to the city, but their offspring are born and raised in the city. The novel is divided into thirty-three chapters, each of which deals with a specific event and with one or more characters, within a threemonth time-frame, from the end of February to the end of May 1940. Four plots are intertwined.22 The first deals with Florentine Lacasse's sentimental experiences with Jean Levesque and Emmanuel Letourneau. Florentine, a young waitress in a five-and-dime store, hoping to escape the poverty of her working-class neighbourhood Saint-Henri in Montreal, becomes emotionally attached to a young and ambitious worker, Jean Levesque. In order to confirm her conquest of Jean, she abandons herself to him on a single occasion, and he subsequently rejects her along with the child to be. Wanting to legitimize her offspring and to ensure her financial security, she marries Emmanuel Letourneau, a soldier, whom she does not love but who is much in love with her. He leaves for England almost immediately afterwards. At the end of the novel, she projects to leave Saint-Henri and settle in a much better neighbourhood, Boulevard Lasalle. The second intrigue deals with the trials and tribulations of the Lacasse family, especially focusing on the mother, RoseAnna, who desperately attempts to prevent the breakup of the family due

12 Semiotics and the Modern Quebec Novel to ever-increasing poverty. Her son, Eugene, despondent and chronically unemployed, ends up enrolling in the army to fight in the war, as does her husband, Azarius, who, unable to find and hold down a steady job, sees this as the only solution to guarantee his family a steady income. Her youngest son, Daniel, is felled by leukemia and dies alone in the hospital, while Florentine seemingly becomes more and more remote and indifferent to all. Life follows death and Rose-Anna gives birth to another son. The third plot deals with the young men of the neighbourhood, in particular Alphonse, Pitou, and Boisvert, victims of structural unemployment linked to the Great Depression. Most of these, except for Boisvert, who will become an accountant, after having spent a good deal of their adolescent and young adult life in endless discussions in Mrs Philibert's Cafe, will take up arms as their first paying job. The fourth intrigue is the war that looms over all of the individuals or groups and is considered by them to be the short- or long-term solution to their economic and social problems. If we maintain the same simplified semiotic frame with respect to the various types of subjects inscribed in this semantic universe, we note that there exist classes of agents that can be differentiated according to the various modalities of competence that inform their activity. The first step, however, is to examine briefly the nature of the object of value or desire that motivates each agent. Florentine, for example, wishes to escape the miseries of her condition or class, and attain happiness by marrying Jean Levesque. To do so, she sets out a complex strategy of seduction. From this perspective, the modalities of the series regulating her competence are governed by her wanting, which enables her to identify the object of desire and say 'I.' To attain her goal, she must set in play her knowledge, which is neither technical nor theoretical, but, rather, instinctive, and transmitted by the cultural media of her class. In this vein, one notes the numerous references throughout the novel to the movies, fashion, clothing, and bric-a-brac that are shared and valued by most of her acquaintances. In addition, the motifs of the mirror, compact, lipstick, nylons, which attract her gaze or the gaze of the other, are simple indices of a world in which values supposedly defining the subject are mediated by the other. Every time Florentine is with a male suitor, she inevitably checks her make-up in a mirror on the wall, or in her compact, appraising herself with respect to models handed down by the social and economic systems of the times. Yet this instinctive knowledge of self serves only as a measure of the reification of the subject into a desiring, desired body. In all her intersub-

Introduction

13

jective relations, Florentine attempts to exhibit her body as a sign system to be read and/or desired by her male interlocutor. However, the gaze of the other carries with it a fundamental ambiguity, in so far as when she attempts to project an image of self, the other reads the constructed body through a sign system that escapes her, which is the case with Jean. When she is with Emmanuel she also deceives him into thinking she is responding to his love, since what she wants is a paternal name to legitimize her expected child. But perhaps the most telling case of this occurs when her mother, Rose-Anna, observing her daughter's behaviour, deduces that she is pregnant and questions her, while Florentine steadfastly denies it. In brief, what we are dealing with here is a complex sign system of manipulation and deception, where being and seeming, non-being and non-seeming, establish intricate relations between truth, falsehood, secret, and lie. Florentine's ability to act is again dependent on her physical strength, genetic make-up, character, and beauty. She is a capable worker, slender, desirable, and somewhat moody. She is able to interest suitors and hold sway over them both by her corporeal attributes and her shifting character. Nonetheless, she is also, initially at least, bound by a sense of duty to preserve the family. She thus hands over much of her salary to her mother, lives at home, and sometimes even deprives herself of small luxuries to ensure that they have enough money to survive. Nevertheless, in the end, her desires and individual ego manifest and express themselves independently of the traditional family sender. Jean Levesque, her counterpart, is also determined at all costs to escape the conditions of his class. From beginning to end, he is systematically depicted as an ambitious, hard-working, obsessively driven individual who wishes to succeed within the current economic system, no matter what. Everything he does is governed by his drive and aspiration to acquire status by attaining material and social success on the home front. He has all of the characteristics of the self-made man, and nothing must stand in his way. Yet, contrary to most of the others born in SaintHenri, Jean, who has a background in theoretical knowledge related to his field of work, is relatively well educated and spends most of his free time studying on his own to become an engineer. Such knowledge will enable him to master the complex technology related to his job of foreman in a foundry, and to accede to positions of greater responsibility. In this world, where to know is to have, Jean possesses the intellectual capacity, the tenacity, and the physical and moral strength to realize his personal ambition. In addition, he feels no duty or obligation to anyone

14 Semiotics and the Modern Quebec Novel or to any group that stands in his way. Here, ego wants and aspires for itself, in itself, and no transcendental values related to ethics, to the survival of the family or group play a role in his behaviour. In short, the capitalist system motivates the subject to attain success for itself, aided by the war and countered by hypothetical, ineffectual sentiments or ethics. From the perspective of desire, which permits the individual to say 'I,' Florentine is a pale reflection of Jean, the differences being that she does not possess theoretical or technical knowledge and also oscillates between family and the imminent manifestation of self. Rose-Anna and Emmanuel form another complementary pair. RoseAnna's desire, knowledge, and power are regulated by duty, or the obligation to ensure the survival of the traditional family within a religious framework, where the father, the main wage earner, goes out into the world, while the mother stays home and oversees all the family activities around the warmth of the hearth or stove. Her household knowledge is of a practical nature, transmitted through time by tradition, and handed down to her daughters, who, in turn, are expected to function within the same frame of reference. Hence Rose-Anna spends much of her time doing domestic chores, ensuring that the rent is paid, the children are clothed, and food is on the table. Although she has dreams of her own, they are mainly related to improving the traditional family situation; therefore she functions as a subject that desires for the other and not for self. The social sender - traditional Catholic family values - conditions the subject, mother, who desires survival and betterment of the family. This aspiration is thwarted by capitalism and helped by the war, which ensures the emergence of a family depleted of its men. As noted above, Emmanuel is also motivated by transcendental human values. He too wants in part for others, but instead of simply focusing on the family, he strives for the betterment of mankind in general. Emmanuel, who has left school and enrolled in the army in order to fight totalitarianism and injustice, is a close friend of Levesque's, but his opposite, because instead of wanting for and by the self, he acts in relation to the common good. At the same time, though, he loves Florentine for herself, but, contrary to her, he conceives of interpersonal relations as founded on reciprocity, and not on manipulation. He represents openness, truth, and honesty, not deception, falsehood, and lies. Nonetheless, deceived and seduced, he marries Florentine, who, unbeknownst to him, is bearing Jean's child, and goes off to war, leaving her in a sound financial situation. Humanism, as sender, conditions the subject to desire openness, truth, and happiness and to strive for a just society. Ironically, to attain this goal it is assisted by war and opposed by capitalism.

Introduction

15

Azarius, the father, much like the youths who hang around in Mrs Philibert's Cafe, is able to identify clearly his object of desire - material goods to ensure survival - but, again like them, he cannot adopt the necessary strategies, or establish concrete plans to attain it. This group has neither the modern technical nor the theoretical skills necessary to participate in the trained work force, since its knowledge base is inadequate or inapplicable to current urban economics. The youths have little or no education,23 and the older workers have skills that have become redundant or incompatible in the immediate wartime context. Men are being replaced by machines, and the chronically unemployed are losing their skills. All are emaciated and hungry, while some are even in a state of physical deterioration that prevents them from working when jobs are available. In this universe of economic necessity, individuals are unable to affirm themselves, and all appear in the form of the undifferentiated 'It,' lost and destitute in a world no longer their own. War brings a solution to their problems since, by enlisting, they are able to send money to the remaining members of their truncated family. Here, the capitalist sender maintains the working-class subject in a state of dependency, thanks to the Depression, but curbed by war, which can only sustain a surviving, depleted family. Yet an examination of the modal systems at the origin of each subject's actions reveals that, whether desiring subjects ('I,' who attempt to actualize their aspirations), or dutiful subjects ('We,' who strive to sustain the family or common good), or, again, the unemployed tempted masses ('It,' who are maintained in a state of despondency and who can define their objects of desire, material goods, but cannot secure them), ultimately no one is able to communicate with the other and everyone is caught up in his or her own personal world. Intentions are never realized, and every posited act has a counterfinality that inevitably imposes itself on the individual. In effect, manipulating subjects are always in turn manipulated by others or by events they cannot control. Nothing can ensure the cohesion of their projects. They are decentred and fractured beings, unable to give, by and in themselves, either a sense or a direction to experiences that escape them. Contrary to the agents depicted in The Canadians of Old, or Maria Chapdelaine, whose very beings were grounded in a presupposed sender - common language, race, and religion - that confirmed their unity while their every act signified in terms of duty destined to legitimize their distinctiveness as a group or nation, the agents in The Tin Flute are manipulated by economic forces beyond their control that institute individual, alienating, non-reciprocal desire as a libidinal energy dri-

16 Semiotics and the Modern Quebec Novel ving them along a labyrinthine, endless quest for self-satisfaction. Few, if any, transcendental values motivate the new errant urban subject; nor do any emerging values loom up in the future. Ironically, though, the very last lines of the narrative link war and capital, for while Florentine thinks her troubles are over thanks to her soldier-husband's pay, 'Low on the horizon, a bank of heavy clouds foretold a storm' (274). Whereas the historical novel attributed a specific stratified space to the subject, and the novel of the land or of colonization delimited a stable, unchanging /closed/, or /non-open/ space within which the individual could realize his or her aspirations in light of a common national goal, the urban novel presents an ever-changing, unstable, polymorphous, dangerous, frustrating, and heterogeneous space that can engulf those who inhabit it. In The Tin Flute, most live and evolve within the narrow confines of Saint-Henri, depicted as a poverty stricken, /open/ space, dependent on social, economic, and historic world events. Sometimes characters will break out and either explore other parts of Montreal or the countryside, but all dream of escaping this destitute neighbourhood. The Lacasse house, rented, dilapidated but clean, is a /non-closed/, transient space that can be opposed to either the Letourneau apartment (/non-open/ to Florentine and her family), or to the house of RoseAnna's mother in the country (/closed/ to all strangers). Moreover, the Lacasses are forced to move often, whenever they cannot pay the rent, and Rose-Anna spends a great deal of time exploring the more sordid quarters of Saint-Henri in search of lodgings. When the family is evicted, they decide to move in the middle of the night, after the new tenants have shown up and invaded the house with their own possessions, even occupying several rooms. In this space, /non-closed/ to outside influences of every sort, the family can aspire to no collective goals. Subjects simply inhabit their own private universe, cut off, even isolated from one another in relations of seriality, following their own directions, adrift in the imaginary fulfilment of their own obsessions: 'Every one in the house lived in a world of his own. No two of them desired the same thing, penned together though they were, close enough to touch one another. No two of them were bound in the same direction: each went on his way privately' (114). The Lacasse family functions in a world where their knowledge and frames of reference are informed by the rural values of the isolated, preindustrial village and parish, while they inhabit an open, modern world of technology.24 Within this universe, subjects cannot come to grips with the rapidly changing social and economic structures of an advanced,

Introduction

17

modern, urban economy. Their incessant wanderings and displacements, generally alone, night and day in the maze of the city, looking for solutions to material problems beyond their control, is a reiterated leitmotif throughout the novel. The only common projects that actually succeed in mustering the energy of the participants are the two recruiting parades, when marching soldiers constituting a group in fusion attract a large number of recruits. The army and war, sender, are the only movements that can orient the subject in the pursuit of a collective goal, the liberation of the motherland, aided by capital and hindered by the enemy, in pursuit of survival. Yet one notes that the slowly eroding family, made up of father, mother, and children, is further reduced and dislocated, since all capable and physically fit adult males must go off to war to ensure the continuity of a further diminished and truncated household.25 Incapable of functioning in the new, dynamic urban economic order and weighed down by old, static rural belief systems, the subject can ensure the continuity and survival of the dismembered group only through impending violence and death. THE WILDERNESS NOVEL: AGAGUK

Until the beginning of the 1960s the imaginary subject of the urban novel remains fractured, decentred, and driven by forces that control it. Buffeted to and fro, disenfranchised because it can function only in terms of traditional rural value systems, the subject has not yet learned to objectify, contest, and come to grips with its past. The city still remains a diabolical space where forces of good and evil physically and morally assail the individual, who is incapable of constituting her or his identity. In contrast, Theriault's publication of Agaguk displaced the subject from an alienating urban environment to that of the wilderness; not the forest of the Amerindian representing the beyond of the village or the frontier, but rather the barren tundra of the Inuit, which had not yet been instituted as an imaginary landscape within which a new identity could be constructed and defined. As Andre Brochu (1982, 20) notes, during the 1960s, or the Quiet Revolution, Agaguk was one of the most widely read and taught novels in Quebec. Translated into six languages, reaching an international audience, it has twice been adapted for the cinema. From a socio-semiotic perspective, Theriault's novel is of utmost importance in identifying and defining an unexplored imaginary cultural space that radically breaks with tradition. He shatters the conventional paradigms of the family and

18 Semiotics and the Modern Quebec Novel the nation that delineate the individual, and the essentialist definition of the politics of a classical and restrained identity. None of the occupied imaginary cultural spaces - each with its own socio-political and libidinal economies, as represented in the historical, agrarian, or urban novel could foster the emergence of subjects with sentient, eroticized bodies that strive to forge their identity independently of existing value systems or ideologies. Such a turn expresses both a refusal of an ideology and a depoliticization of identity based on the unity of language, race, and religion of a vanquished and exploited group. Though Agaguk could be defined as an imaginary, idealistic, or even Utopian resolution of the fundamental contradictions that thwart the advent of new forms of interpersonal relations, it nonetheless remains significant, since it sketches a strategy for an alternative politics of identity, freed from traditional, hierarchically ordered, moral and social relations. In fact, it actually negates all that is prescriptive in interpersonal relations, and establishes a dialogue affirming the primacy of the plurality of sexual identity that not only liberates individuals from socially constructed roles but also redefines the passage of self to other, imposing an identity founded on the indistinct frontiers of ambiguity.

2 The Semiotics of the Novel

In this chapter I shall examine a specific theory of European semiotics, known as the Paris School of Semiotics, that has centred around the work of Algirdas Julien Greimas and his research group. After exploring the underpinnings of the theory from a general point of view, and highlighting its anthropological foundations within the context of the social sciences, in the remaining chapters of my study I shall work out a detailed methodology and a coherent protocol for the analysis of a specific literary genre, the novel. THE SEMIOTIC PROJECT

Semiotics can be defined broadly as a domain of investigation that explores the nature and function of signs as well as the systems and processes underlying signification, expression, representation, and communication. As can be demonstrated from numerous cultural traces (verbal, pictorial, plastic, spatial, artefactual, for example), the study of the role of signs in human life has been an ongoing concern through the ages whenever questions have been asked about what constitutes signs and what laws govern them. As noted by John Deely (1986) and Thomas Sebeok (1976, 1979), the history of investigation into the nature of signs is an important aspect in the history of philosophy in general. Contributions to the theory can be traced back to the Greeks, from Heraclitus to the Stoics, from Plato to Aristotle; to the early Christian thinkers and fathers of the church (e.g., Saint Augustine); medieval authors; humanists such as Dante, and philosophers such as Bacon; seventeenth-, eighteenth-, and nineteenth-century philosophers, grammarians, and scientists such as Locke, Leibniz, Berkeley, Condillac, Destutt de Tracy, Cham-

20 Semiotics and the Modern Quebec Novel pollion, Husserl - to name but a few of the many important contributors to the doctrine of signs. The twentieth century has witnessed a revival of interest in the principles of sign systems and processes inherited from this long tradition of intellectual activity, due mainly to the pioneering work of Ferdinand de Saussure and Charles Sanders Peirce, who are recognized as the founders of the modern European and Anglo-American traditions of semiotics. Tzvetan Todorov (1982), Thomas Sebeok (1986), and John Deely (1982) provide us with an overview of some of the main contributors to the history of semiotics. LITERARY SEMIOTICS

Literary semiotics can be seen as a branch of the general science of signs that studies a particular group of texts within verbal texts in general. Although the task of literary semiotics is to describe what is characteristic and particular to literary texts, it is founded on the same principles and analytical procedures as the semiotics of verbal discourse.1 However, for two fundamental reasons there exists no generally accepted definition of the scope and object of literary semiotics. First of all, the boundaries of literary discourse seem to have been established more by tradition than by objective, formal criteria. Contrary to other semiotic discourses - for example, legal discourse - literary discourse cannot be characterized by a specifically distinctive content. For instance, the literariness of a text (in the framework of the intrinsic structure of the text) varies according to culture and epoch; as Yuri Lotman (1977) and others have shown, a text that is identified as being religious in the Middle Ages is seen as literary today. Second, there is a wide-ranging, continuing debate regarding the status of the verbal sign and the nature of the signifying process, as underscored in the entry 'Sign' in Sebeok (1986, 936-47). The fundamental differences facing semioticians are related to whether they adopt an intensional, meaning-oriented, description of sign systems or the codes correlating a given expression with a given content, or a more extensional, truth condition-oriented one that concentrates on the processes of communication by which signs are used to designate, to refer to 'things or states of the real or of some possible world' (937). To review even the major contributions to literary semiotics in the twentieth century is beyond the scope of this work. However, Charles Morris (1938), who drew his inspiration from Charles Sanders Peirce, provides us with a conceptual framework that makes it possible to situate various approaches that have furthered the development of the semiotics

The Semiotics of the Novel 21 of literature in relationship to one another. Starting with the definition of semiosis as a process in which signs function as vehicles, interpretants and interpreters, Morris determined three areas of complementary investigation: syntactics, which studies the relation of sign-vehicles within sign systems; semantics, the relation of signs to objects they represent; and pragmatics, the relation of signs to interpreters. Hence, if one considers literary texts in terms of semiosis, they can be defined as syncretic sign systems encompassing a syntactic dimension that can be analysed on the phonological level (e.g., the specific sound patterns organizing the text), and on the level of narrative syntax; the semantic level (e.g., the content elements of the text); and the pragmatic or communicative context (e.g., addresser and addressee). In short, the first two dimensions stress the structural features of texts and are concerned with their expression and content forms, whereas the other dimension stresses the signifying process and concentrates on analysing their generative processes and inter-relations with other texts (see Sebeok 1986, 453-4). Far from being exclusive, the different methodological approaches to each of these domains of investigation mapped out by Morris are complementary. AN ATTEMPT AT A METHOD

As one of the aims of this study is to examine a specific literary genre, the novel, from a semio-narrative perspective, it would seem appropriate to situate my work in relation to sign theory (Ferdinand de Saussure, Louis Hjelmslev, etc.) and French semiotics in general, in order to set out the theoretical principles used in establishing the methodology that will guide my analysis in the following chapters of this study. For Julia Kristeva (1972), the primary goal of semiotics is to elaborate 'a general theory of the modes of signification' (341, my translation). And for her, in order to account for the signifying practice called literature, one must first of all establish the logical and topological rules that explain its functioning. This is possible only if one begins with a critical evaluation of the sign inherited from Saussure and then examines the notions normally associated with it. LINGUISTICS AND SEMIOTICS

At the beginning of the century (in Cours de linguistique generate, 1915), Saussure, while attempting to found linguistics as science, initially integrated it into a global theory of signs. He started by opposing natural

22

Semiotics and the Modern Quebec Novel

language (langue) to speech (parole), pointing out that natural language, which transcends the individuals using it, is, in fact, an immanent structural organization dominating speaking subjects who are incapable of changing it, whereas artificial languages can be constructed and manipulated by these same subjects. He next defined a natural language as a sign system expressing ideas that is therefore comparable to writing, the deaf mute alphabet, symbolic rites, military signals, for example. However, natural language happens to be the most important of all of these systems: 'A science that studies the life of signs within society is conceivable; it would be a part of social psychology and consequently of general psychology; I shall call it semiology (from the Greek semeion, "sign")' (1966, 16). Saussure went on to say that since the science of semiology does not yet exist one cannot be certain exactly what form it will take, but it has a right to exist and its place is staked out in advance. He then concluded that linguistics as a science will be part of this general science and the laws discovered by semiology will be applicable to linguistics, and thus the latter will circumscribe a clearly defined domain within the mass of anthropological facts. One cannot help but sympathize with Saussure's endeavour to legitimize linguistics by carefully identifying its objective (the synchronic and diachronic descriptions of all known languages), its methodology (isolating the general laws of all natural languages), and its ultimate aim (delimiting and defining itself). And yet, his argument concerning the relationship of linguistics to semiology is at best syllogistic. Major premise: semiology, which does not exist but should, is a science; Minor premise: linguistics is an integral part of semiology; Conclusion: linguistics (which does not exist but should) is therefore a science. SEMIOLOGICAL SYSTEMS

In spite of Saussure's wish that semiology be the science of all sign systems, it has not yet been empirically constituted as such, and still remains partially subservient to the linguistic model. And this, as Emile Benveniste (1969) wrote, is because, contrary to other semiological systems, natural language in all its aspects is of a dual nature: as a social institution it is actualized by the individual, while as continuous discourse it is composed of fixed units. And so natural language finds its unity and the principle of its functioning in its semiological character (5-9). Since the semiological principle governing natural language is located primarily in the arbitrary nature of the sign, in general, one could say that the main object of semiology is to study all of the systems founded on the arbitrari-

The Semiotics of the Novel 23 ness of the sign. This last notion demands further clarification. When Saussure defined the sign as the combination of a signifier (acoustic image, sound, graphic representation) and a signified (concept), he declared that there exists no necessary relationship between the signifier and the abstract notion evoked. He also established that the sign system can be apprehended only in terms of the underlying system. What distinguishes a sign is its difference, which composes its value and its unity, so that the value of an arbitrary sign depends on a contemporaneous contiguous or opposite value. In other words, the arbitrary linguistic sign is differential by nature. Although the above principles governing the theory of the sign (arbitrary, value, system) are at the origin of most semiological analysis, the orthodox linguistic usage of these operational concepts does raise serious problems. If, in general linguistic theory, one can define and delimit the constituent units of a system, this is not always the case in all the other semiological systems. For example, Andre Martinet (1969) differentiated natural language from other 'means of communication' by positing in the former the principle of the double articulation. The first articulation is situated at the level of 'morpheme signs,' the second at that of 'phonemes.' Yet this distinction, although seemingly adequate, is not pertinent when one attempts to analyse units as large as a sentence or other semiotic systems such as gestures. The usefulness of the double articulation approach seems to be less and less significant as one moves away from highly codified and structural systems such as American sign language. For example, can gestures having a communicative intent be broken down into minimal units and analysed in terms of 'gestemes'? (For an overview see Nespoulous, Perron, and Lecours 1986). Benveniste (1966) pointed out that even though a sentence contains signs, it is not itself a sign. Phonemes, morphemes, and lexemes can be counted - their number is finite — but not so with sentences. Phonemes, morphemes, and lexemes have a distributional value at one level and a function at another superior level, whereas sentences have neither a distributional value nor a function. For Benveniste, the sentence, which is an indefinite creation, a limitless entity, is the life of language in action. He concluded that with the sentence one goes beyond the domain of language as a sign system and enters another universe, that of language as an instrument of communication whose expression is discourse (130). The sentence is thus considered as the fundamental unit of discourse that introduces the subject at the moment of its manifestation as a communicative act. Although relevant, the distinctions made by Benveniste

24 Semiotics and the Modern Quebec Novel concerning the limits of linguistic analysis and the need for discursive analysis raise a great number of practical problems for literary critics attempting to describe a long text such as the novel, since the basic unit to be considered, the sentence, is still much too unwieldy. One could legitimately ask if there exists a relationship between the sentence and the paragraph, the paragraph and the chapter, the chapter and the entire narrative. SEMIOTICS AND DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

Another linguist, Hjelmslev, provided a partial solution to the problem of 'trans-phrastic' or discursive analysis. Starting from the traditional definition of a sign as the sign of something, Hjelmslev (1953) demonstrated the insufficiency of such a position from a linguistic point of view. He noted that even though Saussure theoretically conceived of the sign as a whole, formed by a signifier and a signified, in practice he separated the two entities and so adumbrated the semiotic function relating the two entities expression and content. Since the semiotic function is a solidarity in itself, expression and content are solidary and necessarily presuppose one another. An expression is expression only because it is an expression of a content, and a content is content only because it is a content of an expression. It is therefore impossible, except if one isolates them artificially, that a content exists without an expression or an expression without a content. If, in textual analysis, one subsequently omits the semiotic function, one cannot delimit signs and thus properly describe a text. Saussure's conceptual framework defining a sign is restrictive by nature because he at the same time defined the sign as a totality and separated the content from the expression when setting up his analytical procedures. To avoid this contradiction, Hjelmslev redefined the sign. The linguistic content, in its process, becomes a specific form, the content-form, which is independent of and stands in arbitrary relation to the purport, and forms it into a content-substance. This he called the semiotic function, and this function instituted a form in one of its functives, the content. The content-form, which from the point of view of purport is arbitrary, is only explainable by means of the semiotic function with which it has a relationship of solidarity. The system of expression of a given natural language partakes of the same process. Thus the sign is composed of two entities, expression and content, related by means of the semiotic function. These two entities obey the same principles, and it is solely because of the semiotic function that the

The Semiotics of the Novel 25 two functives, content-form and expression-form, can exist. And it is also only because of the content-form and the expression-form that the content-substance and the expression-substance exist, which appear by the form's being projected onto the purport. The distinction between expression and content, and their interaction by means of the semiotic function, are fundamental to the structure of language. It therefore followed for Hjelmslev that when analysing a text, at least in the initial stages, it was essential to start by dividing it into these two entities. Even though, for methodological reasons, these two levels of analysis should be conducted separately, he declared that one must take into account the interaction of the two planes constituting the sign as a whole. By proceeding in this way, Hjelmslev hoped to overcome once and for all the actual subdivisions of grammar into phonetics, morphology, syntax, lexicography, and semantics that often overlap in practice. Thus, theoretically, textual analysis can lead to the exhaustive and non-contradictory description of the levels of expression and content that are constructed along analogous principles if the two planes of these categories are defined in an identical manner. Developing the above distinctions of the 'bi-planar' aspect of the sign and, also, extending the notion of the semiotic function, Hjelmslev defined two types of languages: denotative and connotative. The former class is made up of languages in which neither plane is a semiology per se (metasemiotic or scientific languages), whereas the latter is composed of languages whose plane of expression is ipso facto a semiology. This distinction has the decided advantage of permitting us to define the literary text as a system in which the plane of expression (E) and that of the content (C) become an element of a second co-existent system. In this type of text the plane of expression (E) is constituted by another system of signification (ERG). In Elements of Semiology (1979), Roland Barthes not only formalized this relationship but he expressed the wish and the need for a semiotics of connotation, which he had attempted to elaborate partially in his two previous works Mythologies (1957) and Systeme de la mode (1967). However, he soon abandoned this project, and in S/Z (1970) he denounced the possibility of constructing such a semiotics. Hjelmslev also came to the conclusion that the distinctions between scientific (denotative) and non-scientific (connotative) semiologies were not viable since all texts are made up of several different systems. It follows from the above discussion that: the text cannot be considered a priori as a homogeneous entity - it must be constructed progressively ac-

26 Semiotics and the Modern Quebec Novel cording to the principle of relevance adopted; a natural language is not a denotative semiology, and all manifested discourse is dependent upon several systems (connotative semiologies, non-scientific metasemiologies, etc.) at one and the same time. Yet Hjelmslev's contribution to the theory of textual analysis, in spite of its limitations, remains seminal from two points of view. First, the sign is considered as being the direct result of semiosis, which one could define as the operation that establishes a relationship of reciprocal presupposition between the content-form and the expression-form at the moment of the linguistic act. Second, the notion of the unit of manifestation is not relevant for defining the sign. Instead of words one can speak of enunciate (utterance) signs or discursive signs. PARIS SCHOOL SEMIOTICS

When Algirdas Julien Greimas attempted to situate his own practice Structural Semantics (1983), On Meaning (1984), Maupassant (1988), The Social Sciences: A Semiotic View (1990), The Semiotics of Passions (1993) - in relationship to other linguistic and discursive disciplines, he did so within the context of the Hjelmslevian framework. To understand better his point of departure, even at the risk of over-simplification, we can use the following schema to represent in a concise and economical way the different areas of investigation of sign theory in general: phonemes form

- phonology

expression

phemes substance

- phonetics

Sign sememes form

- semantics

content

semes substance

- hermeneutics

Contrary to Anglo-American linguists, for whom the sign is a given, for Greimas the sign is first and foremost a construct that excludes the refer-

The Semiotics of the Novel 27 ent as the necessary condition for the existence of linguistics. As Greimas and Courtes (1982) pointed out, the problem of the referent increases the rift that continues to separate two very different conceptions of semiotics. Whereas the analysis of signs is for European semiotics one step toward a description of the articulation network of forms, American semiotics (T. Sebeok) tends to stop at the level of signs and to proceed to a classification of these signs, based for a large part on the type of relation existing between the sign and the referent (for example, the icon is defined by a relation of resemblance, the index by a relation of 'natural' contiguity, the signal by an artificial relation, etc.). (297)

Moreover, Greimas willingly accepted that there can exist enunciate (utterance) or discursive signs. In an early article ('Pour une theorie du discours poetique,' 1972) he even proposed defining poetic discourse as a complex sign: 'Signs defined according to Saussurean tradition as the conjunction of a signifier and a signified can have varying dimensions: a word, a sentence are signs, but they also are discourse in so far as they can appear as discrete units. Initially, poetic discourse can be considered as a complex sign' (10, my translation). Yet, when examining the above schema, one cannot help but notice that the content-form is the plane of predilection of early Greimassian semiotics. In his initial theoretical writings Greimas attempted to establish a semantic model homologous to the phonological one. Just as phonemes and phemes are the distinctive traits of the plane of expression, sememes and semes are the distinctive traits of the plane of content. Furthermore, by extending the parallelism he leads us to believe that, theoretically at least, a combinatory of twenty or so semic categories could generate a quantity of sememes that would totally satisfy the needs of a natural language. To avoid the problems of two separate types of analyses, one at the level of the expression-form (stylistic), the other at the level of the content-form (semantic), Greimas (1983) admitted that they were two phases of the same description even if the former presupposes the latter. Although this solution is unsatisfactory, it did permit him to construct an object of knowledge on a delineated plane, the content-form, while not ignoring the semiotic function relating it to the other plane, the expression-form (191). The phonological model, based on the postulate of a fundamental parallelism between two planes of language, is the organizing principle of Greimassian semiotics. Since the plane of expression is made up of

28 Semiotics and the Modern Quebec Novel differential gaps, and the gaps of the signifier correspond to the gaps of the signified, which are in turn interpreted as traits of signification, it is possible to analyse the manifest lexical units and decompose them into minimal sub-units or semes considered as semantic traits. In another work, Greimas (1987) proposed a multi-level semiotic model, or grammar, that can account for the organization and transformation of the minimal sub-units. This grammar is generative - that is, it functions by investing progressively the content disposed on successive levels. In addition, it proceeds from the most abstract to the concrete or figurative in such a way that each level can be constructed by means of an explicit metalinguistic representation. The grammar is also syntagmatic, not only taxonomic, since there exist, within the framework of this semiotic model, two complementary syntactic and semantic components articulated on two different levels. The generative itinerary starts from the fundamental semantic level, which can be formalized by the logical semiotic square, then passes through an intermediary semantic level, which can be represented by means of a narrative semantics (morphology and syntax). And finally, the resulting semantico-syntactic representations are the semiotic structures that are articulated at the instance of enunciation when discourse is produced (see, for example, Greimas and Ricoeur 1989, Fabbri and Perron 1990, Perron and Fabbri 1993, Perron and Danesil993). When one examines a literary text, the implications of this semiotic model are multiple. I suggested that Greimas attempted to take into account the semiotic function relating to the two planes of the sign. Yet his early analyses, notably Maupassant (1988), are situated in part at the level of the signified. That is, the narrative forms are considered as the particular organizations of the semiotic forms that this narrative theory attempts to account for. As such, this phase must be thought of as being exploratory and tentative since discourse theory had first of all to analyse the many discursive forms and their different levels of articulation before striving to elaborate a semiotic model stricto sensu. As Greimas (1987) himself wrote: 'At the present what seems to be most difficult is to establish the theoretical mediations between narrative forms and linguistic forms that have a "phrastic" dimension' (114). THE SEMANTIC UNIVERSE

The notion of a semantic universe, inspired by Hjelmslev and the Danish School of Glossomatics, and defined as the sum of all possible significa-

The Semiotics of the Novel 29 tions that can be produced by the system of values co-extensive with the entire culture of an ethnolinguistic community, is fundamental to Greimassian semiotics (see, for example, Greimas and Courtes 1982, 361-2). 'Since the semantic universe can be apprehended as meaningful only by means of differentiating articulations, we are obliged to postulate the existence of elementary axiological structures which, as universals, permit the semantic universe to be described' (361). Where he differs from Hjelmslev is that he introduced the notion of semantic micro-universe and discourse universe, since it is impossible to conceive of the semantic universe in its entirety. The semantic micro-universe can be grasped only if it is deployed at its most abstract level by semantic categories such as life/death (individual universe) or nature/culture (collective universe) and appears in the form of the discourse universe it generates. Such a micro-universe 'can be established by reconstituting isotopies (recurring semantic features) and basic axiologies (value systems); it is self-contained, whereas the discourse universe includes references to the external world' (Perron 1993, 346). SEMIOTICS AND THE SOCIAL SCIENCES

In addition to Hjemslev's seminal work, Greimas was also inspired by two of the major twentieth-century scholars of folklore and anthropology: Vladimir Propp provided him with the syntagmatic or syntactic aspect of the theory and Claude Levi-Strauss with the paradigmatic one. After working out the necessary theoretical mediations, Greimas linked two complementary models and constructed a theory that could be generalized in terms of a general narrative semiotics. In order to free the theory from Propp's formula of the tale as a means of analysing narrative, Greimas developed an elementary syntax that could organize any type of discourse. Propp's model was broken down into three successive sequences that correspond to the syntagmatic unfolding of the actantial model2 in which two sequences of communication - a mandate sequence and an evaluation sequence - frame an action sequence and transform the states. From this a semiotics of manipulation was worked out - how the sender manipulates the subject; then a semiotics of action - how competence is acquired to carry out performance; and finally a semiotics of evaluation or sanction - that is, the passing of judgments on self, on others, and on things.3 At present, the Paris School is attempting to give a semiotic interpretation to passions, a decisive step since what began as a theory of action

30 Semiotics and the Modern Quebec Novel and cognition that attributed to subjects only the ability to act and think, now considers them as acting and thinking beings with character and temperament (see Fabbri and Perron 1990, vi-xii). This follows in the main what occurred in the human sciences - from Max Weber to Alfred Schutz, from Talcott Parsons to ethnomethodology, through Erving Goffman - which have tried to construct a model of meaningful actions in an intersubjective frame. In Greimas a model of actions was devised before notions such as modalities that overdetermine the actants were introduced. Four fundamental modalities (two virtual ones - wan ting-to and having-to - and two actualizing ones - being-able-to and knowing) were posited and interdefmed. Then the narrative was considered as an intersection between two conflictual and contractual actions in process. Two modally competent interacting subjects were postulated and each subject, with its own modal organization, was situated in a polemico-contractual relation to the other. In addition, the actantial model could account for the construction and transmission of meaning. Communication was rethought in terms of exchange and challenge, and the concept was extended from the circulation of objects and messages to the exchange of modal values within a contractual framework that must be actively maintained during interaction. Such a model has been criticized as being too complex and unmanageable in so far as it is micro-analytical and hypothetico-deductive in nature. Nonetheless, there are numerous advantages in attempting to utilize this detailed and somewhat intricate methodology in textual analysis. First, the model is of theoretical interest since it attempts to describe the instances and the processes of meaning that generate discourse. Second, from a pragmatic point of view, the model is constructed as a series of logical articulations that can increase the legibility of a text. Third, the model has heuristic value, in so far as it enables us to explain more and hence understand better, for as Paul Ricoeur notes in a discussion with AJ. Greimas (1989), 'it is in the exchange between understanding better and explaining more that semiotics makes sense for me. It increases the readability of texts which we have already understood to a certain extent without the help of semiotics' (552). Fourth, with respect to the application of semiotic theory and its philosophical foundation, the raison d'etre of methodology is to establish the missing link between epistemology and textual knowledge. By espousing a hypothetico-deductive approach, text descriptions can enrich the theoretical level. In this case, the intent is not simply to apply theory to texts by way of methodology but to regard texts as a living experience for reconfiguring theory. As

The Semiotics of the Novel 31 Perron and Fabbri (1993) remark, 'this can be considered as the empirical aim of semiotics, which is not just to provide categories, but as Paul Ricoeur said in a very Husserlian way, to disengage concepts from texts and to reconfigure the texts in the theory itself (ix-x). In addition, as was noted above, Greimassian theory raises important questions concerning the status of a narrative as a social product. TOWARDS A SOCIO-SEMIOTICS

Much like Claude Levi-Strauss (1955) and Stephan Zolkiewski (1971), Greimas (1983) situated the work of art within the problematics of the imaginary and the symbolic, and stressed the fact that semiological structuration can articulate all forms of the symbolic (61-8). For him an eminently poetic symbol does not function differently from any other lexeme of a natural language. All that is of the domain of language is linguistic, and it is manifested by means of linguistic structures that are to a great extent determined. 'It may be - it is a philosophic and not a linguistic question - that the phenomenon of language as such is mysterious, but there are no mysteries in language' (65). Moreover, his research on narrative led him to believe that the semio-linguistic nature of the categories used to elaborate narrative models guarantees their universality, and so he integrated them into a generalized semiotic theory. Moreover, Greimas (1987) offered a solution to the general problem endemic to analysis in the domain of the sociology of culture related to the non-homogeneity of descriptive languages used to analyse heterogeneous levels of human phenomena. His point of departure was that 'meaning' is apprehensible only if it is articulated or narrativized. Second, for him narrative structures can be perceived in other systems not necessarily dependent upon natural languages (cinema, figurative painting, sculpture, or architecture, etc.). This then led him to establish the fundamental distinction between two levels of representation and analysis: an apparent level and an immanent level of narrative that forms a sort of common structural trunk where narrativity is situated and organized before its manifestation. Because it originates in this fundamental model, signification cuts through, so to speak, all forms of linguistic and non-linguistic manifestations (sociological, economic, literary, philosophical, mathematical narratives, cinematographic; sculptural, architectural discourses, etc.). Thus, this model eliminated the necessity of setting up the theoretical mediations when passing from one specific level of manifestation to another (see, e.g., 63-83). Furthermore, this general semiotic

32 Semiotics and the Modern Quebec Novel theory attempted to account for the articulation and manifestation of the semantic universe as a totality of meaning whether it be of a cultural or personal nature. The main difficulty encountered was to construct the ab quo instances of the generation of signification where semantic substance is first articulated and constituted into a signifying form and then to set up the intermediate or mediating stages that transform the semantic substance into the last instances ad quern where signification is manifested.4 And it is within this framework that Greimas constructed his fundamental and semantic grammar. Two options seem open to the textual analyst. On the one hand, each text can be considered as the simple articulation of the elementary structure, and thereby the specificity of the narrative can be reduced to the general laws organizing signification. Thus, the particular will simply illustrate the fundamental. On the other hand, the specificity of the narrative can be elucidated at another level, that of the generative processes. And this is where I have situated my own practice, for the existence of the intermediate grammar will make it possible to construct the unique axiology and the ideological processes at play in Agaguk. Following Greimas and Courtes (1982, 20), in my analysis, axiology will designate 'the paradigmatic mode of existence of values,' whereas ideology 'assumes the form of their syntagmatic arrangement.' At this level, through the combination and deployment of distinct qualifications and functions, each narrative combines and transforms the elementary structure of signification. In this chapter I attempted to explore the linguistic and sociological foundations of Greimassian semiotics from a theoretical perspective, by highlighting its anthropological dimension as well as its historico-notional development. I also endeavoured to show how this specific semiotic theory evolved within the context of the discoveries in the human sciences that occurred over the last thirty years. It is only by emphasizing the cultural and semantic basis of the theory for the understanding of cultural phenomena that the descriptive apparatus worked out in the semio-narrative analysis of one of the most widely read and analysed novels of the 1950s and '60s in Quebec can be justified. In the remainder of this book I shall elaborate from a socio-semiotic perspective a model and analytical procedures, both rigorous and supple enough to mediate between theory and text, thereby opening up the semiotic to the social and the historical.

3 Agaguk: A Synopsis

Words say what they wish to say, they are used as needed, nothing more. But they can be employed to falsify ideas. (Agaguk, 202) l

The analysis of this 'Inuit novel' by Yves Theriault will be based on a close reading and re-reading of the discursive and figurative unfolding of the text. For example, to construct the semiotic subject it is imperative first of all to work out the relation between subjects and objects of value that define them; to understand how certain subjects can appropriate or lose certain objects of value it is necessary to situate them in an intersubjective framework and work out the modalities of competence that enable us to define them as subjects in a disjunctive or conjunctive relation to objects of value, and so on. In short, this model of analysis is based on the construction of the text on different hierarchically organized levels where each element is interdefined. As the specific semio-narrative perspective adopted obliges me to begin this analysis at another level, and since I am unable to supply Theriault's text in its entirety, for the sake of intelligibility I have provided a plot summary of the tale, which, as indicated in the Introduction, takes place in the Canadian Arctic in the late 1930s. The action of the novel, narrated in forty-nine brief chapters, alternates between simple daily and ordinary events and more critical and extraordinary ones. The tale begins when the central character, Agaguk, Ramook the chiefs son, comes of age and decides to leave the tribe and live alone on the tundra with Iriook, whom he has just chosen as his companion. However, not all links with the village are broken. On learning of the presence of a trader among the tribe, Agaguk decides to barter his furs for tools, arms, and foodstuff. Brown, the trader, who also

34 Semiotics and the Modern Quebec Novel deals in illicit alcohol, cheats Agaguk and robs him of part of his furs. Agaguk decides to avenge himself: he recovers his furs at night, pours kerosene on Brown before torching and burning him to death. Returning to the tundra, Agaguk says nothing about the event to Iriook, who informs him shortly afterward that she is pregnant. When winter arrives, Agaguk, in need of supplies, decides to travel to the village of the Hudson's Bay Company, which holds a monopoly on trading in the North. Again, he does not get true value for his furs, when McTavish the clerk, a tall, thin Scotsman, gives him half of what he expected. Frustrated once more by a system that exploits the Native population, Agaguk chokes down the rage in his heart and is tempted to take a terrible revenge. Instead, he barters his remaining prime mink skin with an Ojibway trader for four bottles of alcohol and builds a shelter. Alone, he drinks the four bottles and gets drunk for two days before returning home and facing Iriook; he says nothing to her about this event. Three or four months later a son, called Tayaout, 'a brave name,' is born. However, during the birth of the child, Agaguk, unable to understand and support Iriook's cries, beats her to kill the pain, to make it flee her body. He places all his hopes and ambitions in this child. Eventually, a policeman named Henderson appears in the village to investigate Brown's disappearance. The tribe closes ranks and remains silent about what happened to the trader. The policeman remains in the village and counts on his patience and knowledge of tribal ways to help him discover the truth. In the meantime, Agaguk and Iriook go to the Top of the World to hunt for seals along the Arctic coast. They are exceptionally successful and return to the tundra loaded down with their hunt. Henderson's stay in the village becomes more and more dangerous for him as the villagers begin to resent his presence. Two parallel sequences occur that are heavy with peril and menace. One of the villagers, Ayallik, seems more and more likely to betray Agaguk as the trader's assassin, while a mysterious white wolf appears on the horizon and threatens to take off with Tayaout. Several alternating chapters describe these events and, finally, violence explodes in both the village and on the tundra. Ayallik, the potential traitor, is murdered on Ramook's order, and afterwards Henderson, who decides to leave, is shot by Ramook, then mutilated by him and the sorcerer before finally being finished off. Meanwhile, Agaguk is attacked by the white wolf, which he finally kills after a long, bloody battle. Following this pivotal episode, Iriook, contrary to tradition, must take on the role of man in order to save the family. Relations between the

Agaguk: A Synopsis 35 man and woman are radically modified. First, she treats his wounds with such tenderness and skill that she literally brings him back to life. Next, she performs a number of tasks normally associated with man: building an igloo, ensuring the safety of supplies, and killing two caribou with a rifle. Finally, she gives him confidence in himself as he regains his strength. This is not the end of their tribulations. The following summer, a plane carrying four policemen and two scientists lands near the huts of the villagers. Frightened by the policeman Scott, who is leading the investigation, Ramook decides to hand over Agaguk. He sends Ghorok, the sorcerer, to visit his son and offer him the rifle used to kill Henderson. Suspecting a trap, Agaguk returns the rifle to Ramook's tent without being seen. A short time afterwards the policemen come to interrogate Agaguk. Terribly scarred and unrecognizable because of the wounds inflicted by the white wolf, he cannot be identified for certain and even Ramook remains doubtful as to his identity. Iriook, who learns during this conversation that Brown was killed by Agaguk, takes the initiative and speaks up. Once more she saves Agaguk by stating that he no longer exists and that she does not know what has become of him. Returning to the village, the policemen discover in Ramook's tent the rifle used to kill Henderson. The chief succumbs to Scott's ruse and is denounced by a young woman of the tribe as Henderson's killer. Others accuse Ramook of having killed Ayallik, with Ghorok as his accomplice, and both of them are taken away to be judged and hanged. The tribe now lacks a chief, and since each one offered the role refuses to accept because of the servitude and the dangers involved, the villagers decide to approach Agaguk. However, he too declines, for love of Iriook and because of his need for solitude. Iriook is again with child, and though the harsh environment does not permit them to feed useless persons, she wants Agaguk to agree to let the child live if it is a girl. Iriook counts on Agaguk's moral evolution as demonstrated by the remorse he feels for having killed Brown. A girl is born. Torn between his male pride and his love for Iriook, between Inuit tradition and a new moral order founded on individual values, finally, under the threat of a rifle and the prospect of a life without love, Agaguk consents to let the child live. He is immediately rewarded by the birth of another child, a boy.

4

Segmentation

As one of the aims of this study is to work out a methodology based on a specific theoretical corpus in order to demonstrate both its limits and its value in discovering new insights when examining such a complex text as a novel, I shall start by raising the issue of where to begin. If there exists one area in which semiotics has made real progress it is related to the syntagmatic organization of signification. Nonetheless, it should be noted that what we are dealing with here is not definitive knowledge but a way of approaching the text, the procedures of segmentation of short narratives, the recognition of some textual regularities and especially models of the predictability of the organization of narrative, models that apply to all kinds of texts and even to some human behaviour. The contribution of formal criticism to the study of different literary genres has now been widely recognized, if not generally accepted. Many theoretical works by the Paris School of Semiotics (Roland Barthes, Claude Bremond, Jean-Claude Coquet, Algirdas Julien Greimas, Christian Metz, Tzvetan Todorov, etc.) have inspired incisive analyses of various types of texts: biblical verse, poems, plays, folk tales, or short stories. And yet, the absence of detailed studies on works as intricate and as plethoric as the novel, although surprising at first glance, is quite comprehensible in view of the numerous methodological and theoretical difficulties encountered.1 The length and complexity of the novel give rise to multiple problems that must be clearly apprehended and solved before semiotics can come to grips with this genre. The main stumbling block is one of segmentation. In poetry one can readily define, delimit, and identify the constituent units of a text,2 but the novel requires a more sophisticated methodological framework to determine its structural divisions. It has been shown that a poem can be

Segmentation

37

segmented into sequences by applying clearly specified formal categories and/or marks. It is then possible to work out a morphology in terms of a set of logical relations and, thereafter, to construct a syntax that can describe the distribution of the units and the various classes of discourse. Even if one leaves in abeyance the problem of the overall organization of sequences, most semiotic theories do not in fact have a coherent, workable methodology available that could simplify the inextricable and even insurmountable difficulties met when attempting to segment a lengthy novel.3 In a seminal article, 'Elements pour une theorie de 1'interpretation du recit mythique' (1966, 34-65), Greimas proposed a partial solution to this dilemma when he situated the problem of segmentation at the manifest level by dividing the narrative into sequences corresponding to observable articulations of content. In so doing, he significantly modified and refined the results of Propp's (1928) research on the folk tale. Nevertheless, he neither set up, nor advanced, any general rules or procedures, except those purely empirical criteria that could legitimize his choices. Similarly, in his study (1988) of a Maupassant short story he most often resorted to spatio-temporal marks in order to segment his text. Such procedures may be economical and effective when examining a six-page work such as 'Deux amis,' but would be quite unmanageable when analysing a long, complex text containing a great number of 'events' and 'facts' linked by various conjunctive or disjunctive spatiotemporal relationships.4 A solution to the seemingly insoluble practical task of segmenting a novel can, however, be worked out from suggestions made in Greimas's other theoretical works. Defining the primary characteristics of his narrative grammar, he first distinguished three interdependent levels:5 A fundamental grammar of a conceptual nature, composed of an elementary morphology and syntax that, in turn, produce figurative narratives in which human or personified actors conceive projects, undergo 'tests,' and fulfil goals; a discursive grammar with a syntax and semantics charged with the discursivization of the narrative structures; between these two he localized a clearly delimited semiotic level designated by the term superficial or intermediate grammar. In so far as one of the elementary concepts of the proposed fundamental grammar, the syntactic operator, corresponds to syntactic doing on the superficial or intermediate level, an anthropomorphic dimension is imbedded in the grammar itself. It should be mentioned here, though, that the problem of the sequence will be resolved not at the figurative or actorial level but at the intermediate level of the actantial manifestation.6

5 The Canonic Relation

In order to provide a conceptual framework for our study by situating the various levels of our analysis in relation to actantial theory in general, I will now give a brief description of Greimas's narrative grammar that will be worked out in detail in the course of our examination of Theriault's novel.1 In Structural Semantics (1983) Greimas stated that a semantic micro-universe can be defined as a universe - that is, as a signifying whole - only if it appears before us as a simple spectacle, as an actantial structure (199).2 Moreover, as our study of Agaguk will make clear, the micro-universe, at the fundamental level, articulates elementary axiological structures such as life/death (individual universe) and nature/culture (collective universe). These basic structures, situated at the deep semantic level, are considered as ad hoc universals that serve as starting points for the analysis of semantic universes, whether individual or collective. Their meaning is never apprehensible as such, but only when they appear as articulated signification, or, in other words, when they are converted into actantial structures. Jean Petitot-Cocorda (1985) clearly perceived the theoretical import of Greimas's semiotics when he situated the semio-narrative structures within an anthropological framework: The deep semantic categories are universals of the imaginary. We are not conscious of them, and they exist only because they are axiologized and ideologically invested in objects of value, the quest for which governs the actions (narrative programs in Greimassian terminology) of the subject actants. It is only through the circulation of objects of value governed by actantial syntax that they can be apprehended. In other words, they cannot be subjectivized as such but instead appear only by means of a logic of actions. The role of the actantial syntax therefore is to convert into a narrative doing the fundamental semantics that constitute

The Canonic Relation 39 the message of the narrative and determine its anthropological function. This syntax enables one to grasp, through the simulacrum of a 'scene' that dramati/es them, the unconscious crystallizing processes of subjectivity. (50-1, my translation)

In addition, this structure sets in play a limited number of actants that can be apprehended in terms of an elementary morphology and a set of 'functions.' A single actant of the structure can transform syntactically the constituent terms of the semantic system in question. From this perspective, the first five chapters of this analysis can be seen as establishing the morphology of the different actants in the narrative. The various 'qualifications' defining the 'being' of the /doing/ of each type of actant as well as the space (topos) of their performances are examined. One should also note that the system of 'qualifications' can be transformed into 'functions' or vice versa (Greimas 1983, 199). Yet, for the sake of clarity, I shall undertake a cursory discussion of several of the theoretical presuppositions and implications inherent in this semiotic system. When confronted with any text (discursive manifestation) , Greimas started out by recognizing and accepting the presence of a fundamental difference existing between two levels of representation and analysis: an apparent level of narration, structured and expressed by means of specific linguistic forms characteristic, for example, of a genre; and an immanent level, distinct from the former linguistic one, in which narrativity is situated and organized prior to its manifestation. This structure, or constitutive model, in which semantic substance receives its first articulations and is thus organized into an elementary signifying form, is mediated by semio-narrative structures (a sort of fundamental and general grammar) that institute the particular discourse in question. A text, therefore, can be analysed on two different levels according to two types of immanent models: the first, the elementary structure of signification (see the semiotic square, Greimas and Courtes 1982, 308-11), organizes contradictory axiological contents in the mode of a relational disequilibrium, whereas the second, or transformational model, proposes an ideological solution or a means of transforming the invested contents. In other words, the constitutive model is achronological and dependent on the canonic principle of homologation, while the transformational model is diachronological and motivated by the 'test' that anthropomorphizes the discourse. Greimas's initial term 'test' has been replaced by that of 'performance' in our description. The notion of performance is thus the cornerstone of this narrative in-

40 Semiotics and the Modern Quebec Novel termediate grammar, and the constituent categories of this grammar, because of their anthropomorphic dimension, are clearly distinguished from the logical categories of the fundamental grammar, which are solely conceptual. Thus, the concept of a syntactic operation of the fundamental grammar corresponds to that of syntactic /doing/ in the narrative grammar. The logical operation brackets off the performative subject, whereas factitive activity necessarily presupposes the presence of a human or anthropomorphized subject. It goes without saying that the notion of performance or /doing/ does not designate a 'real' /doing/, which would be the primary concern of a semiotics of the natural world, but specifies factitive activity transcoded in a message, '/doing/ is thus an operation that is doubly anthropomorphic: As an activity it presupposes a subject; as a message, it is objectified and implies the axis of transmission between a sender and a receiver' (Greimas 1987, 71). When actualized as a process, /doing/ is manifested as a function (F) and its subject is the actant (A). MORPHOLOGY OF THE MODALITIES OF /DOING/ AND /BEING/

In 'Toward a Theory of Modality,' Greimas (1987) began with a cursory definition of modality as the modification of a predicate by a subject. He then stated that the predicate represents the nucleus or the constitutive relation of the utterance, and that this same relation constitutes the actant? its completive term. Thus the actant, defined as an utterance hierarchically superior to the logically presupposed predicate, can be considered as a hypotactic4 structure. But this initial distinction is not operative from a methodological point of view, since it simply states, without any refinement whatsoever, a basic connection existing between the predicate and the actant. If, however, one defines the predicate as a semantically invested logical function that can subsequently be expanded into the predicate functions of /doing/ and /being/, then one can legitimately consider these elementary utterances either as utterances of doing or as utterances of state. The predicate /doing/ can be designated by the function transformation and /being/ by the function junction. Consequently, one can assume that junction determines the state of the subject in relation to any object of value, while transformation accounts for the process of passing from one state to another (see Greimas 1987, 124). A problematics of objects of value is inscribed in this modal theory since the elementary utterances are ultimately comprehended and organized in relationship to them.

The Canonic Relation

41

OBJECTS OF VALUE

In order to begin to resolve the problem of the segmentation of a lengthy text not at the discursive, but at the actantial level, the first step is to determine the morphology and the syntax of actants and objects of value in Agaguk. Basically, objects of value are terminal effects that permit the logical reconstruction of motivating causes. The sought-after or desired object, a sort of medium or vehicle of values, remains unknowable in itself but can be perceived by means of its discrete determinants, whose differential nature confers upon them a status analogous to that of the linguistic sign. The object of value, be it mythical (object of the mind - noological) or practical (object of the world - cosmological), is thereby considered as a locus of fixation, as a topos of the manifestation of determinant-values (see Greimas 1987, 'A Problem of Narrative Semiotics: Objects of Value,' 84-105). Objects of value define the subject as being, as meaning. From this point of view the semiotics of cognition and passions can be considered as a semiotics of the values acquired, lost, suspended, re-acquired, and so on, by the subject. In short, the subject is initially defined by its protensivity and is faced with an object of value that is unformed, a shadow of the value that can be semanticized. Moreover, since the elementary utterance was defined as an oriented relation that simultaneously generated the two terms, subject and object, in establishing our corpus, of all the objects (lexemes in the novel), only the objects of value situated on the syntactic axis (subject —> object) will be retained. To paraphrase J.-C. Coquet (1973, 180), an appropriated object of value is the final effect that enables one to reconstitute the chain of causes. In other words, objects of value are the signs of previous activity, produced by a specific agent under particular conditions. They are the undeniable proof of a certain type of /doing/ and, at the same time, qualify the attributive subject. PRACTICAL OBJECTS OF VALUE

One can in Agaguk readily identify two distinct types of objects of value: those of a practical nature and those that have a mythical function. Practical objects of value, or /goods/, appearing in the novel most often as the end result of hunting, are mainly defined by the quest and appropriation of variable, quantifiable, and bivalent objects stemming from the natural world. Furthermore, they are at the same time necessary for survival and,

42 Semiotics and the Modern Quebec Novel hence, can be valorized since they are often converted and circulated through different socio-economic channels. Mythical objects of value, however, operate quite differently. Unlike the former, this class is particularized by a process of reciprocity in which a unique, qualifiable, progressively revealed and non-permutable spiritual object is eventually shared by two equal subjects. This is expressed in the narrative in the form of love. At least in the initial stages of this study, it is not necessary to examine in detail the general organization of space in the text since it will be treated in a later section under the heading of 'Actantial Topology' (Chapter 6). For the moment it is sufficient to note that nature, which usually follows predictable laws, can assume the roles either of helper or opponent, and sometimes, when anthropomorphized by the subject, it can even be considered as an anti-subject. From this perspective, nature functions above all as the determinant topos that restricts the actors^ and prescribes the concrete conditions of their activity. Seen in terms of the animate and/or inanimate, each object or animal in turn can be transformed into food or tools essential to ensure the survival of the individual or the group. In short, nature is experienced as a potential stock that each actor attempts to utilize, mainly through hunting, according to his or her immediate needs, the end result being the accumulation of a sufficient quantity of /goods/ necessary for life on the tundra: 'Beasts with fur for trade, beasts with fur for clothing from which to make parkas and the walls of the hut, beasts whose hides will make more or less supple leather, beasts with short hair whose hides serve for beds or seats, beasts with good food flesh, beasts with fat that will give oil for the cold season' (34). A great many heterogeneous elements or sets, making up the category of practical objects of value, are enumerated at length throughout the novel. Initially, to reduce all of the variants to a few invariants, a brief classification of /goods/ will be established by resorting to criteria such as origin, form, use, and extension. The next operation will then consist in describing the manifest processes or systems governing the circulation of /goods/ in the valorizing socio-economic circuit of scarcity. /GOODS/ AS OBJECTS OF VALUE

Belonging to the material universe of daily existence, /goods/, be they primary or secondary, are first distinguished in terms of their multiformity. And so one encounters in the narrative long lists of fur-bearing

The Canonic Relation

43

mammals that preoccupy the waking moments of the inhabitants of the plain. Yet, in spite of the proliferation of different animals, it is possible to classify the numerous species according to one or several of the following functions: food, clothing, utensils, and exchange. The caribou furnishes food and clothing, the fox furnishes clothing and fur for trade. But only the surplus is to be traded. The same goes for the wolf, but for them there is also the government bounty. As for the mink, the muskrat, the weasel, the badger, the fisher and the wolverine, they are bearers of excellent and precious furs. The carcass feeds the dogs, and so each one to his needs and satisfactions. (34)

The first three classes - food, clothing, and utensils - fall within the province of individual biological subsistence, whereas the fourth, exchange, introduces a social dimension, because it is not only founded on interpersonal relationships but institutes them at one and the same time. Consequently, there are two interdependent yet clearly distinct factitive itineraries, whose correlation and confrontation permit the elaboration of an elementary narrative syntax. In order to standardize and simplify terminology, the term primary /goods/ will be used to designate the end result of all activity linked to biological existence, while secondary /goods/ will refer to supererogatory practical objects of value. PRIMARY /GOODS/

Procuring an abundant food supply and protecting themselves against natural forces are the two basic areas of activity common to all of the actors of the narrative: Then the time had come for the Eskimo to think of the summer hunting, the essential hunting that will provide the smoked meat for winter, the reserves of fat, the piles of bones and finally the ivory to make tools ... In Ramook's village it already looked like wintertime. They were smoking caribou meat in several huts, and the most able hunters came in with full hands ... Before the inexorable seasons the Eskimo has but one thought in his head, to provide for the cruel winter, to profit from the great summer hunts. (26)

As a general rule the objects of value widely dispersed on the vast tundra are sought after by solitary male subjects, and this strategy greatly increases chances of locating game. Yet each actant is defined by the type

44 Semiotics and the Modern Quebec Novel of relations that link him/her to the group. The successful hunter transmits his game to the group (family or tribe), which transforms it into /goods/. The individual's quest must be understood solely in terms of the survival of the group, and so the axis of will that almost exclusively particularizes the subject is out of necessity subordinated to the common project. Volition thus appears as /having-to-do or to-be/ or duty, and functions as an adjunct of the collective actant. The subject, as such, plays a secondary role. Traditional skills, progressively acquired, make possible the transfer and preparation of the object of value communicated to the community at large. s0r (/man/) (/goods/) (/group/) (S = sender; O = object; R = receiver)

It should be noted, nonetheless, that even if in most cases the behavioral patterns of the tribe and the two main protagonists happen to coincide with respect to the alimentary code, specific traits do differentiate each group. One could schematically represent this code by means of the following binary oppositions: raw

Agaguk kills a goose and eats it right away. (15) He tears off the raw flesh and spits out the bones. (31) They devour the meat dripping with blood. (84)

vs

cooked

Dried meat (7) Chunks of smoked meat, preserved meat. (10) The preservation of meat by smoking or drying (33)

Certain foods are prized by all of the actors of the novel. When Tayaout, the infant son of Agaguk and Iriook, barely a few months old, sticks his finger spotted with blood into his mouth and sucks it with satisfaction, his father feels intense pride: ' "You see?", Agaguk said. He was delighted, and swelled up like a pigeon. The baby liked blood. "Tonight," Iriook said, "we'll give him some raw flesh"' (83). For the parents, the taste of blood represents a decisive stage, a coming of age, in the maturation of the Inuk. Within this alimentary configuration, the behavioural patterns of the tribe are marked, since human flesh can sometimes be consumed raw, whereas for the couple (Agaguk and Iriook leave the tribe, which for them represents negative collective values, and

The Canonic Relation

45

attempt to establish a family based on individual positive values) only objects originating from the vegetal or animal world are included in this category. The chief, after having wounded the constable, draws his knife, cuts through his clothing, bares his body, and cuts off his genitals. Henderson utters a horrible scream: 'With a joyous roar, Ramook threw his organs behind him, to the women who came running up. They tore with their teeth into the still warm and throbbing flesh' (132). Similarly, Ghorok the sorcerer cuts out the white man's liver and eats it raw while his victim screams out in terror. Another consequence of the extremely tenuous living conditions in this hostile environment is the imposition and distribution of prescribed tasks for every adult in the group, so that each member assumes a specific role dictated either by tradition or his/her own particular biological status. This /having-to-do or to-be/ can be considered both as a duty, or obligation, and a necessity that ensure the continuation of individual or any social configuration, be it the family or the tribe. Man's activity is directed towards erecting the conjugal home and supplying it with food, while woman prepares the game or fish so procured: Sometimes came a chunky brown rabbit, nimble as a gust of wind. For every one of these beasts, Agaguk ordained a destiny, became a god, suddenly from his own needs and those of Iriook. Traps for the rodents, snares for the rabbits and the martins, food traps for the minks that would not damage the precious fur; a bullet for the caribou, the wolves and foxes, a bullet fired straight... While she listened to Agaguk talk, she chewed tirelessly on the entrails, softening them, stretching them, twisting them in fine needles of babiche for the hems and seams of their winter garments ... later, before the cold weather, Iriook would chew all of the caribou skins to soften them. Sewing the fox skins to them for trimming or lining, she would make two heavy parkas. (9-12)

Consequently, all interpersonal relations in this universe are mediated through the physical possibilities inherent in the material field. The economical division of labour - the allocation of clearly defined tasks - not only assures the survival of the couple, but also forms the basic structuring principles that govern and organize the social interactions of all the other Inuit. On several occasions, as far as the couple is concerned, the fundamental relation to primary /goods/ is radically modified. From this perspective primary /goods/ are not passive objects of value to be appropriated by the subject and transmitted by him/her to another subject. They acti-

46 Semiotics and the Modern Quebec Novel vate a transformation not only in the modalities that enable the subject to act but also in the modalities of the other subject to whom the object is destined. After Agaguk's bloody battle with the white wolf, Iriook, in order to save the family from certain death, willingly assumes the dual role of providing and preparing /goods/. Contrary to all traditions, but under the pressure of necessity, because there is no other way to carry out her plans, she entrusts Tayaout to the wounded man and leaves them alone in the igloo. Half-frozen on the tundra, she spots two caribou. She shoulders her rifle and brings down the male with a bullet between the eyes and subsequently finishes off the female: 'Then she went to work. What she had accomplished until then was only the preliminary part which usually falls to the men. Now came the woman's work, the part she knew well and had been doing since childhood' (151). Agaguk's role also changes. When, for example, he learns that Iriook is expecting a child, 'Agaguk took the dishes and went himself to rinse them at the river, an extraordinary thing for him to do. "Leave them," said Iriook, "I must keep on with my life!" But he did not answer ... He kept on rinsing the dishes' (31). It is precisely the possibility, according to the demands of the lived experience, of reversing the masculine or feminine roles laid down by tradition that marks the couple and totally sets it apart from the village Inuit. The relation to primary /goods/ institutes social relations and so becomes the main organizing factor of the group: /doing/, in order to have enough to survive, is the general principle motivating the activities of most of the actors of the text. And this is the reason for the pre-eminence of the hunter and the primacy of the male in this culture. Dreaming of the child to come, Agaguk feels that 'It must be a boy. A girl would be a burden, a useless mouth to nourish on the tundra where every hour of living is a fight against nature' (31). And he invokes the same arguments when he tries to convince Iriook that putting to death her longawaited daughter 'was not only a custom to carry on, but the necessity of survival. The baby would die because even if nothing was lacking just now, it was necessary to think of next winter' (221). Yet, when Ramook assumes the role of tribal chief, he automatically exempts himself from the law of /doing/ and /goods/ that regulates the activities of all other healthy adult Eskimos. As soon as he is elected chief, he ceases to hunt and demands material tribute from the tribe to keep his provision reserve well furnished, refusing to pardon the stingy or even the unlucky who cannot supply the required part from their hunting. Thus, he uses his position for tyranny and personal riches and accumulates so much

The Canonic Relation 47 wealth that when taken prisoner by the constables he is considered a rich man according to the standards of the tribe: 'To the astonishment of each one, the bundles of skins alone were worth their weight in gold' (198). Primary /goods/ are distinguished not only by their scarcity and difficulty of appropriation, but also by their fragile and perishable nature. Although some hunts are briefly qualified as being 'bad,' 'good,' or even 'miraculous,' however, many lengthy descriptions depict various methods of preserving game and different means used to protect the acquired stores against omnipresent dangers. After a successful hunt, it is woman's lot to butcher, dry, or smoke the prize that would otherwise rapidly spoil. Yet, their tasks do not end there, for they must constantly guard their supplies to keep them out of reach of the ever-watchful prowling creatures. While travelling, they have to secure the dried meat and fat between them when they sleep, to prevent the animals from attacking them (7). After they build their first hut, they hang a skin in the low opening by which they enter and anchor it firmly with heavy stones, so that they are well shut in for the night and the wolves and foxes cannot get in (8). Never completely secure, they are surrounded by a great number of ravenous creatures: The humble ones were a multitude, field mice, grey mice, moss rats, all the invisible nibblers that came out at night, sneaking under the sides of the hut gnawing at the provisions, munching the pemmican, treating themselves to the fat, even spoiling the rawhide pantaloons and mukluks, eating the fur lining of the parkas where the sweat and salt of the body makes them succulent. (9)

Throughout the narrative one cannot help but notice the recurring motif of the wolves ever ready to try to get at the Eskimo's hard-earned supplies. The couple, always on the alert for this latent menace, spend an inordinate amount of time and energy protecting their stores against their mortal enemies. On the isolated tundra, all of the animals represent a potential danger for man. SECONDARY /GOODS/

The possession of /goods/, as previously stated, is the sign of a specific activity that singularizes the attributive agent. Since the appropriation of any object or thing is the end result of a process of /doing/ initiated by a distinct subject, it necessarily follows that one must now investigate the

48 Semiotics and the Modern Quebec Novel means deployed that make the acquisition of /goods/ possible. First and foremost, one finds that primary /goods/ can be worked and reshaped into utensils and implements used either in the household or for the purpose of hunting: rawhide thongs and needles made of seal skin and bones (5), ivory knives (19), traps, precious oil from animals that give plenty of fat (33), harpoons made from long pieces of ivory tipped with a crook like a fishhook (151). Handmade and produced on the spot by artisans who apply simple and proven techniques transmitted by tradition over time, these objects can be fabricated from accumulated stocks without recourse to any intermediaries. However, more important to the Inuit are the many foreign-made utensils and tools available at the white man's trading post that facilitate the capture and conservation of /goods/. The usefulness and necessity of these objects in daily life is constantly stressed: guns, iron pots and tools, the metal stove to burn oil or fat (5), steel traps, white man's traps (19), salt (38), kerosene (45), metal knives (79), the metal box, their most precious possession (80), and the metal axe (150). The introduction of mass-produced objects, and their unconditional acceptance by the Inuit, signal the weighty presence of white culture and technology within a society in the throes of dramatic change: 'then he (Agaguk) placed the stone lamp on the floor; it was a more primitive utensil than the metal stove that Iriook was so proud of. That stove, which the white man had thought up for Eskimo use, and sold at the company store' (41). Before the white man's arrival in the North, the relation of individual /doing/ to primary /goods/ received its ultimate intelligibility from traditions handed down by the group. In this way the tekhne necessary to ensure its own propagation and continuity was maintained and transmitted. The brutal introduction of foreign objects into this closed universe disrupts the basic triadic rapport, /doing/ -» tradition —> /goods/, through the imposition of a new cardinal mediating factor. The shortterm effect, or finality, of the presence of the white man's objects is to facilitate and simplify daily life, but in the long run it unavoidably produces a series of interferences or counterfinalities. Before

vs.

tradition

white (tool)

/doing/

After

tradition "/goods/

/doing/

(tool) •/goods/

The Canonic Relation 49 Thus, whether it concerns the couple, or the members of the group, the basic relation to /goods/, even at the most fundamental level of lived experience, is inevitably mediated by the two incompatible categories of tradition, on the one hand, and white man's society, on the other. It is not, as one might suspect at first glance, simply a question of two incongruous cross-cultural value systems provoking accidental clashes, but a problem related to the primary relationship of /doing/ and /goods/ that governs the individual actor's very link to his/her immediate environment. Even a solitary hunter pursuing his prey on the desolate tundra, the most elementary gesture assuring survival, must in the end be understood in terms of this dual process. From the outset, manufactured objects in the text, like so many filigree, foreshadow the peripeteia of the plot beneath the surface, since their presence organizes and programs the actors' relationships to the material field and to the other. The availability and daily use of mass-produced objects engender networks of complex relations linking the actor to his material space and environment. Fabricated elsewhere, by methods totally unknown to the Inuit, these objects demand a certain degree of upkeep to ensure their proper maintenance. In addition, since they have not assimilated the necessary knowledge and technical know-how to produce such objects industrially, the Inuit are completely dependent upon their suppliers, who in turn take advantage of every opportunity to exploit them. The Hudson's Bay Company, which has a monopoly, expels all competition, and traders like Brown, who constitute an illegal opposition, never last long. Manufactured goods can be found only in Company stores, and because the factor fixes the prices, the Inuit have no choice but to accept his figure. Since the factor himself owes his promotion to the success of his bargaining, the head office judges him according to the margin he can establish between the market value of the furs and the value he sets. Even considering the arbitrary price allowed for furs, and the inferior quality of the manufactured goods, the trader often lowers the value of the pelts with a clear conscience. He boldly advances the traditional arguments used by those who control the 'free'-enterprise market: after all, they are not obliged to accept the conditions of the bargain. They can always leave, take back the furs, and refuse the price he has set: 'That Agaguk had no other place to sell did not bother the Scotsman at all. It was none of his business nor any fault of his. What could he do about it? He had laid down certain conditions which the Eskimo had definitely accepted' (46).

50 Semiotics and the Modern Quebec Novel It is nonetheless true that imported objects do help the Inuit in their struggle for life. Because of these tools and weapons, Agaguk is not only able to kill a greater variety of game than was previously possible, but also to defeat his most feared enemy, the white wolf: 'He had cocked his gun, the knife with the fine blade hung on his leg. Another knife with a very thick blade was at his belt. With one weapon or the other, the white wolf would perish' (135). The same rifle and knives permit Iriook, on an incredibly cold day, to kill and quickly butcher two caribou. By her own strength and skill she ensures the winter's supply of meat. With a metal axe and the larger of the metal knives procured at the trading post, she cuts the carcasses into four quarters. Then with great circular sweeps of the blade she pulls out the entrails (149-50). And when Tayaout, just five years old, is attacked by a bear, Iriook runs out of the hut, rifle in hand. She follows the animal in her sights as it flees and fires. The bullet shatters its skull (208). Furthermore, unlike 'primitive' weapons such as the harpoons used to hunt seals (90-1), which necessitate a long apprenticeship over time and a great deal of physical strength and thus confine each actor to a marked cultural or sexual role, modern arms have the property of liberating individuals from traditionally determined situations. Agaguk, who sometimes leaves his wife alone, wishes to teach her to shoot. She asks him to follow her outside and then points to a bush on the bank of the river. She lifts the rifle to her shoulder, barely aims, presses the trigger, and fires: The bullet whistled and the branch flew up, cut in two. Agaguk murmured admiringly, a sort of hoarse grunt deep in his throat. "I have nothing to teach you," he said, "Nothing at all" ' (52). Even at the earliest stages of the tribes' development, tools necessarily mediated the fundamental dichotomy, Culture vs. Nature, and rigidly fixed the social roles of each member according to sex. White man's technology, by creating a greater interval or gulf between Culture and Nature, distances individuals from the 'natural' world and loosens the cultural bonds so that woman is capable of accomplishing tasks hitherto performed only by man. The finality of modern weapons enables woman to hunt, but the breakup of tribal values and the reversal of stereotyped roles are the inevitable counterfinalities produced by the introduction of foreign arms and objects into the world of the Inuit. Although foreign-made objects do provide a certain degree of material comfort and increase chances of survival, they are also a source of servility and/or alienation. Imported practico-inert or tooled matter, as mentioned, imposes real constraints on its owner and, moreover, can become a simple end in itself. All of the natives are caught up more or less in the

The Canonic Relation 51 same economic processes, laid down and controlled by aliens: /doing/ with white man's weapons and tools in order to kill the greatest number of commercially valuable fur-bearing animals; preparing the skins and trading them for more rifles, bullets, and metal traps which increase efficiency and yield; /doing/ with white man's weapons and tools; and so on. The introduction of these objects also brings about the erosion and eventual loss of traditional skills and undermines one's ability to survive independently in this hostile environment. When Ramook threatens Scott and his men, the policeman answers that other airplanes would come if he exterminated the party. He then asks the chief: 'But ... supposing you win, where would you go to exchange your furs, or get your ammunition, your guns, the oil for your lamps? And the cord for your nets? Say now that you no longer know how to weave nets of rawhide, or would you use tarred strings?' (156). Not all of the Inuit however exchange their furs for tools; some barter for worthless baubles or illegal alcohol. In the store trade is carried on for the most essential objects, as well as for useless trinkets: 'Certain Eskimos hardly succeeded in covering their necessities. They gave up their furs for knick-knacks, things which were of no use to them and often valueless' (45). Agaguk, who has a mind of his own, however, always buys carefully in spite of often being tempted by the white man's 'useless mechanical toys and childish trash' (45). With one exception, he chooses to trade his furs only for indispensable things: 'Perhaps he was different from the other Eskimos, in some remote fibre of his being' (45). It goes without saying that every Inuit, in so far as his/her relation to primary or secondary /goods/ is daily mediated by white man's tools, is subjected to a reifying process, which, at this level of analysis, becomes an extension of the practico-inert pure and simple. From this same perspective, alcohol enjoys an exemplary status in the narrative. Agaguk, frustrated by the manner in which McTavish has taken advantage of him, tries to choke down the rage in his heart urging him to do something desperate, to take a horrible revenge as he did with Brown. Feeling completely helpless and caught up in the many contradictions of an economic system that totally escapes him, he seeks the only solution open to him: 'But to whom could he complain? The white men were they not all-powerful, and their interests in these countries all too well protected? He felt his mind confused, he could hardly knot the thongs to hold the load on the sled' (46). He then takes the last precious mink pelt that he has kept in reserve and offers it to an illegal EskimoOjibway trader for four bottles of white alcohol, which he proceeds to

52 Semiotics and the Modern Quebec Novel drink alone in his igloo. After a short while, inebriated, 'He began to sing, a strange outcry without tune or meaning, a sort of animal howling' (50). Alcohol, as an object of value or desire exchanged for pelts and immediately consumed on the spot, exemplifies, in an accelerated and condensed form, the entire alienating socio-economic process previously described. The prolonged effort of acquiring pelts and the frustration encountered in bartering them are rewarded by a fleeting moment of euphoria after which the victim is left with only the minimal tools necessary to reconstitute the dissipated secondary /goods/. Condemned by their exploiters to renew systematically this operation in order to satisfy externally instilled desires, the exploited Inuit internalize all of the contradictions of an alienated class and thus become the passive victims of an oppressive system that maintains them in a state of economic dependency. Within the structure of the text, the other - whether manifested in the mode of a tekhne handed down by tradition, a foreign-made tool, or an economic circuit that simultaneously maintains and subjugates the actors - becomes the ever-present regulator of the primary relationships that link them to the material field. Even when he or she is completely isolated from the group, the Inuit's most insignificant gesture is governed by the omnipresent social dimension. SIOS2 (/man/) (/goods/) (/other/) (SI and S2 are alternately sender and receiver) As a totality, practical /goods/ have a dual referential role: they function as the sign of a singular /doing/, qualifying the performative subject, while at the same time connoting the socio-economic process that inscribes him/her in the problematics of the group. As such, they have a cataphoric function of rection in the narrative insofar as they index an omnipresent sender that regulates the subject's modalities of wanting-todo in the form of an external having-to-do. In other words, even though the subject believes he/she is doing according to his/her desires, in fact, he/she is governed by prescriptions from another world, another time. In the narrative, the class of practical /goods/ represents a privileged, singularized universal that expresses both the subject and History. NARRATIVE PROGRAMS6

The contractual organization of the narrative schema - that is, the estab-

The Canonic Relation

53

lishment of relations by means of an implicit contract between subjectsender and subject-receiver, where alternately each actant can occupy either position - founds intersubjectivity in the narrative. And, as noted above, the circulation of objects of value in the form of exchange regulates the relations between the different subjects of the novel. For example, man hunts and transmits his catch to woman, who in turn prepares it as food or clothing destined for the survival of the family or the tribe. He also hunts for furs and pelts to exchange with the factor for other essential arms, tools, or food necessary for survival. In all of the above cases goods circulate in a system of exchange based on a presupposed contract of a. fiduciary7 nature that binds all the protagonists of the narrative to respect and agree upon the value of the objects of value in question. Hence, when the actors of the tale adhere to the contract that binds them and by which they agree upon the exchange value of the objects determined by tradition, harmonious and acceptable norms of behaviour occur that consolidate intersubjective and social relations. All the diverse activities in the novel, founded on the implicit recognition of the fiduciary relation governing the exchange of objects of value, can be reduced to a single narrative program of Consolidation (NP1). Other activities in the novel that do not respect the fiduciary relation governing the exchange of objects of value and bring about conflictual or polemical intersubjective relations can be reduced to a single narrative program of Dispersal (NP2). One can consider the multiple activities of the various actors as a series of operations whereby they are either in a relationship of conjunction or of disjunction with objects of value, be they figurative or abstract. Whether attempting to exchange news, or goods, or information about their desires, the actants enter into actional, cognitive, or passional contractual relations of manipulation with each other. And from this perspective, the text unravels as a series of conjunctive and disjunctive operations that attempt to maintain the subject in either a conjunctive or a disjunctive relation with the object of value. Such operations can be defined as narrative programs (NP), and interpreted as a change of state carried out by a subject (SI) affecting a subject (S2). Each narrative program (NP) is actualized in a number of figurative trajectories8 and, on the basis of the utterance of state of the NP considered as a consequence, figures such as guns, knives, harpoons, gifts, etc. can be reconstituted on the discursive level. For example, the NP1 (Consolidation) has figurative trajectories of:

54 Semiotics and the Modern Quebec Novel ' communication' 'monogamic relations' 'domestic relations' 'family relations' 'hunting, fishing, gathering' 'trust" 'exchange' 'openness' 'love' whereas the figurative trajectories of the NP2 (Dispersal) are: 'manipulation' 'polygamic relations' 'foreign relations' 'traditional tribal relations' 'commercial relations' 'deceit' 'barter' 'ruse' 'lust' In Agaguk, sequences of Consolidation Narrative Programs (NP1) alternate with sequences of Dispersal Narrative Programs (NP2), though one finds a dominance of the former, linked especially to the couple and the family, that is sanctioned by the closure of the text. Examining NP1 and NP2 from the point of view of their final states, one notes that the NP1 sets in place a positive (euphoric) state, whereas NP2 is negative or dysphoric. In NP2, disjunction from the object of value is figurativized by the loss of primary or secondary goods, cheating, lack of trust, or death, whereas in NP1 positive values are linked with hunting, fishing, maintaining primary or secondary goods, communication, trust, or life. All of these performances are carried out by various actors on the object of value. Whether daily activities originate in couples living alone on the tundra or in the tribe, or in individuals acquiring objects of value through hunting or exchange, the building of huts and tents, all of these actions transmit knowledge about the state of man and woman, man and family, man and nature, man and race, man and language, and love. These positive actors are opposed to negative ones that are bearers of death, for example, scientific knowledge, knowledge of the city, tribal knowledge, deceit, and lust.

The Canonic Relation 55 Nevertheless, for NPs of consolidation and harmony to be actualized, the contract between subjects respecting the notion of value must be maintained. The breaking of the fiduciary relation inevitably leads to intense frustration, a desire for vengeance and violence. This is the case when Brown cheats and steals from Agaguk, who then decides to burn him to death. This is also true with respect to McTavish but, here, totally frustrated by the all-powerful Hudson's Bay Company and unable to avenge himself, Agaguk turns to the Ojibway trader and barters with him to obtain four bottles of alcohol for a prime mink pelt and then proceeds to get drunk for two days, alone in his shelter on the tundra. This is also the case regarding Agaguk's struggle with the white wolf, an animal that does not obey the laws of nature as understood by the hunter: 'Something mysterious was happening on the tundra and the laws of nature were being transgressed. A young wolf is never solitary. The white wolf was' (124). Unable to comprehend, Agaguk can only use his own wiles and his strength against this mysterious creature, until he finally overcomes it in a bloody battle. Ramook does not keep the promise he made to Henderson and, breaking his verbal contract, kills him in cold blood. This act, like many others taking place in the tribe, leads to retaliatory action, as the upholders of the law from the south bring to justice the ones responsible for the breach of the social contract. Inevitably, once the fiduciary relation that binds subjects is broken, contractual relations give way to polemical ones that are actualized at the figurative level as violent, bloody acts. MYTHICAL OBJECTS OF VALUE

The preceding analysis of practical /goods/ made it possible to constitute the subject as the man or woman who internalizes the many contradictions of the group in the quest for survival. The category of mythical objects of value, however, principally concerns the couple Agaguk and Iriook. But what is the status of the mythical? It was implied that practical objects of value could not be understood simply in terms of the appropriation, conversion, and exchange of a passive object, since it actually regulated, through the interplay of complex non-posited relations, the subjects' very being as they interacted with their natural and social environment. Conversely, the mythical is primarily defined by factors of choice and reciprocity. Agaguk frees himself from paternal ascendancy and authority before choosing Iriook, an orphan, as his spouse. She unconditionally consents to leave and live alone with him on the tundra.

56 Semiotics and the Modern Quebec Novel One cannot help but note that the liberty of the two actors is intimately associated with parental death. When Agaguk returns from his exploratory trip he refuses to visit the chiefs hut. The fact that Ramook is his father no longer matters to him: 'Since the old man had taken a Montagnais woman - the hated breed - to replace his dead wife, Agaguk considered that all ties were broken. He could feel he was free' (3). Iriook is completely unattached: 'She too was freed, for her father and mother were both dead now. She lived alone in a hut around which Ayallik and the others came to prowl' (4). Only after the death of Agaguk's mother and both of Iriook's parents can the formation of the couple take place. Liberated from all parental bonds, they hope to start a home and family alone on the vast plain without any interference from others, and so, one morning, the man and the girl take to the trail. With their packs on their backs, Agaguk and Iriook, their dogs held to their wrists by strong leashes, leave without looking back and head towards the deserted tundra (5). Having severed all ties with the tribe, they consecrate their newly found communal life by sexual union. Nevertheless, Agaguk, in a confused way, feels that the journey has a definite goal that he ought not to achieve prematurely: 'Over there, at their destination, in their own country, only there would he acknowledge the right to have her' (6). Only after they reach their final objective three days later do they make love: 'When he was spent, when all of him was emptied he rolled over beside the girl and they both slept, half naked under the leaden sky' (6). Here the discovery of self is linked to the discovery of the other and emotions are linked to cognitive processes through the sensate body motivated by sexual desire. SIOS2 (/man/) (/pleasure/) (/woman/) (SI and S2 are alternately sender and receiver) Monogamy and Polygamy But if the death of parents and the physical separation from the group are the primary and necessary conditions that make the initial formation of the couple possible, its final consolidation depends on the questioning, the rejection, and the ultimate dissolution of cultural attitudes hitherto accepted unequivocally by man. The first stage in the couple's constitution, defined by the sudden appropriation of woman, is basically exclusive. A month before setting off on their journey, Agaguk had expe-

The Canonic Relation

57

ditiously snatched the screaming girl from the sorcerer Ghorok's arms, declaring that she belonged to him and that he was her protector. Immediately after his departure, Iriook raised her eyes to Agaguk her saviour with a tender, submissive look that surprised him: ' "I did not know I belonged to you," she said. "You do," he answered. She smiled mysteriously. "I'm glad"' (4). Woman, who is traditionally treated as a passive, accommodating being ('And she was there, docile, all his'[6]) seems to exist only in so far as she is able to meet man's every demand. In the beginning, she is considered as part of his possessions, as a natural extension of them: 'Agaguk felt completely happy. He was a man. He had a wife of his own, a hut of his own, two guns and ammunition, the freedom of the tundra, a life to live' (8). The male's social being is specifically defined by the quantity of /goods/ he owns since he situates the other and the material objects that make up his lived environment on the same plane. Although the basic privative phase of the relationship instituting the couple distinguishes the protagonists from the others, it does not, however, significantly modify the primary structural patterns governing the Inuit's daily interpersonal relationships. On most days nothing important happens, and all live rather uneventful existences: 'Hunt, rest, sleep, meals, the woman's work, the daily coitus, the boredom of time that goes by with no shocks. The rhythm of life, a sort of cycle daily renewed, was not so very different from that lived by Agaguk and Iriook' (218). For the members of the group, woman remains mainly a sort of adjunct to the category of practical /goods/. She is endowed in varying degrees with an exchange value, a coefficient of permutation and quantification. A man can possess several women according to his desires, his needs, his skills, or his fortune. But in unusual cases, a woman can also have several husbands at once. Thinking him dead, Kakkrik's wife decides to take up with other men. He unexpectedly returns and kills one of her two husbands and three of the children. He only stops the massacre when someone tells him that the white man who reported him dead had lied and the woman, believing herself free, had taken up with other men. The tribesmen impress on him that it is proof of his great virility that she had to take three men to replace him. This flatters Kakkrik, and after that he lives in peace with the remaining husband and his wife (201). SIOS2 (/man/) (/couple/)/woman/) (SI and S2 are alternately sender and receiver)

58 Semiotics and the Modern Quebec Novel Exclusivity and Promiscuity This fundamental opposition - monogamy (couple) vs. polygamy (tribe) - is followed at the level of sexuality by a second opposition: exclusivity vs. promiscuity. Agaguk refuses the honour of becoming the youngest of all chiefs mainly because of Iriook. He realizes that she is plump and attractive and that once he leaves the village even for a short time, men like Hayaluk, like Nattit, like plenty of others, would surround the hut and harass his wife. He is also aware that there exist tribal laws of good sharing and that a man is sometimes obliged to offer his wife in consolation to a solitary neighbour, to a recent widower, to someone who has fallen on hard times through no fault of his own, or to any member of the tribe during group celebrations (203). After Brown's death, for example, Tugugak finds the white man's brandy and Ramook proclaims a feast. The villagers drink and fornicate for three days and nights. Few of the men search out their wives, and alcohol renders its normal service: 'they cared little for legitimate intercourse. It was the kind of feast Ramook had wanted. Hunting being better in new territory, why sheath the weapons?' (37). The same thing happens when the Inuit come to admire Agaguk's catches after the seal hunt. Once again they hold a feast that lasts all night, and in the morning the hunters are all bedded down with someone else's wife: 'Except for Agaguk who rested beside Iriook' (93). The recognition of the uniqueness of the other iterated in terms of sexual exclusivity again links the cognitive to the emotive through the sensate body. SIOS2 (/man/) (/exclusivity/)(/woman/) (SI and S2 are alternately sender and receiver) Life and Sexuality For the tribe, sexual behaviour fulfils specific biological and social functions that guarantee the continuity and the harmonious well-being of its members, whereas for the couple, sexuality is essentially a sign of the transformation or of the different stages reached by the protagonists during their last progressive discovery of the significance of the mythical. Like all the other women, from the outset, Iriook is assimilated to the primary, inscribed in a circuit of scarcity, and to all intents and purposes considered as a completely subservient being. Docile, she passively awaits the male's surging desire and accepts her traditional role of utter depen-

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59

dency. Sexual relationships simply confirm the social hierarchy, since they are established on the model dominant-dominated, master-slave. Man takes, he possesses woman: Without waiting, he pulled Iriook down, slipped off the caribou pants she wore, then his own, and possessed her silently (6) ... When he yelled for mercy, she rolled over on her back in her turn and he possessed her savagely (10) ... He beat her with his feet and fists, furiously until she fell fainting. He took a long time to calm down. Then he came to lie beside her, and when she opened her eyes, and stirred moaning, he possessed her brutally (16).

After having killed Brown, the trader who tried to cheat him, Agaguk returns to the river, enters his hut, and 'with a firm hand he pulled off her pantaloons and threw them far off. Iriook half woke, moaned happily and opened her heavy thighs' (30). Next morning, when she informs him that she is expecting a child, her words bring 'a great light into his soul, a happiness he did not know how to express. Like a marvellous hope and a kind of tenderness, he felt a need to solace and love, of which he did not know the meaning' (30). The motif of light marks the threshold to a new life that is intuited, intimately felt, and non-verbalized. Agaguk, giver of life, is aware of a break with the past and discovers, through the experience of paternity, unprecedented joy, which again is expressed by a radical change in his sexual behaviour and an evolution in his relations with his wife: Then savagely, in a great surge of his whole body, he was upon her. 'But never as before,' he said, his mouth close to his wife's ear, 'never as before.' He attained a new passion, gestures which did not resemble anything they had done before. He had generated life in this woman, he acquired suddenly a force, the greatest of all, a power which seemed to him almost magical. (31-2)

It is now possible to extrapolate and formulate an actantial structure analogous to the one that programmed the initial formation of the couple: (

S

I

)

(

0

1

)

(

R

)

c o u p l e l i f e f a m i l y

\ (H)(S2)(02) sexuality man death (SI = sender; Ol = object; R = receiver; H = helper; S2 = subject; O2 = opponent)

60 Semiotics and the Modern Quebec Novel Subsequently, this very same structure will generate each and every integrated level of the mythical. From a purely formal point of view, each element of this fundamental structure has the same operational function throughout the narrative; however, from an axiological perspective the value of each term varies according to the different series of qualifications that modify it. For example, on the first level of the mythical, death is a natural phenomenon; on the second, death is brought about by Agaguk and has long-term consequences; whereas on the third, it is linked to abstract or noological phenomena; and so on. However, if one re-examines the object of value, not in relation to the sender and the receiver, but on the polemico-conflictual axis of intersubjective relations, one notices the transformation brought about in Agaguk's behaviour, or /doing/, by the discovery of paternity. He becomes much more aware of Iriook as subject and giver of life, so that the potential object of value, the child who originates in both subjects, begins to effect the modalities of competence that permit different intersubjective relations between two emerging cognizant and feeling subjects. 'That evening, while they were eating, he smiled at Iriook. She had rarely seen him smile ... He spoke softly, murmuring the words, and put out his hand to touch Iriook' (30-1). When Agaguk expresses the desire that the child be a boy, since a girl would be a burden to them, Iriook stifles her own desire for a girl and repeats, smiling, 'It will be a boy, I wish it - for you' (31). The break with the past and Agaguk's understanding of change are expressed in and by means of his sensate body engaged in passionate love-making: 'What they discovered surpassed the closed world of their understanding, that of the tribe, the barren soil, the daily drudgery. They were united not only by the flesh, but through the soul, the heart, the mind ... It was a deliverance from the past years and an entry into wonderful and gentle realms' (31-2). SIOS2 (/woman/) (/life/)(/man/) (SI and S2 are alternately sender and receiver) Procreation and Sexuality The next stage of the mythical takes place under the aegis of procreation, which inevitably modifies the relationship of man to his wife. But first one notices that silence, or the 'unsaid,' regulates the rapport between man and wife. Agaguk is tempted to narrate his frustrating en-

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counter with McTavish. He remains silent for a moment, then decides to tell part of the truth, at least what happened, although he hides the hurt to his pride, which is for him worst of all: 'The secret was heavy. So heavy that Agaguk came near to telling of the rage that had struck so deep and the drunkenness that had followed' (53). Nonetheless, in spite of his resolution, he is unable to speak out and thinks it best to say nothing: 'What would be the good of telling also what had happened after he left the Company store? Iriook would not understand' (53). In the same way, his wife does not reveal the fears she felt when he was alone for three days in the storm: 'she was careful not to say a word ... It was not easy to remain impassive, without revealing anything of the hard days she had just lived through' (51). However, the forbidden word can supersede the unspoken word. When fearing impending famine, she reminds him he should not have imprudently thrown the smoked caribou meat to the foxes and die wolves, and an uncontrollable rage sweeps over him: ' "Shut up," he yelled at the woman. Iriook bowed her head. She did not want to argue anymore' (56). Woman cannot impudendy claim the right to speak her mind without risking chastisement. By his actions Agaguk confirms accepted tribal values. Oonak, who prizes his liberty above all, does not want to become leader of the tribe and so lays down an impossible condition. He informs the tribesmen that he will be chief only if they set up a council of Old ones, made up of both men and women, to advise him: 'Let everybody have his say in the tribe, the women as well as the men' (196). This is considered totally unacceptable by the dominant members of the group, and they immediately withdraw their offer since they refuse categorically to give women a voice in running the tribe: 'An elder came up to Oonak, stared at him in the face and went away at once, with long strides, and a disgusted air' (196). The birth of a son, qualified by sememes** of light, is the sign both of a break with the past and an opening onto a new life. (The chapter immediately following the child's delivery is entitled 'K'AUMAYOK, The Light,' and recounts the coming of daybreak, the end of the blizzard, and the infant's first gestures.) Man completely restructures his universe and centres it around his son. During the long voyage to the North Sea, Agaguk endlessly daydreams that 'his son Tayaout became the hero of all tribes, the man who would be sung about in igloo evenings' (80). Throughout this trip he is haunted by a recurring 'leitmotif hard to stifle: son of Agaguk, grown from his seed, his own creation, flesh of his flesh, issue of a father who would also be hailed - Son of Agaguk!' (50-1). For man,

62

Semiotics and the Modern Quebec Novel

woman is seen essentially as a procreator and is thus important because she has given life to his male progeny: 'Since Iriook had first become pregnant he had never possessed her without at the same time thinking of the child' (85). On the other hand, woman is also absorbed in her own personal dream world, for she desires a daughter: 'She too was dreaming, but differently. She dreamed of gentleness and tenderness' (69). Her unspoken wish, originally frustrated and censured by man's unwritten law, is first experienced as a fantasy. Eventually, her desire is oriented, finds its release, and expresses itself through prohibited erotic acts. Even though Iriook, contrary to all tradition, received from man pleasure that she did not conceal, 'She had not really come to yield to the normal physiological impulses which would have been immediately reproved by her husband' (84). Until the trip to the North Sea, she had obediently adhered to the dictates of tribal mores: 'There are initiatives denied to Eskimo women. The male supremacy and his domination limit the woman to a completely passive role' (84). Nevertheless, against all reason, she is tempted to obey her primary instincts and to give in to her first and immediate reaction. And when she makes a sudden, impulsive gesture, an intimate caress to which he is not accustomed, Agaguk, startled, murmurs in her ear that women shouldn't act that way. But soon he stops resisting, willingly assumes a passive role, and is aroused by her strange behaviour, 'while Iriook, her eyes closed, began the experience she had often dreamed of, to be a mistress of a pleasure she could give, according to her own passion and her own ability' (85). The full acknowledgment of the other's intimate desire and the complete acceptance of its legitimacy lead to total complicity in its final satisfaction and fulfilment: 'Afterwards came a magnificent madness, a paroxysm of desire which threw one on the other, equally possessed. They came to themselves much later' (85). SIOS2 (/woman/) (/reciprocity/)[/man/) (SI and S2 are alternately sender and receiver) The Subject and Sexuality The same actantial model that regulated the previous level can be considered as the constituting framework underlying the next stage of the

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mythical. During his struggle with the mysterious white wolf, Agaguk is critically wounded, disfigured, and mutilated. But, in spite of all, he manages to vanquish this seemingly all-powerful creature. When he returns to the hut Iriook murmurs "The chief is dead," ... Suddenly she felt proud. 'The chief of all wolves," she went on, "of all the wolves on earth and the back of the world, and it is my husband, Tayaout's father, who killed him"' (138). The construction of the igloo, the miraculous caribou hunt, and her nursing of Agaguk back to health by unusual and unknown methods save his life and assure the survival of the family. Every day she goes out to the threshold of the hut where the wolfs carcass lies and takes a little of the thick saliva from the gaping mouth. With it she traces strange marks on the bear fat and at the same time she mutters words in an unknown rhythm that Agaguk does not understand. In spite of his wife's ministration and encouragement, the hunter has lost his will to live. He no longer sees himself as absolute master of the hut, the igloo, the tundra, and in order to convince him of his continuing power, instinct makes Iriook aware of the correct gestures to make, the proper words to say. The couple's reversal of conventional roles, formerly noted when analysing the category of the practical, takes place once again. But this time it involves their basic attitudes towards sexuality. Not only does woman take the initiative but she literally inverses traditional bodily positions in love-making: 'He made a gesture of impotence. She felt he was miserable. How ought she behave after that? Iriook was more familiar with gestures of submission than with others' (152). She takes off the caribou skin in which he is wrapped and notices how thin he has become since the accident. She too undresses, then straddles Agaguk, 'and slowly, almost piously with sighs and moans that were sobs, she drew from him first the beginning of pleasure and then the full accomplishment' (153). Their pleasure, consummated in simultaneous gratification (she is astonished to reach her climax at the same time that he does), and total fulfilment activate a need in man to function as before: 'Soon I'll go hunting. We must have some furs to trade" (153). Sexuality freely assumed and accepted by the couple becomes a motivating life force (this is the first time since the accident that he expresses any hope) that bonds a harmonious alliance based on the recognition of the other as a subject. SIOS2 (/woman/) (/eros/)(/man/) (SI and S2 are alternately sender and receiver)

64 Semiotics and the Modern Quebec Novel Love and Sexuality The last stage of the mythical is again set into motion by a conflict resulting in the death of a chief. Ramook betrays his son and tries to deliver him over to the police by accusing him of killing both Brown and Henderson. Iriook thwarts his plan, outsmarts him, and stands up to the officer in charge of the investigation by answering instead of her husband (170). His ruses neutralized and defeated, the chief is brought to justice and hanged for murder. Yet, contrary to all tradition (in Inuit culture 'the woman has no right to palaver' [170]), Iriook expresses herself openly and speaks her mind with Agaguk's sanction. To Scott's surprise, when she does so, neither her husband nor Ramook protests. When she originally spoke out she was immediately censured and prohibited from doing so, but now she openly claims the privilege of voicing personal wishes, sentiments, and thoughts normally outlawed by tribal mores. After the constables' departure, she explains herself to Agaguk: 'our people say ... that a woman has no right to think, or to speak. Possibly I am not like the others. I have some things to say, and if I think, it's because I can't prevent myself (172). To speak freely, as far as woman is concerned, is to externalize her innermost desires spontaneously and thereby attain the status of an equal individual. It is also to be accepted as a unique subject and to assert the right to be treated on equal terms. Iriook is aware of her husband's evolution and grateful for his apparent understanding. Commenting on his attitude, she remarks to Agaguk: 'Since that time, he [Agaguk] has changed. He has made Tayaout. But it is not only that. He has changed. I cannot say how, nor in just what fashion. You see, in former days Agaguk would have beaten me' (172). In addition, the mythical demands that man admit and respect the uniqueness of woman; that he willingly listen to her views and give credence to them. Only at this price can harmony be achieved: 'Silence fell between them. The peace of the tundra invaded their hearts. Agaguk thought of what had happened, of what a move to the village would mean. Iriook was right. What better than this chosen life? What did the rest matter?' (206). For woman, the mythical must also be understood in terms of the exclusive and unequivocal choice of her husband over all other beings and things. When she discovers the extent of Agaguk's wounds, his maimed body and ravaged face, Iriook, despondent, is completely demoralized and despairs because she cannot see in the half-conscious, revolting, and bloody individual before her the proud, handsome hunter of former

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days. However, after he groans in pain, this minute spark of life permits her to recognize and accept him as he is. Nothing matters any more, neither the exposed teeth, nor the mutilated ear, nor the gap where the nose should have been: 'He [Agaguk] remained her most precious possession, more precious even than Tayaout whom she had made' (152). On the contrary, Agaguk, even though he previously considered Iriook 'a precious female, dependent upon him to whom he was attached as he was to his rifle, his traps, his bullets, to the metal stove or the lamp hanging in the igloo' (214), learns to appreciate her intrinsic qualities, her endless devotion and true merit. She ultimately becomes more than a female in his eyes (214). Even so, she must constantly remain aware that for him the child is more precious than any woman (153). In spite of tradition, through his own lived experience, Agaguk in the end does admit that she is no longer a simple female, but a woman who can have power over him. Finally, however, the mythical manifests itself as a structure of reciprocity that requires both compassion and understanding from two equal subjects. And this conclusive structure can only be instituted following the eradication and destruction of man's most profoundly anchored cultural values. For reasons dictated by tradition, Agaguk decides to take his newborn daughter's life, but after a long and agonizing struggle he accepts the legitimacy of his wife's desires and hands the child back to her. He helps her onto the caribou skin and places the infant in her outstretched arms: 'Within him rose a warmth, a pleasure he had never before experienced. He was happy. The baby would live because Iriook wished it so' (228). Throughout the novel, the mythical is structured by means of the same actantial model. Though the operational function of each term remains constant, the value varies as the actant is progressively invested with different qualifications and modalities. Each completed totality, subsequently detotalized, forms a provisional phase to be negated within the framework of an ongoing process. At this level of analysis, the system, or macro-structure, is regulated by the actant's temporary resolution of a hierarchically ordered series of contradictions (cosmological —> noological), and this dialectical process is eventually suspended when the ultimate values of the narrative are revealed. The closure of the text takes place once a conclusive order of 'truth,' which is none other than the absolute valorization of the characteristics of life over those of death, has been established. In short, the mythical is founded on the choice, the understanding, and the respect of the uniqueness of the other. The masculine principle

66 Semiotics and the Modern Quebec Novel of unconditional domination subsides in a man who attains a state of harmonious equilibrium when the feminine principle of generosity is revealed to him. Agaguk will in the end 'regret a crime, a sentiment which no Eskimo would ever avow, a woman's sentiment' (212). The recognition of woman's equality and the acceptance of the validity of her feelings and ambitions are the primary conditions that must be met for man to accede to moral consciousness and thus attain happiness. In Agaguk, the mythical, which can only be comprehended in terms of a fundamental relationship to the other, far from being based on socio-economic factors (a source of alienation), is founded on reciprocity, the motivating principle of happiness. SIOS2 (/woman/) (/love/) (/man/) (SI and S2 are alternately sender and receiver) The mythical object of value has a more complex structure than the practical, be it primary or secondary. As such, not only does the former have a greater potentiality than the latter, but it makes it possible for the subject to discover and to reveal his/her internalized world as value through intersubjective relations. Moreover, the mythical object of value does not simply signify for the subject at the cognitive level but, indeed, reveals the subject as body related to the other in a reciprocal tensive relation that defines him/her. In short, the mythical object of value sensitizes the subject's perceiving and feeling body that reveals his/her world as meaning. As the mythical object of value is continuously invested by both subjects at ever increasing levels of sensitization and transmitted from one subject to the other, signification is constructed figuratively in this novel by love scenes that are more and more intense. And so, except for the scene of Agaguk's battle with the white wolf that threatens the couple's son and the one dealing with the mutilation and death of Henderson, all other figurativized scenes with a passional dimension signify in terms of, through, and by the body. In Theriault's narrative, the cognitive and moral dimensions of the universe are revealed and make sense to and for the couple only through the sensitization imposed on objects of value, or figures of their world,10 through the mediation of their bodies. What characterizes these scenes at the level of the form of expression is tensivity organized in terms of aspectualities. Each love scene or configuration that signifies the evolution of the couple's understanding and discovery of the other as subject is lin-

The Canonic Relation 67 guistically or stylistically marked by its violent beginning (inchoative aspect), its brief passionate development (singulative aspect), and its abrupt end (terminative aspect), whereas other configurations at the stylistic level, corresponding to moments of tenderness or simply of daily living, are marked by aspectualities of inchoativity (peaceful beginning), iterativity (repetition) and durativity (fading). Hence at the manifest level, this specific rhythm of violent and peaceful configurations organized in terms of aspectualities that can be considered as temporalized processes of tensivity characterizes what we could call Theriault's 'style.' The figures of tensive sexuality, rather than creating a simple erotic effect, make it possible, thanks to the mediation of the sensate body, to establish an equivalence between the states of feeling of the subject and the state of the world. In Agaguk such passional bodily configurations introduce a rhythm of breaks, or discontinuities, in the discourse that are followed by bodily configurations of a perceptual nature that reinstate the continuous.

6

Actantial Topology

Objects of value, or /goods/, it has been suggested, are the sign of a certain type of activity and, in so far as they are the direct result of/doing/, they irrevocably signal the presence of a factitive performance. To recognize their reality is necessarily to acknowledge the existence of an attributive agent. Practical objects of value simultaneously differentiate and generalize the performative subject. Thus, since Agaguk and Iriook /do/, or act, more or less like the rest of the Eskimos in their daily struggle for survival, they end up with almost identical primary and secondary /goods/. What sets one group or individual apart from another is essentially quantitative. For example, certain Inuit are able to amass more /goods/ than others. And yet the couple's relationship to mythical objects of value qualitatively distinguishes them from the other members of the tribe. Consequently, the problem of the formation of the agent likely to orient the factitive process needs to be considered. For convenience's sake, the names of the actors themselves have been retained, but, in fact, they refer to the complex structuring processes in play (see Chapter 5). However, before delineating the constructed aspect of the actant, we will consider the complementary role of the 'qualifications' and the various topoi linked to its manifestation in this particular semantic micro-universe. THE PORTRAIT

In his study, Jean Calloud (1976) suggests that the 'character' in a novel is a sort of aesthetic illusion or simple reading effect: 'A "personage" is only a more or less ephemeral "flower" blooming on the narrative branch for the joy and edification of the reader' (20). He next points out

Actantial Topology 69 a fundamental difference, based on the notion of interaction, that distinguishes 'real' beings from textual ones. Narrative actors cannot, in fact, exist in isolation but must be considered only in terms of a system: 'Far from existing primarily for themselves, as real beings which are secondarily in relationship with each other, the actors of a narrative are above all in relationship with each other' (20). He then states that the unstable 'figures' created for the actors through this primary interrelationship are the unique horizon of existence and that 'the narrative statement in its simplest form can be defined by the formula F(A) where function (F) is to be understood in a quasi-mathematical sense' (20). But the reduction of a novel to simple narrative statements of a quasi-mathematical nature cannot possibly account for the number of variables or 'residues' that must be integrated into our semiotic system. To consider the portrait per se only as a physical or psychical invariant that contributes to the 'illusion of a personage with a stable identity' or as nothing more than 'a narrative effect (19-20) is to adumbrate the dialectical processes at work in a literary text. To project, as Calloud suggests, an elementary analytical model on a novel is to reduce a singular text to an abstract level of intelligibility and thus ignore its very specificity. Initially a name or empty signifier, the agent is progressively defined by a certain number of performances, or 'functions,' and a network of 'qualifications,' or attributes. As such, the portrait appears as one of the most significant methods employed by 'traditional novelists' to characterize the actor. Composed according to well-known techniques handed down by rhetorical tradition,1 the portrait can be analysed on various levels. Formally marked in relation to other segments of the text, it is made up of a number of differential traits and, therefore, can be reduced to a set of distinctive elements organized by means of specific combinatory rules. Consequently, it can be apprehended as a complex utterance having its own morphology and syntax. Furthermore, it has a distinctly narrative function since it can be produced during the exposition of the narrative or linked more precisely to the unravelling of the plot. Nonetheless, it does not constitute a closed system, because certain synechdocal elements can have an anaphoric function in the text. (Following the initial inscription of the portrait, references to a recurring dominant qualification such as 'yellow teeth' or the 'hideous scar' reactivate the entire former description of the actor.) Finally, the portrait is related to the problem of enunciation. On the one hand, it can originate from a hypothetical or hidden observer, take form before the very eyes of neutral

70 Semiotics and the Modern Quebec Novel spectators, or, again, emanate from one of the agents. On the other hand, the narrator can modulate it and address it to a narratee2 or actor in the novel. Using these distinctions, then, one can see that the descriptions of Agaguk and Iriook are presented by an unspecified observer, whereas those of the other actors are projected from a clearly defined and identifiable perspective. While all the other portraits are inscribed in praesentia on the syntactic axis, subject —» object, those of the two protagonists are marked, and seem to originate from a neutral subject. Yet, a closer examination reveals that the identity of this subject, momentarily deferred, is, in fact, presented as a complementary alter ego, with whom he/she is originally paired. Since all discourse presupposes a non-linguistic situation of communication (e.g., signifying somatic behaviour of a sensory nature), one must take into account those marks referring directly to the sender of the description as well as those referring directly to the destined receiver. However, as the aim of this section is to examine the portrait within the global context of actantial topology, the category of narratee (reader) will be eliminated while that of receiver (actor) will be retained. Strategically, the above choice presents the definite methodological advantage of situating the portrait on the discursive level and thus relating its problematics to that of objects of value. We have noted that objects of value fall into two heterogeneous categories: the practical and the mythical. But what is the relationship of the portrait to the other objects of value in the novel? It can be considered as the value of the subject (/state/), first in a semiotic sense, and then as the value for the subject /doing/, from an axiological perspective. Similar to all objects of value, as a desired object, it can motivate the /doing/ of different actors and, hence, generate conflict. It therefore combines the dual function of determining the status of the subject and actuating a factitive process. Contrary to the practical, however, the desired object is at the same time a potential actor and, as such, can assume the role of subject. This permutability or innate capacity to motivate the functions of /junction/ and /transformation/, as well as the potentiality of being able to actualize the two poles of the structure, subject —> object, especially distinguishes the portrait from other objects of value in the text. Each subject or class of subjects is semiotically defined by its relation to the object of value and then by the successive transformations it initiates or undergoes. Agaguk and Iriook are the only adult subjects in the narrative that are given a complete physical and moral description. After

Actantial Topology 71 their first night of love-making on the tundra, a general sketch is provided while they are busily engaged in erecting their communal hut: 'Iriook was short and stocky'; 'Agaguk was taller than she, and rather heavy' (7). Composed from head to torso, their portraits unfold following a logically determined spatial order. She has 'a round smooth face ... teeth not yet worn by chewing skins.' His gaze was 'accustomed to bear the terrible reflection of the sun on the snow shown from a face already ravaged by wind and cold' (7). Then a parallel description of their respective anatomies unravels as they are depicted in the nude: 'Stripped, Agaguk was handsome because his skin was smooth and dark ... Iriook had a thick body and very short thighs' (7). Contrary to the male body, which is not eroticized from a woman's perspective, the female body, here, is presented, objectified, and eroticized from the perspective of the male gaze. 'Her breasts were small, but round and full with almost black nipples and no halos' (7). Woman's breasts are a recurring motif throughout the narrative and have an anaphoric function that reactivates and completes the initial eroticized portrait.3 Be that as it may, for both, the portrait gives rise to a series of complementary qualifications. According to the canons of the Inuit, Agaguk is attractive, healthy, physically well endowed, while Iriook is beautiful, young, and desirable. A second network of qualifications, corresponding to the 'being of the doing' of the performative subject, completes the description and constitutes another level of the structure. In other words, the portrait also incorporates the virtual modal structures that will ultimately generate the performance of each and every subject. And so man's knowledge4 is described in terms of the acuity of his vision and the possibility of quickly synthesizing all natural phenomena observed: 'He could see as far as a hawk and even farther. He pointed his finger at a weasel moving a hundred yards away, a beast as big as his fist, brown as the tundra' (71). In Agaguk seeing is the differential trait of doing. His will and duty, linked only to problems of immediate survival, are stressed by the rapidity and efficiency with which he builds their first shelter. And finally, his power 'it was witchcraft' (7) - is described in terms of his physical qualities: 'his muscles rippled underneath like bands of steel' (7). But if man is initially portrayed under the sign of the practical - his ability to accumulate /goods/ and deal with his natural environment - woman is sketched rather differently. Her knowledge is connoted by 'her impassive, shiny eyes [which] looked out expressionless' (7), and her will and duty, uniquely in terms of the other's project and her obligation to her husband: 'there was so much to do; she had no time for niceties' (7). Yet her power, al-

72 Semiotics and the Modern Quebec Novel though physical ('She was strong too, like Agaguk, capable of lifting heavy weights' [7]), is especially associated with her distinctly feminine attributes (7). In addition, she is distinguished by her even temper and tenderness: 'She was gentle, with never any roughness' (7). Woman is from the outset presented as man's physical equal with complementary and superior moral traits. In so far as the portrait is the topos where the actant's modalities of competence are inscribed and delineated, Agaguk's physical mutilation during the 'test' against the white wolf and the process of his recovery take on a particular significance. The beast mangles his face with its teeth and claws: 'In one mouthful the wolf had torn the nose and part of the cheeks from Agaguk's face ... In place of a nose there was only an immense hole' (138). Iriook then smears 'his wounds with this now cabbalistic grease' (139) and nurses him to health. This disfigurement, along with his wife's verbal intervention, prevents the police and tribesmen from positively identifying him. His physical change, or loss of beauty, thus becomes the corollary of an ongoing moral transformation, or gain in knowledge of self and other. Woman is directly responsible for the insemination and gestation of new completive mythical modalities, and in the end, because Agaguk has taken on female characteristics and become 'so gentle, so good, so generous' his hideous, 'ravaged face' once more appears 'beautiful to her' (238). Moreover, all of the actors at any given moment can become objects of value to be appropriated or negated by the other. Iriook, as a coveted female, is described a second time, not from Agaguk's point of view but from that of another member of the tribe who longs to take her as his own. Ayallik, whose 'toothless mouth with blackened gums looked like some evil cave' (21), decides to betray Agaguk because of the girl. Sexually desirable, 'the pretty girl with the big thighs, the thick body, the smooth skin' (104), haunts him and motivates his every act. Blinded by lust, he sets his plan in motion: 'Once Ayallik had caught her naked in her igloo. He had held out his hands and touched her hard breasts with the nipples as long as a finger joint' (104). He is, however, forced to leave because Iriook kicks him and throws him out. Mortified, he still hopes to possess the girl and uses all of his cunning as well as his traditionally determined tribal role to take his revenge. But finally, since his knowledge, power, duty, and will or desire are not in the best interests of the group, he meets with an untimely death at the hands of the chief. Tayaout's portrait, periodically rewritten and touched up from various perspectives, also undergoes several modifications. His birth is related in

Actantial Topology 73 detail, and he is initially presented as a desired paternal object of value: 'and then they heard the piercing cry of a healthy, well-born infant, a baby to be proud of. "It's a boy," Agaguk said, in a voice which emotion strangely altered' (60). Immediately following the child's birth, his physical attributes are outlined and given form from the perspective of the father, who specifically notes only those hereditary traits, or modalities of competence, that might enable him to successfully survive on the tundra. He sees the child's potential power as being directly related and proportional to his muscular and harmonious physique: 'He noticed that the body was thick and hard, the back wide, the legs well made' (61). The infant's virtual knowledge is associated with his genetic make-up, while his will and duty are linked to his future ability to deal with the practical: 'He would be a fine child, strong and healthy, who would grow up capable and handsome' (61). Man thinks of his son as a perfected future self, a descendant worthy of him and eventually superior to him, who already possesses to an even greater degree the same innate properties or modalities of competence that program his own /doing/. Iriook, on the other hand, projects maternal values on the child. She is aware of him only in terms of her recent experiences of childbirth, and when she lays eyes on him in the morning we are provided with a systematic description from head to foot (the exact order in which the child came into the world), accentuating the labour pains she has just gone through in giving birth. As it unfolds, the portrait evokes no modalities whatsoever and simply describes the infant as a natural extension of woman's body and previous ordeal: 'Her eyes rested on the head first, still egg-shaped from the pressure of its coining, then on the shoulders, the chest, the prominent lower belly, the bent legs, the tiny dimpled feet' (61). Unlike the father, the mother reveals no hopes or expectations and unconditionally accepts the infant as is: 'Without a word, she held out her arms. Agaguk laid the child in them' (61). Qualified by sememes of light and warmth, the subsequent portraits of Tayaout mark the many stages in his physical and social maturation: eating of raw food (83), first steps (107), the bear (209). At this level of analysis the various portraits syncretize and amplify the modalities of competence inscribed in the subject at birth. The other actors of the narrative, be they white men or Inuit, are presented as belonging to two antagonistic classes of actants globally qualified. They are rapidly sketched in praesentia after a detailed enumeration of the modalities at the origin of their particular performances. For example, Ghorok the sorcerer, the chiefs helper, has yellow teeth (19);

74 Semiotics and the Modern Quebec Novel Ramook, the old chief, has teeth which are 'yellow and decayed in front' (73); the Montagnais woman, his wife, has a 'bad smell' and is 'queer looking, with her thick face, her animal eyes, her cotton dresses like a white woman's' (26-7). As for the Southerners: Brown, 'tall and thin, almost emaciated, with a sunken face and strange eyes in deep sockets ... had long yellow teeth like a wolfs' (22) ;5 McTavish, 'a tall thin Scotsman, with reddish hair and a mournful unhealthy face ... had blue-green eyes, eyes which did not smile and perhaps had never known how to smile' (43-4); Henderson is 'tall, almost twice as tall as the Eskimos, blond, with eyes as blue as the sky in spring time' (65); Scott too is 'tall, even taller than Henderson. Taller than his companions, young with dark piercing eyes and a thin mouth' (155). All of the above descriptions function according to an identical model: A is or has B and therefore represents X, which enables him to undertake Y. In conclusion, one notes that the portrait in Agaguk is not a simple physical or psychical 'invariant,' but rather corresponds to a set of qualifications that singularize and universalize the actant considered as a process. The system of the portrait becomes meaningful in terms of the total narrative interplay. Certain actants are distinguished by means of complete descriptions while others are qualified by only partial delineations, with or without migrating motifs. From this point of view, Agaguk, Iriook, and Tayaout are clearly marked and comprise two classes of actants initially programmed by discrete and complementary modalities of competence that, in the end, permit them to appropriate positively valorized objects of value. The other actants are depicted as two heterogeneous classes regulated by the modalities of knowledge (ruse), will (domination, self-interest), duty (tradition), and power (custom, law). These two classes, ultimately negated by the former, can interact only as dire opponents or anti-subjects when attempting to appropriate negatively valorized objects of value. In brief, these actants interact as subjects and anti-subjects motivated by distinct modalities. In the narrative fabric, far from being a simple 'reading effect,' the portrait appears as a locus of crystallization of the actuating modalities of competence at the origin of the actant's performance. ACTANTIAL TOPOI

In Agaguk one notes several clearly circumscribed topoi associated with distinct classes of actors. For masculine agents, practical /doing/ can be accomplished only on the vast expanses of the endless plain or on the

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75

banks of the North Sea, while feminine actors are mainly involved in preparing game within the narrow confines of the igloo or hut. In addition, contrary to the anonymous collective destiny characterizing the gregarious village people, the mythical can originate and develop solely within the solitary, inviolable space of the couple. Actantial Topoi: The Physical Environment Co-extensive with the actantial manifestation, the tundra is revealed and takes on its meaning when factitive processes at the origin of the attribution of /goods/ are actuated. An immense open space, 'the endless tundra, flat and monotonous like the winter sky, without horizon and without trees' (3), conditions the /doing/ of each practical agent. This locus of continuous activity is, first of all, presented as a 'pleasant and familiar country' (5), 'lovely, quiet, immense under that light' (8). And yet the initial impression of calm and peace is illusory and quickly modified by the appearance of hostile elements. In fact, space is organized according to a system of binary oppositions putting into play two interrelated seasons - winter and summer - that correspond to periods of opulence and need, life and death. In winter: The tundra had become again the snow plain, the polar vastness. Seven months of misery began, for the distracted famished animals as well as for the men who would have to survive in this deceitful environment (38) ... The winter had come and with the winter the devouring cold, the daily misery ... the rhythm of life had little adapted itself to the new and terrifying season. (64)

In summertime, however, happy moments are associated with warmth and light: The sun of the warm quiet brook, where slept the fish he would catch, the sun of the life without danger, or the naps outdoors before the hut, the patient, nourishing comforting sun. The clever sun that shines on a caribou antler ... The sun of the wild geese, the ducks, the teal, the waterhens, the ptarmigans. The time of the good life. (75)

As previously mentioned though, the space of happiness linked with Tayaout is qualified by sememes of light, and in the English text there is even an obvious play on words of the homonyms son-sun. The news of Iriook's pregnancy brings to Agaguk 'a great light into his soul, a happi-

76 Semiotics and the Modern Quebec Novel ness he did not know how to express' (30). And when his child walks for the first time, 'in ecstasy [he] drank in the sunshine laughing aloud, his head thrown back, his throat throbbing' (107). In spite of the danger outside, once provisions have been accumulated and stored in the tranquil security of the igloo, winter is often a time of peace and harmony. Agaguk himself occasionally expresses the wish to join the Inuit farther north, the people of the Top of the World. He 'would have liked to live in an igloo the year round. He did not like the huts' (10-11). Following the same pattern of reversal, summer, the season of bountiful hunting, is also a time of danger. The seal hunt is a risky and hazardous venture at best: 'it was enough to encounter a sun hot enough to erode the edges of the floe until man's weight was too much for it. Drowning or starvation, the result was the same' (86). The nourishing sea can, at a moment's notice, carry off and engulf the unwary or inept hunter. The duality, security-danger, is an omnipresent factor of this environment in summer and winter alike, and every inhabitant of the tundra must constantly be aware of it and account for it if he or she is to survive. Before the long trek to the North Sea at the beginning of summer, Agaguk 'got out his ammunition, cleaned his rifle, and sharpened two fighting knives' (79). He prepared his own pack, which is not as heavy as Iriook's, so that he can always be on the alert, for 'Who would defend them if not he with all his agility and his arms ready?' (79). Most of the constituent elements of nature making up this 'deceitful environment' (38) can be apprehended in terms of binary oppositions. Air, for example, when static in wintertime, is not menacing, but when transformed into a howling wind becomes an ominous threat: 'a man could blunder off in the wrong direction, to be lost in the white turmoil and perish before he could be found' (42). In the north country 'the blizzard's birth is swift. It doesn't strike gradually, but it spreads over the plain and even the whole country before one is aware of it' (50). Contrary to what one might expect, sudden storms can also arise at the beginning of summer: 'at that time the wind is especially dangerous. It can arrive from the south with unusual violence, or it may be soft and warm, so that the snow plain may melt away under the sleeper' (72). The beneficial warm summer wind refreshing the tundra makes 'the blue and yellow flowers blossom here and there' (13) almost overnight and carries the odour of water to Agaguk, who then begins his search for the river, a place of life. Nonetheless, this same wind often provokes frightening earthquakes, which can bring sudden death to the unwary: 'Under the thawing crust, the permafrost endures this new warm wave. Then the

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eternal ice cracks and splits. The mass wavers, growls, and the earth moves' (14). The isotopy,6 nature, thus appears as the reiterated manifestation of an elementary structure made up of the complex terms danger and security or life and death, which can be transcribed as: N = ( L + D)

Taking into account the previous and all the other descriptions of nature as topoi of life and death where performative agents acquire food and shelter, it is possible to present the system of qualifications that define the actants Life and Death by means of the following schema: Life

Death

Symbols

Sememes

Semes

Semes

Sememes

Symbols

11

Light

li

Change Heat

obscurity opacity identity cold

Darkness

12 13

clarity transparency alteration warmth

Immobility Cold

12 ~13

dl

Order

violence fragility boundless variegated break

Unpredictability Immensity

d3

calm solidity delimited unified rhythm

dl

d2

Predictability Exiguity

Catastrophe

d3

d2

It would seem appropriate, for reasons of clarification, to refer to several statements made by Greimas (1983), in his seminal analysis of Georges Bernanos's novels,7 that can be appropriately used to define the status of our own model. The system of qualifications is made up of three hierarchical levels: life and death are contradictory and complementary deixisP actants that interrelate and integrate two noological spaces; the qualifications, or sememes, function as relays between the actants and semes; the latter, of a proprioceptive nature, are organized into two opposing classes and constitute an axiological model inherent in the text. Although one remarks that the elementary structure N = (L + D) is actualized by all of the topological figures,9 the unstable relationship between the two terms needs to be clarified. For instance, the opposition

78 Semiotics and the Modern Quebec Novel clarity/obscurity is fundamental to Theriault's axiology. However, the figure sun, like all other topological figures in Agaguk, belongs to a complex class - that is, theoretically at any given moment it can be analysed on one level as, for example, Day-Summer/Li^ vs. Night-Winter/Dm^A (positive vs. negative) - but at the same time must be understood as syncretizing seemingly contradictory sememes. The sun in summer brings life to the north country, yet it sometimes melts the edges of the ice floes and entraps the unwary hunter. The same holds true for the warm wind, which can syncretize four of the positive sememes 11, 12, 13, d3,w as well as the negative sememe d3, since the summer wind that warms the tundra may also crack and split the underlying permafrost, making it extremely dangerous for the inhabitants of the plain. If our analysis is correct, then the principal characteristic of this hostile and 'deceitful environment' (38) is that all topological figures belong to a complex class and simply actualize a dominant (positive or negative) actant of the set Life and Death at the moment of the figurative manifestation. In other words, the cosmological structuration of the text at a second level (actorial) is organized at a third in terms of a relational disequilibrium of the noological actants Life and Death in such a way that each figure functions as a variable of the unstable structure oscillating between the positive and negative dominance of one term. Thus: Nj = (L + d),N 2 = (D + l). This positive and negative dominance of the terms should, in principle, tend progressively to become polarized, and, in the end, to reorganize the complex structure into L vs. D. The six sememes that determine the content of the actant Life are subdivided into two categories and designated as the positive definitions of life and the negative definitions of death; inversely, the six sememes of the actant Death are grouped into the positive definitions of death and the negative definitions of life. This model of qualifications can, in turn, be formulated as two interrelated binary categories where each term, independent of its semantic content, is defined by contrary, contradictory and implied relations with the three others. Therefore, each term in our final model (Life, Life; Death, Death) must have the following relations with the others: contrary relation contradictory relations implied relations

l l l

& & &

& & &

& & &

& &

&

&

&

&

The elementary structure generated from the two interrelated cate-

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79

gories may be represented graphically by means of Greimas's semiotic square: contrary

positive

negative

This formal, achronological structure, at first glance, seems to account for the primary articulations of topological 'meaning' in this particular micro-universe. From a purely logical point of view, the relation of contradiction between I and d posits the impossibility of the two terms occurring together. Yet, it was shown that the warm wind as well as all of the other topological figures syncretized sememes belonging to both / and d, although a dominance of / sememes was noted in this particular example. First, in spite of the fact that space might be interpreted as a complex structure that tends to become polarized into the positive and negative actants Life and Death, it is revealed in the text only at the moment of the factitive agent's /doing/. Each Inuit, alone or in a group, possesses the modalities of competence (knowledge, power, duty, will) that enable him or her to act on the environment. And so, for the successful performative subject, nature appears as the actual topos of Life as well as the potential space of Death, or, (L + d). Second, the complex term (L + d) implies the secondary term (D + I), and this term is in a contrary relationship with the negative term (D + I). Therefore, it is at the level of the new terms (D + 1) and (D + /) that the logical relation of the contrary can become operative. One should bear in mind that each term always has three possible relationships with the others. Third, the narrative must be understood as the dynamic articulation of a relational disequilibrium attempting to resolve the contradictions implicit in the complex classes of actants syncretized by the actors and figures. This basic actantial structure of all actors and figures founds the diegesis as a transformational process that progressively eliminates the logical contradictions of mixed classes. From this perspective, the text must be seen as the projection, transformation, and resolution, by means of singularized figures, of an initially disequilibriated oriented or relational system. The fundamental instability of the contradictory axis, for example, due to the impossibility

80 Semiotics and the Modern Quebec Novel of originally reducing the complex terms to simple ones, institutes the generative processes that ultimately transform the complex classes of actants into the elementary structure of signification. The closure, or final stability, of the text is assured when the semic and sememic transformations dialectically resolve the actantial contradictions. For example, the wind has other distinct functions in the narrative than those mentioned above, since it often parallels Agaguk's emotions, raging most violently during his uncontrolled fits of anger: 'The wind grew stronger ... with one squeeze he broke it [a dryer made from seal bones] in a hundred pieces, and yelled an extraordinary shriek of rage such as Iriook had never heard from any man' (12). It also precedes the physical beatings he inflicts on her (16, 59, 192, etc.). And finally, it marks the two most important events of his life: the birth of Tayaout and that of the twins (221, 223, 229). For the moment, it is sufficient to note that the raging wind as opponent, and even anti-subject, when anthropomorphized by the male protagonist, appears as a natural force beyond man's understanding that he is unable to control or dominate. Actantial Topoi: The Fauna In spite of the great variety of animals inhabiting the tundra, the following taxonomy, differentiating five families of animated beings, provides an obvious classification of the novel's bestiary: Insects that it was good to know about also lived in these grounds. Birds sometimes flew across the sky and alighted for a moment, most of them desirable food for happy days. Over the surface of the ground moved weasels, the mink making their way south, the sinuous martens ... Then there were the taller animals too, caribou, wolves, foxes, easy to see ... The humble ones were a multitude, field mice, grey mice, moss rats. (9, my italics)

Nevertheless, even if the fauna of the tundra comprise a more readily identifiable class than the preceding natural figures analysed, it can be organized into two specific categories of actors: aggressors and victims. As a rule, however, the same creatures (figures) belong to both categories, and so form a third, or mixed, class of actors, because, although they may be recognized primarily as potential practical /goods/ by their pursuers (givers of life), they can, in other circumstances, attack the accumulated stocks of provisions, or even man himself, and thus be perceived as virtual aggressors (bearers of death): (L + d).

Actantial Topology 81 We shall not concentrate on most of the actors mentioned above, as the treatment afforded the wolf will serve as an example. Even though wolves, like other animals of the tundra, are seen by the Inuit essentially as prey to ensure survival, they are, nonetheless, distinguished from the other creatures. These animals are from the outset closely associated with the couple, for, after Agaguk has left the village, deflowered Iriook, and erected a shelter, the first animal he kills is a wolf he glimpses in the night, tracks in the dark, and brings down with a single shot (8). Hunted for their fur and the government bounty, these famished, voracious beasts are, winter and summer alike, a threat to any man caught alone on the immense plain. They are sensed as an ominous presence during the family's long journey to the sea. Heavy with sleep, Agaguk is unaware of the two wolves who ransack the unprotected supplies and make off with a bag of pemmican. At dawn he notices the wolf smell, sees the bundles torn open, and counts the bags of pemmican: 'There is danger in life on the tundra - he ought to have been the first to know it. If one of those beasts had carried off Tayaout? He shuddered' (81). During the last night of the trip home the wolves return. They are less timid, hungrier, and in a few minutes the pack surrounds the little camp where the family is sleeping (97). An old male tries to take one of the bags, but Agaguk awakens and leaps to his feet: 'snatching the bundle from the wolf s jaws, he yelled like a devil, running toward the pack. Confounded, the beasts broke up and fled' (98). Wolves are often considered as possible secondary /goods/, or even a source of food, but also, running in packs, attacking at night, they can be treacherous, wily natural opponents or sometimes anthropomorphized anti-subjects who threaten the subject and his helper's practical and mythical objects of value (supplies, son), which are needed to ensure the existence of the couple and necessary for the happiness and well-being of the family. If cosmological space, as was suggested, is an externalized projection of the two contradictory and yet complementary actants Life and Death, the bestiary, which is as varied and as redundant as the topology, also projects these same two actants. However, the primary difference between the former and the latter figures is that the fauna are more immediately apprehensible as objects of value, and to a lesser degree opponent or anti-subject. Moreover, these figures can also be analysed in terms of a specific combinatory of the semes comprising our model of qualifications established earlier for the topology. For instance,_wolves as objects of value would have some of the semes from 11, 13, dl, d2, d3, yet

82 Semiotics and the Modern Quebec Novel as opponents or anti-subjects could be seen as a combination of 11, dl, d3. At this level of description, the primary actants Life and Death are qualified by a small number of semes of a proprioceptive nature that are in turn relayed by a limited number of sememes. All of the figurative (actorial) manifestations (topological and animal) are produced by the generative processes set into movement by the unstable structure (the two interrelated complex categories: L + d, L + d, D + I, D + I). The mysterious white wolf that appears out of the night and boldly approaches the couple's hut is depicted in terms of both his natural (member of the group), and supernatural (individual) qualities. On the one hand, marked or unique because of the colour of his fur, which is 'pure white, with no touch of grey' (116), this great white wolf transgresses most laws of nature, since he hunts alone when 'he ought normally to be leader of a band, acknowledged king of the pack' (115). On the other hand, like all other members of his species, he attacks and kills the animals of the tundra: 'Over there, the white wolf! He has just killed a caribou!' (117). Fearing that this extraordinary creature threatens his son, his most precious possession and greatest source of happiness, Agaguk, with the help of his wife, works out a plan to protect the child, since 'legends said that such solitary wolves spied on children, that they would carry them off (117). In spite of his unrivalled experience of the tundra, the hunter is mystified by the wolfs unnatural and unpredictable behaviour: 'What was this beast? Always the same question, where was the pack? Why the solitude? The leader wandering alone? ... Something mysterious was happening on the tundra' (124). For him the white wolf is not a beast of nature: 'It was some evil spirit, an agiortok' (125). It is on a dark, moonless night that this individual white wolf becomes a formidable menace and it is also in the black of night that it attacks Agaguk and is vanquished by him. This legendary beast of death (11, dl, d2, d3), because of its unwavering will to single out and destroy the child cannot be considered, from the protagonist's perspective, as an integral part of the natural environment that obeys understandable laws. All natural figures were defined as a complex class Life and Death, or, on another level, as object of value and opponent or anti-subject. The white wolf apparently has a few natural as well as many supernatural characteristics. However, contrary to all other actors or figures in the text, it has the unique role of opponent or anti-subject and basically represents the negative pole of the structure Life vs. Death. Although it belongs on the figurative level to the natural and supernatural world (the

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83

positive definitions of Life and the negative definitions of Death are progressively neutralized and therefore the natural is partially invalidated), the wolf mainly incorporates the negative definition of Life and the positive definition of Death, which have contrary and contradictory relationships with Life and Death. Since the numerous semic and sememic qualifications defining the white wolf are a series of variations on the common invariant, natural-supernatural of (D + I), at this stage of the analysis one can schematically represent the conflictual nature of the situation by means of Greimas's actantial model: (S)(O)(R) c o u p l e c h i l d f a m i l y

) (H)(S)(O) woman man white wolf

Yet, because the opponent in this narrative is endowed by Agaguk and Iriook with supernatural characteristics related to its knowledge, will, duty, and power, it is possible to rewrite the above actantial model in terms of polemical structure between two modalized actants, a subject (SI) and an anti-subject (S2). Hence: SI O S2

(Where SI = Agaguk and Iriook, O = son, and S2 = the white wolf)

In Agaguk the topos in general, as well as the other natural and supernatural figures, can be apprehended on another plane: as a dynamic structure revealed at the very moment of the subject's factitive performance. As such, whether they happen to be objects of value and/or opponents or anti-subjects, the actants are situated on the four interdependent axes of communication: knowledge, will, duty, and power. They define the human subject since they delimit the actual conditions or possibilities of his/her activity. In addition, all of these figures are organized on different levels as networks of qualifications made up of two correlative series of positive or negative definitions of life and death. Nature, therefore, must be understood as the redundant manifestation of the complex structure (L + d, D + 1) that is progressively extended by semic and sememic definitions and, finally, transformed into the complex articulations of sensorial space. Contrary to nature, the supernatural is a struc-

84 Semiotics and the Modern Quebec Novel ture (D + I, L + d) that expands the positive definitions of Death and the negative definitions of Life while tending to eliminate the other terms from the complex structure. Actantial Topoi: The Social Environment For Theriault, noological space, which can be considered as the externalized projection of being, is integrated in its figurative manifestation with cosmological space, and is especially internalized in the human subject. The portrait, it was suggested, figurativized the modalities of competence programming the human actant, thereby permitting the appropriation of positively or negatively valorized objects of value. If the natural and supernatural are defined in the text as either complex or elementary spaces, the same holds true for the social topos, be it that of the trading post, the tribe, or the couple. The village is first of all presented as a unified public space (dl, d2, d3) where primary /goods/ are shared and the common good is respected. It is a place of barter where secondary /goods/ can circulate (Kanguak attempts to trade his automatic rifle for Kolrona's two polar bear skins [112]), and woman has an exchange value or can be loaned to different partners. To appease Henderson and allay his suspicions, for example, Ramook offers him a young girl: 'When winter comes, we'll build you an igloo, and Hala will let you have his daughter. She says she likes to sleep with white men' (122). Even if the exact physical topos occupied by the figures in this clearly delineated space normally indicates their role and social status within the tribe, this is not always the case: 'Each of the men installs his hut in the same position relative to the chiefs hut which the preceding igloo occupied with regard to the chief's dwelling, even though the village has been moved. In this way, the tribal hierarchy is established' (103). Yet, to deceive Henderson, the chief forces Ghorok, the second in command, to reconstruct his hut far from his own, almost on the outskirts of the village, on the exact spot where Brown was buried. It follows that, ideally at least, this space could be represented by means of the positive semic and sememic definitions of Life, yet in this tribal space as in the other topoi analysed, no more than one dominant actant can emerge at any given time. And to maintain his position within the hierarchy, this actant must rely on cunning or trickery: The essential thing in this strange country was stratagem, the condition of life, the condition of survival' (127). One notices here that 'human trickery,' which, at least on the surface, is opposed to the 'trickery of the beasts,' is

Actantial Topology 85 at one point 'deliberately brought down to the animal level' (127). Many of the other activities of the group are negatively qualified in the same way since the natives are often compared to base, instinctive creatures: 'the Eskimo slept. Men and women were heaped on the ice couch, half conscious in foul air of the primitive dwelling, in a kind of animal hibernation' (64). The Eskimos are unpredictable people, capable of uncontrolled rage, particularly in groups. They are like animals which, ordinarily timid and inoffensive, become dangerous if surprised' (129). The negative animal imagery that usually defines instinctive tribal behaviour does not, however, characterize the allegiance of individual members to the group necessary for the continuation of the species and generally thought to be prevalent in the natural world, since the village is mainly described as a 'deceitful environment' of shifting solidarity and treachery. Ramook, who principally looks after his own interests, is initially menaced by Ayallik, who hopes to replace him as chief: 'It seemed to him that the role would suit him well. What if he should fulfil his destiny, displace Ramook and take for himself the leadership of the tribe' (65-6) and then denounced by a young woman who exposes him to the police (188). In addition, this topos is presented as a space of unshared and centralized power: 'Tradition requires that the chief should reign alone, that any democratic concession should be considered a sign of weakness' (195). Here, central and absolute authority is concentrated in a single actant at the expense of all others. After Oonak refused the honour of becoming chief, he 'returned to obscurity, and in the chronicles of the tribe he ceased to exist, he became again a single member of an anonymous collectivity' (196). The equivocal, hierarchically stratified space of the tribe is fundamentally a negative topos described in the same terms as those used to designate the reprehensible side of nature or even the supernatural. The location of the village may change, and with it the inhabitants, but the underlying structures, confirmed by tradition, remain static and immutable. The group, which, as we have seen, was globally depicted as a pack of docile animals, can react savagely and unpredictably when provoked (12, dl, d3). For example, when Henderson threatens the sorcerer all the able-bodied men of the tribe surround him. One of them draws a white man's knife with a long blade of blue steel, sharp as a razor. When the policeman backs down, the Eskimo puts his knife away and then calmly tells him he had thought of killing him. Contrary to nature (L + d), the village, an unpredictable space of Darkness, Immobility, or Catastrophe, is defined almost solely in terms of negative semic and sememic

86 Semiotics and the Modern Quebec Novel qualifications (L + d). Objects of value circulating within this autarchic system are often misappropriated by the cunning dominant subject (Ramook, chief) aided by unscrupulous helpers (Ghorok, the Montagnais Indian), and used to maintain the anti-subjects (tribal members) in a state of dependency and subservience. Objects of value in this locus of violence and ruse can be considered intransitive, since the subject is at one and the same time the sender and receiver. The tribal environment in Agaguk is a complex space primarily delineated by the dominance of the negative definitions of Life and the positive definitions of Death. To survive in this instinctive, unpredictable, masculine space of domination, vengeance, and violence, members of the tribe must become cunning masters in the art of treachery and deceit. In the narrative, hate, falsehood, lust, hypocrisy, pride, and avarice are the complementary, redundant, non-figurative actantial qualifications, necessary for the emergence of the dominant subject, that correspond to the figurative manifestation of village life. The trading post is another manifestation of the social environment where, on occasion, Agaguk interacts with other subjects and barters his furs for manufactured goods. More distant from the igloo than the village, it is made up of a dozen greyish houses with a few igloos on the edge. The trading post also has the latest technological devices, such as a transmitting and receiving radio to maintain contact with the outside world. The houses are heated with refined oil burned in furnaces and lit by electricity produced by an electric generator, in contrast with the stone lamps that burn oil distilled from animal fats or from seal and whale blubber, used to heat and light the igloos. A complex social space, the trading post includes the RCMP post, a bigger and better-kept house than the others. When Agaguk first visits the village and is questioned by a constable, he feels great fear and acts suspiciously. A place of danger from which constable Henderson will come to investigate Brown's death, it not only represents a place of bartering, but also the site of white man's laws and justice, which are represented as being contrary to the Inuit's customs and traditions. Such is the space of the symbolic order that confines and inscribes the subject in an all-powerful and ever-present network of constraints that escape him or her. In addition, this complex social space is also the topos of barter, where the Hudson's Bay Company, as we have seen, provides manufactured goods that have become necessary for the survival of the Inuit. A place of life, then, but also a place of exploitation where the trader sets the value

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87

of the furs and refuses any discussion. When Agaguk protests that a pelt rejected by the Scotsman is not spoiled, the latter grabs all of the skins on the counter, rolls them up, and holds them out, telling him, Take your furs away. I do not argue' (44). Agaguk is forced to accept the conditions set by another; although contractual relations are re-established, they are completely one-sided: 'It rarely happened that one could get a man-to-man trade, in liberty and frankness' (44). Contradictory feelings of rage and helplessness overcome him, but Agaguk does not oppose McTavish, for to do so would do him no good, as the trader would get even with him at the next bartering session. The social environment of the trading post in this novel, much like the village, is a complex space also characterized by the negative definitions of Life and the positive definitions of Death. To survive in this delimited space of domination, manipulation, vengeance, and 'justice,' the Inuit have no choice but to become subservient, docile creatures who accept all the conditions handed down to them by the dominant representatives of white man's social and economic laws. Actantial Topoi: The Environment of the Couple Sensing the danger of living within the confines of the tribe, the couple refuses to be circumscribed within the limits of the village. And thus Agaguk and Iriook freely choose to settle far from the others, alone on the isolated tundra. Their hut and igloo remain closed to all outsiders (d2). In this same vein, the images of the hawk flying high overhead (6) and the plane passing by (8) underscore the closedness of the couple's space: 'Like the hawk during the day, the plane was not at all concerned with that hut, a tiny excrescence on the tundra, like a mole hill' (8). Ghorok, the policeman, and the three emissaries from the village are all greeted in front of the dwelling: 'Nothing, no one could penetrate that hut without awakening the occupants' (7). Only at this price can the couple's inviolable space be guaranteed, where peace and the 'reassuring warmth of the igloo' (11, 13, d3) reign (83). A calm (dl) place of fidelity, a shelter against men and malevolent nature, the couple's abode is directly opposed to the sexually promiscuous topos of all other Inuits. It also is a place of affection as well as of uncontrolled rage (dl, d3): Agaguk, beside himself with anger, beats his wife when he feels helpless before the wind or the woman's mysterious nature - 'Then, because her tears overwhelmed Agaguk, because he felt powerless to make her stop, he was seized with an hysterical rage. He beat her' (16, 59, 192). More-

88 Semiotics and the Modern Quebec Novel over, it is a place of peaceful dreams of paternity (32) as well as of nightmares of guilt: 'Agaguk dreamed that in his village ... the white men were combing the earth to find Brown's remains. He woke up in a sweat fainting with horror' (70, 141, 212). But the couple's dwelling is primarily the place of feminine /doing/. Indeed, woman's relationship to man (hunter), at least at the beginning of the narrative, is generally mediated by the servile domestic tasks she performs, and consequently she is reduced to a subservient role. However, as far as the couple is concerned, it was noted that their frequently interchangeable functions (12) differentiated them from other members of the collectivity (12). The shelter, place of love-making and life, gives woman a privileged status. During the birth of his son Agaguk stands by helplessly while his wife suffers: 'Embarrassed by his brute strength, humiliated by the uselessness of his muscles, he watched with increasing terror this labour in which man has no place' (58). Unable to comprehend the mysteries of childbirth, to alleviate her pain, or to control himself, Agaguk reverts to instinctive behaviour (dl, d3): 'more beast than Man. A hoarse growl came constantly from his throat. His eyes were bloodshot. He shook his head from left to right continually, like an animal ready to leap' (59). He then tries to drive out the great evil in his wife by beating her violently. And yet, in the end, this very topos helps bring about a transformation in him. The abode becomes a sanctuary where the mythical is ultimately revealed to the hunter. In order to attain a life of harmony and happiness, Agaguk has to suppress male instincts of domination and brutality, of rage and deceit, so that the feminine qualities of reciprocity and kindness, of understanding and love, which Iriook exemplifies, can emerge. To achieve the mythical, he must overcome 'tribal atavism' and accept woman as an undisputed equal. Because of woman (subjectl), man (subject2) vanquishes his ever-present destructive instincts and discovers truth, which the couple transmits to the family. Since this object of value is communicated to the other, it can be considered transitive. Unlike the village, which only allows for the possibility of a single dominant actant, the space of the couple favours and ensures the evolution of two reciprocal and complementary subjects: 'In their solitude, separated from the tribal life, they become capable of forgetting old customs, sometimes of fighting against them' (175). This topos, made up of two distinct semic and sememic categories, is organized according to the same principle of binary opposition as the other topoi previously analysed. In Agaguk the semic and sememic definitions of the ambivalent space of the igloo are systematically associated with specific positive and

Actantial Topology 89 negative reiterated values, and the values represented in and by the villages or the white wolf, which also qualify the negative poles of the couple's space (D + I, L + d), will slowly be neutralized and transcended by the two positive actors (L + d, D + I). Negative masculinity-domination unpredictability-falsehood instinct-lust dominance-hypocrisy vengeance-pride violence-greed

vs. vs. vs. vs. vs. vs.

Positive femininity-love predictability-truth morality-purity reciprocity-honesty pardon-humility calm-generosity

The inventory of the positive terms defining the couple are organized in a parallel and contradictory relationship to the negative terms defining the social topos and as such can be homologated by means of the same model. As with nature or the fauna, each class of actants syncretizes a dominance of the positive or negative definitions of the actants Life and Death. The village is a complex structure in which the negative definitions of Life and the positive definitions of Death dominate, whereas in the igloo the positive definitions of Life and the negative definitions of Death in the end prevail. For methodological reasons each topos figurativized in the text was separately represented on the deep level by means of an elementary logical structure (semiotic square) articulating the two terms Life and Death. Yet, when individual topological figures were analysed it was noted that the figures syncretized at one and the same time seemingly incompatible actants (complex terms), relayed by a limited number of semes and sememes, and in turn defined by positive and negative values. The initial elementary structure was unable to account for the actantial organization of Agaguk, since each of the four poles could not be reduced to simple terms and thus permit a logical representation by means of contradictory, contrary, or implied relations. In other words, the figurativized elements of all topoi are manifested as complex or mixed classes of actants that, on the one hand, transmit a dominance of positive or negative terms, and, on the other, cannot be represented as purely logical relationships. For example, it was seen that on the contradictory axis no semes or sememes belonging to the actant Life could belong to the actant Death, yet all the figures are, in fact, a combinatory of the two, relayed by a few semes and sememes. Thus, the coherence of the text at the figurative level (and this perhaps gives us some insight into the rea-

90 Semiotics and the Modern Quebec Novel sons for the great appeal and success of this novel) is dependent upon the reiterated combination and transformation of a handful of terms activated by the same complex, logically non-formalizable structure. It is this principle of non-resolution of the contradictory, contrary, and implied (the disequilibriated structure) that sets into play the generative processes of figurativization as well as the diegetic transformations of the narrative, and the closure of the text occurs once the positive dominance of a specific, complex combination of terms has been established. In Agaguk space assumes various forms, but since it is primarily experienced as a co-efficient of adversity and/or complementarity when internalized by the factitive agent, it is signified progressively through his/her bodily and mental activity. As such, space is made up of a network of qualifications that define the performative agent, and its multiple manifestations are simply variants of the limited number of invariants outlined above. Space and actant are henceforth interchangeable since they ultimately refer to the same process of signification: Life and Death. Four distinct, yet interdependent actantial topoi define the actors and delimit their spheres of activity. Certain actors, corresponding to the village (tradition) and the trading post (white man's social and economic justice), or the white wolf (evil spirit, supernatural), which are a real danger, must be eliminated and excluded from the topos of the couple, while others, such as the tundra or the fauna (nature) are implied or essential for survival. On the actantial level each topos can be separately schematized as an unstable structure of signification articulating complex terms (L + d, L + d; D + I, D + I) that cannot be logically reduced to 'pure' or simple classes of contrary, contradictory, or implied relations. This intrinsic structural property was seen as the necessary and sufficient condition for diegesis, for the activation of the transformational processes of narrativization. It was also pointed out that individual figurativized spaces, defined by a combinatory of a limited number of semes and sememes, were co-extensive with the performative agent's /doing/. Since, for Theriault, figurativized cosmological space, as a projection of noological space articulating a specific axiology, is an externalized manifestation of being revealed by and through the human actor's performance, all topoi can be considered as various definitions of the actantial subject. Thus nature, initially transcribed as (L + d), must be rewritten in terms of the global actantial interplay as (D + I). And so, the dynamic exclusive/inclusive character of the actantial topology in Agaguk can be represented by means of the schema shown on the next page. As was previously mentioned, the closure of the text takes place when

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91

a temporary dominance of the complex positive and negative terms is negotiated. Yet, as these terms are never completely polarized and reorganized into an elementary stable structure of signification (L, L; D, D), the narrative proposes only a partial resolution that may be renegotiated in other novels written by Theriault. MYTHICAL (Igloo)

(Tundra) NATURAL

SOCIAL

(L+d)

(D+l)

Contrary

D+l) (

(Village) (Trading Post)

(L + d)

(White Wolf)

SUPERNATURAL

7 System of Modalities

In the previous chapter we saw how the anthropomorphic actantial dimension establishes relations between subjects and objects, subjects and anti-subjects, subjects and senders and receivers. The first relation, founded on the institution of the subject as a wanting subject and the object as an object of value, can be described in terms of modal utterances. Wanting-to (will) is the first of a series of determined semantic restrictions that specify actants as virtual operators of a doing. Having-to (duty) introduces prescription and necessity as the second semantic restriction. The establishment of the modalities of being-able-to (power) and knowing (knowledge) are the final restrictions that constitute the being or the doing of the actant subject. The relation of subject and object, furthermore, can be described syntactically in terms of utterances of state that are junctive in nature. The second relation, between subject and anti-subject, is considered as the conversion of the paradigmatic relation of contradiction at the deep level, into an anthropomorphic syntagmatic series at the surface level. In addition, the transformation of contents, which at the surface level appears as a series of confrontations and struggles constituting narrative units, results from operations of contrariety (negation) and presupposition (assertion). Negation is reformulated as domination and assertion as attribution, whereas performance is formulated as a syntagmatic, ordered series of confrontation, domination, and attribution. The third relation between subject and sender, subject and receiver, is reformulated in terms of a general structure of exchange. The attribution of an object of value is here seen as a disjunctive operation (privation) and a conjunctive one (attribution). This reformulation makes it possible to represent the previous operations as places of transfer of ob-

System of Modalities 93 jects of value from one location to another, and thereby to establish a topological syntax of objective values that, since it follows the logical operations at the level of deep grammar, organizes narration as a process creating values. However, by changing focus and examining the relation between operators, subject and sender or receiver, we can see that topological syntax governs the transfer both of subject's capacity to do and of the values. In addition, by manipulating subjects and endowing them with the virtuality of doing, the topological syntax governs the institution of syntactic operators. The subject and sender are characterized by a dual contractual relation, since not only will the subject actant have a contractual relation with the manipulating operator actant (sender) that institutes it as an operator subject, but also performance is sanctioned by a final sender, whose absolute competence is presupposed. In order to set up a system of modalities, J.-C. Coquet (1973, 169ff.), refined Greimas's original theoretical framework and examined with greater precision the primary functions of /knowing/ knowledge, /beingable-to/ power, and /wanting-to/ will, along with the types of relationships that link them to one another in the constitution of the subject, or ego. However, in my analysis of Agaguk I will introduce a fourth virtualizing modality /having-to/ duty, as a final semantic restriction. In so far as the four modalities appear, in Theriault's novel, at the manifest level as knowledge, power, will, and duty, to increase the legibility of my text I have retained these terms instead of those that traditionally refer to the factitive modalities of competence. It is by means of the principle of relevance that the problem raised by the identification of the actants in a narrative is solved. Since an actant's power is defined by the transformations it brings about, its knowledge can be understood by its ability to engender such transformations. So defined, power becomes the act by which the subject tests his/her knowledge. Between knowledge and power there necessarily exists a logical relation of mutual implication: power presupposes knowledge but at the same time knowledge implies power. This relation of presupposition and implication is canonical and can be transcribed: /knowledge-power/. Moreover, the possession of knowledge and power is of an exclusive nature so that if one actant has knowledge and power, the others are deprived of them. Consequently, the 'being' of the /doing/ and the /goods/ characterizing an agent are directly proportional to the breadth of his/her knowledge and power. The greater the agent's knowledge and power the greater he/she is and the more he/she has. Yet knowledge is also directly related to /seeing/, the differential trait of all understanding, so that the status of

94 Semiotics and the Modern Quebec Novel knowledge and power varies according to the object and the scope of vision. The modalities of (wanting-to) will and (having-to) duty are virtualizing modalities linked together by presupposition and implication. An actant's /wanting-to/ will and /having-to/ duty constitute the minimal condition for an activity or a state. The modal structure of will bears close relations with that of duty. We can interpret the subject's duty either as a transfer of a sender's will (duty (2)) or as a self-oriented duty (duty (1)). From this perspective, duty presupposes will, but at the same time will implies duty. In Agaguk, these two modalities are at the origin of the ethical dimension of this semantic micro-universe, in so far as the modalities of knowledge and power also appear as having-to-do for a social sender (duty (2)) or having-to-do for an internal sender (duty (1)). As far as the construction of ego is concerned, the modality of will establishes the actant as a personal subject /I/, and so power or knowledge not dependent on personal will-duty but on externally imposed will-duty, will-duty (2), is immediately denegated and assumed by indefinite agents /they, it/. Inversely, personal /will-duty/, will-duty (1), confirms the actantial couple /knowledge-power/. Theoretically then, four modal series are conceivable, although in practice these can be further refined, as in the case of our analysis:

1. 2. 3. 4.

Modalities

Substitutes

[/knowledge-power/] —> [/will-duty/] [/will-duty/] —» [/knowledge-power/] [/knowledge-power/] -> [/will-duty/] [/will-duty/] —> [/knowledge-power/]

/they/ /it/ /!,!/ /I,2/

Thus, when the actant attempts to appropriate specific objects of value, it actuates four main modalities of competence: being-able-to (power), having-to (duty), knowing (knowledge), and wanting-to (will), interrelated by relations of logical presupposition and implication. Initially, the primary functions of these modalities, and their logical interdependence (canonic relation), will be examined. Then, the particular modality systems instituting the actant as a personal subject, /I/, or an impersonal subject, /they, it/, will be established. Again, for convenience's sake, the names of the actors have been retained but they necessarily refer to the constructed nature of the agent.

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95

POWER: SOCIAL An actant's power can be judged and understood in terms of the transformations it initiates and produces. Every subject in Agaguk is aware of or searching for power: 'The Eskimo admits the force of the white man's domination, knows how to recognize it, resigns himself to it, because the white man is stronger' (128). Yet, alone against the Inuit, Henderson becomes aware of the group's strength: 'What could he do against this impassivity ... against the entire tribe, newly welded together, suddenly linked by their ancient loyalties?' (130). Although the members of the group do not always respect Ramook's sovereignty, they at least obey him, since his social functions are guaranteed by custom: 'They had been careful not to break down the authority that had been confided to him, so strong is the tradition that rules the election of Eskimo chiefs' (198). In spite of this power invested and ratified by the collectivity, the chief can still be at the mercy of hypothetical usurpers. Ambitious, Ayallik hopes to fulfil his destiny: he wants to 'displace Ramook and take for himself the leadership of the tribe' (65-6). This type of power is at the same time confirmed by physical strength (Ramook kills Ayallik), and maintained by cunning (he manipulates the tribesmen and tries to deceive the policemen). The unspoken word or secret (after Brown's death, unknown to anyone, Ramook bribes the Montagnais by giving him a bundle of precious furs), and the spoken word or lie (he tells Henderson that he is almost blind), found and prolong the chief's power. Furthermore, the appropriation and often deceitful manipulation of the word (logos) confer a special authority on the subject within the group. Oonak, having testified in court against the chief and Ghorok, suddenly becomes the most important person in the village: 'Perhaps he had been more authoritative than others; he had known how to speak at the right moment... He knew how to speak, and he was not afraid of anyone now' (193). Social power can follow two distinct courses. In an optimal situation the relationship of the chief to the tribe can be represented in terms of a function, while the link of the tribe to the chief can be seen in terms of need. The desired object of value communicated in this structure of exchange is /survival/. 'Now that he was gone too one would have consented to elect a replacement so greedy and dishonest. This did not alter their way of looking at things; Eskimos have little respect for laws and morality; the well-being of the community proceeds according to very

96 Semiotics and the Modern Quebec Novel different laws' (198). This can be schematically represented as: SIOS2 (/chief/) (/survival/)(/tribe/) (SI and S2 are alternately sender and receiver) The orientation of the structure is entirely different, however, when one considers Ramook, who, taking advantage of his authority, deceives the rightful collective receiver and appropriates the objects of value in his own self-interest:

SOR (/chief/) (/survival/) (/chief/) Power: Practical

Individual power is also measured in terms of the physical strength necessary to transform raw material into /goods/. Among all the actors in the text, only Agaguk and Iriook are physically described in detail (7). Both are muscular, tireless workers capable of carrying heavy loads summer and winter alike over vast distances. And so when they leave the North Sea for the long march home, laden with inordinately heavy loads, they resemble 'some new kind of monsters, ambulatory masses, beasts of burden solemnly bearing the world on their shoulders' (94). Capable of unbelievable feats of strength, they quickly recover from exhausting work (99). But ultimately the efficiency of practical power is measured by the quantity and quality of game captured. Able to throw a harpoon with unerring accuracy, 'Agaguk, like all Eskimos, owned admirably balanced muscles and a magically sure eye' (88). In the annals of the Inuit the six seals killed by Agaguk are considered an extraordinary accomplishment, 'a feat that would be talked about for a long time' (92). Power is perceived and acclaimed by the other when the subject is esteemed an unrivalled hunter whose exploits are worthy of being sung: 'Someone began to make up a song. It told of Agaguk the great hunter' (92). In this context, acknowledged practical power celebrating man's prowess is seen as an indisputable sign that augurs well for the family's survival and future glory: 'And it sang also of Tayaout, who would be the greatest hunter of his time, true son of his father'(92). Thus:

System of Modalities 97 SIOS2 (/hunter/) (/survival/)(/family/) (SI and S2 are alternately sender and receiver) This conditional power, which depends partially on forces beyond the subject's control, often comes up against insurmountable obstacles. And so with nature, which periodically thwarts and frustrates Agaguk. On several occasions the all-powerful wind provokes violent reactions: 'The wind grew stronger ... He was gasping, his eyes were bulging, he had foam at the corners of his mouth. 'The Wind!" he cried. "It is stronger than I am. Nothing must be stronger than I am" ' (12). Another time, in a similar situation, he simply admits, 'There is nothing I can do' (55). When Agaguk is confronted by woman's mysterious nature during Tayaout's birth, his helplessness and incomprehension assume the form of uncontrolled anger; unable to contain himself, he vents his rage on his wife (59). White men are also a source of frustration. Humiliated and cheated by McTavish, Agaguk, in a cold fury, first contemplates revenge but then slowly resigns himself to the inevitable: 'Against a hydra of this kind, an infinitely powerful monster, what could Agaguk do? Agaguk or anyone else?' (45). The brutal anger that comes over him while hunting the white wolf, as in all of the previous examples, is a sign of helplessness that is experienced every time he encounters problems he cannot master or phenomena that totally escape him: 'He was feeling a great rage, the rage that possessed him whenever he came up against an invincible power' (124). Power: Mythical Yet there exists a feminine power embodied by Iriook that is the inverse of the masculine force described above. At the beginning of their relationship, under the domination of male authority, she passively and silently gives in to his every wish: 'She greeted him as he had come to expect, tenderly ... but she was careful not to say a word' (51). However, Iriook progressively acquires the right to speech while liberating herself from sexual taboos (84-5). Her solitary erection of the igloo and the successful caribou hunt put her on equal footing with man, as far as the practical is concerned. Scott notices this when she speaks out for her husband (170). After the policemen leave, 'they stood side by side, the woman it seemed taller than the man, stronger, filled with silent tri-

98 Semiotics and the Modern Quebec Novel umph' (171). Man's recognition of woman's practical and mythical power - 'It seemed to Agaguk that the relationship between them was no longer the same. Something new had come into their everyday life' - is accompanied by a period of sexual impotency. After the policemen's visit he is unable to possess her. And it is not because of hate or indifference, but rather because he finds it difficult to be himself with her. Timidity hinders his gestures, and he feels confused. He sees the image of Iriook, stronger than any man, standing up to the policemen. In the end it is the woman who makes advances, who takes the initiative when she utters 'new words' and makes 'astonishing demands' (190). Incapable of coping with this development, frustrated by the discussion, and unable to convince the woman by traditional arguments, Agaguk suddenly, 'his rage ... stronger than any reason,' beats her until he is 'too tired to strike any more' (192). He then falls brutally upon her and takes her. Powerless to dominate and possess woman by use of reason, man violently subjugates and possesses her by sheer physical force. Although he firmly decides no longer to give in to Iriook's desires and to consider her simply a woman like all other women of the tribe, when he approaches her in the igloo warmed by the stove and sees her nude, her thighs spread, her breasts high, his inflexibility literally melts: The hairy sex was dark and mysteriously inviting. Everything in Agaguk crumbled, all his resolutions, the influx of power. He advanced silently toward her ... He growled hoarsely and fell upon her, with nervous, searching, almost brutal hands' (216). Sexuality proves to be a transforming agent that slowly neutralizes the cruel, masculine force of impulsive domination, and encourages the evolution of the feminine aspects of his being. Finally admitting the legitimacy of the other's wishes, he gives in and is considered by his wife 'so gentle, so good, so generous' (228). When positively oriented, the couple's relations can be understood in terms of reciprocity, /happiness/, then, is the object of value communicated in this structure of exchange: SIOS2 (/man/) (/happiness/)(/woman/) (SI and S2 are alternately sender and receiver)

KNOWLEDGE: PRACTICAL In Agaguk one can distinguish several clearly delineated kinds of understanding that are activated whenever the subject attempts to attain spe-

System of Modalities 99 cific objects of value. Practical knowledge necessary to accumulate and prepare /goods/ is immediately associated with the subject's physical maturation (power). 'When he had reached maturity and proved his manhood, Agaguk took a rifle, a leather water bottle and a haunch of dried meat; with them he set off across the land ... He was eighteen years old, a good hunter already. He knew how to dress skins; all that was useful knowledge' (3). Comprehension of one's natural environment is related, first to oral tradition and, second, to accumulated experience: 'The Eskimos knew something of the geography of these lands, by their memories of hunting trips long ago, by the old men's tales, by the smells carried on the winds, by the colour of the sky and the migrations of the animals' (4). This type of collective wisdom, internalized by each and every subject, is manifested as an undifferentiated they or it, and forms an uncontested stock of tribal information grounded in tradition, or doxa, handed down from the past. And this understanding, which is presented in a dialogical relation with the knowledge white men have of the region, is sufficiently comprehensive to account for normal physical phenomena encountered daily on the tundra: 'It was said that other Eskimos like those of Agaguk's village lived on the other side ... In the country of the North Star, toward the north, according to what white men said, there was again water' (4). Yet the efficacy of practical wisdom in part depends on progressively acquired personal experience: 'Agaguk had scored in his memory the road he must follow to find his chosen hill' (6). When he sets out to discover the river, for example, 'He marked the spot in his memory, fixing its position by the faint undulations in the tundra, and when night fell, he recognized the stars that would guide him when he came again' (15). Information previously amassed permits him to predict with certainty natural happenings and, thus, increases his chances of survival. 'One evening he said, 'Tomorrow the snow will come." And the next morning indeed the snow did come' (38). Past experience makes him aware, for example, that during a long blizzard he must shape some snow blocks and build a wall several meters from the igloo to prevent the storm from covering everything (54). However, the instrumentality of knowledge is directly linked to genetic make-up and to the quality of personal instruction received. Agaguk, who knows all the secrets - 'secrets of the ice', 'secrets of the tundra' - is convinced by Iriook not to risk his life by hunting on the floes because, if he were carried away there would be no one to teach Tayaout. 'Certainly one did not become great by only learning from a teacher. A hunter

100 Semiotics and the Modern Quebec Novel teaches his son, and the son, if he is of good blood and still more important, if he has double the muscles and the agility and the good eye of his father, he will become the proudest of all the hunters on the Top of the World' (87). Every day Agaguk dreams of something new to teach his son so that he can become the greatest hunter of them all, 'so that his knowledge will be complete. But still more, more than all that, no child in all the tribes would receive such an education as he would give him ... They would talk of him in all the igloos' (34). In fact, practical knowledge and power are dependent upon the acuity and depth of the subject's vision. Agaguk 'could see as far as a hawk and even further' (7). Iriook has complete confidence in his skills for 'He knew where everything was, and in winter he recognized the snow dunes two days after a blizzard, when they were all new and he had seen them only once' (82). But power, which is measured in terms of accumulated /goods/, is also proportional to the quality of the subject's understanding: 'Agaguk became vain with all the knowledge he had acquired. Before Iriook he shamelessly boasted he would get rich out of it' (9-10). In brief, practical wisdom regulates power and is logically presupposed: [/knowledge-power/]. 'All this familiar dusk, whose remotest nook he [Agaguk] knew well, of which he possessed the entire mastery. He was a sort of king, greater than any chief, ruling a country rather than men, the rich plain rather than twenty huts and their inhabitants' (204). Knowledge: Instinctive

In this universe, the progressive mastery of practical wisdom is the necessary and sufficient condition for continued biological survival. Yet, as far as Agaguk is concerned, there remain troublesome areas of existence, feelings of guilt and remorse associated with Brown's death, which he is unable to analyse and understand. When he awakens in the morning, 'exiled from the land of unconsciousness whose geography he had not comprehended' (212), he enters into another country more familiar to him and feels reassured. For each enemy he possesses a weapon and for each menace he has a defence. Fully conscious, capable of performing the day's tasks, Agaguk feels no fear. He knows how to vanquish every dangerous beast, and 'Against the cold, against the great winds of the tundra ... he knew the surest shelter ... But the night? But sleep? If there was any breach in his wall, any weakness in its strength, it was during his dreams at night' (212). He cannot discuss these recurring, frightening experiences with his wife, since he does not know how to find the words

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to name them, or to explain that in his sleep 'enormous wild beasts ... against whom he had no defence fell upon him and devoured him' (212-13). Every night, while he writhes in nightmare, Iriook watches over him and sometimes shakes him to drive away haunting dreams. The white wolf too poses a problem that cannot be solved by reason alone: 'For the first time in his life as a hunter, Agaguk felt himself defeated' (124). And thus, he musters all his senses, 'his extraordinary hearing, his eyesight like a cat's, his sense of smell which could tell the difference between wolf and fox, mink and muskrat three hundred feet away' (124). Yet, in full wakefulness when he mounts guard, the wolf comes within an arm's length and almost succeeds in carrying off the child. To vanquish this beast, this supernatural creature, the hunter must rely on his strength, on his acute vision and instinct. He senses the wolf in the black of night thanks to the 'instinct he had of any living presence on the tundra. He could stop and without turning around, without making the slightest effort, feel far behind him the presence of the hut and of the two beings who lived in it' (134). A new rhythm in his blood warns him of the animal's presence: 'It was simple, it proceeded from a physical faculty inherited from many generations' (135). Not founded on the systematic acquisition of experience, instinctive awareness emanating from his Eskimo heredity manifests itself instantaneously, independent of all temporal considerations: [/knowledge (l)-power/]. The same type of innate awareness dictates Agaguk's behaviour toward the tribe: 'He had worked this out in his primitive mind. When he had departed from the village, he was yielding to an instinct for self-protection rather than acting on considered reflection' (136). Although it is often possible for Agaguk to understand and master his immediate environment, he nonetheless finds it difficult to predict the tribe's reactions. White man's socio-economic influence has loosened and unhinged the previously immutable tribal structures that guaranteed stable and harmonious relationships between the Inuit. 'Nothing among the Inuit was the way it used to be; the purity of intention, the blind attachment to tradition, these were no longer as powerful. The evil spread by the white man grew, this development of the individual more and more setting his will against environment' (29). After Brown's death, Agaguk fears reprisal from the tribesmen, for he is not certain he can still count on their 'holding to the traditional rules if he, in his turn had cared for them so little that he had taken it upon himself to leave with Iriook' (30). From this perspective, practical social knowledge seems to be guaranteed by the cohesiveness of the tribe's cultural values, and when they

102 Semiotics and the Modern Quebec Novel break up, and mutant individualistic subjects no longer adhere to the 'traditional rules,' a state of unpredictability or incomprehension, [/knowledge/], arises. Knowledge: Social

The understanding essential for living within the collectivity is founded not only upon the slowly acquired experience of men but also upon the so-called 'human nature' peculiar to the 'primitive' Inuit. Ramook is presented as a naturally 'distrustful and cunning' (105) individual who quickly sees through Ayallik's plan to betray him. When he surprises his subordinate with Henderson, he immediately understands what he is up to: 'He guessed the man's ambition. His own shrewdness warned him that he had better make sure of Ayallik's silence' (128-9). Within the tribe the proper use of language that regulates social relationships is of fundamental importance: one must know when to speak and when to keep silent in order to manipulate the other and successfully lead him/her astray. Agaguk, contemplating his crime, says nothing, but the others guess his intentions for they know that he is vindictive, 'dangerous in his silence and his savage determination' (24). Yet the tribesmen seemingly ignore the whole affair: 'For the moment, wisdom prescribed silence, imposed pretended indifference. But within themselves they could not help thinking' (24). If one hopes to survive within the group it is essential to spy on the other to try to discover his innermost thoughts or guess his personal ambitions, to listen to his conversation or to interpret his meaningful silences while decoding latent, threatening intents. And it is because of his ignorance of the complexities of tribal life that Agaguk decides to set out on his own to found a family: 'He had never been skilful in the tribal life, he had never known how to become interested in the subtleties of the collective life, the currents of opinion, the levels of power. He had not understood why they came to offer him the post of chief (205). Although the tribesmen feel that Agaguk possesses the ideal qualities to become their leader, he is unable to penetrate their motives for choosing him. After the emissaries' departure, Iriook expresses relief that he did not accept the honour because she realizes that in time he might have boasted of having killed Brown. When he answers that everyone knows he killed the trader, she then points out that since he has never confessed to the crime no proof exists, but once the deed is publicly avowed anyone could inform the police and then he would be arrested.

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Agaguk admires his wife's chain of reasoning, especially since this had never crossed his mind. During the same conversation he attempts to get to the bottom of things and wonders why they had come to him since other villagers seem to have the necessary qualities for the position. Once more Iriook enlightens him. The Inuit consider him a hero worthy of leading them because he has killed Brown and escaped white man's justice, which no other tribesman has done before. Agaguk's inability to understand intuitively his own people's collective mentality would, in the long run, invalidate his power and bring about his downfall. And, since one of the modalities is negated, so are the others through logical presupposition: [/knowledge/ (2)-power/]. The survival of the group seems to presuppose a fundamental understanding articulated and consolidated by tradition: 'Ramook was intelligent, so were the other Eskimos. They would all be faithful to their tribal solidarity' (74). Yet, on the other hand, without cunning, 'the essential thing in this strange country,' (127) intelligence remains ineffective. On many occasions the narrative stresses the complex relationships that exist between constituent elements comprising collective wisdom and power (24, 29, 73, 114, 122-33). Ayallik hesitates in denouncing the chiefs son because he feels he might incur the vengeance of the tribe for his treachery: 'Ambition and fear were in conflict in the Eskimo's soul. Patience was necessary. An instinctive wisdom counselled waiting. The opportunity might be better tomorrow or the next day' (68). However, all of the elements governing social relations co-exist in the following logically ordered series: 'He had the qualities of a chief, cleverness, intelligence, authority, ability, youth, strength' (199). The modalities can be transcribed: [/knowledge(2)-power/], and can be interpreted: secondary knowledge precedes and founds social power. However, while social power logically presupposes secondary knowledge, the inverse is not necessarily true; secondary knowledge does not automatically imply social power. Knowledge: Mythical

Iriook, who has a privileged status as far as mythical power is concerned, exemplifies mythical understanding in the same way. Contrary to the practical, which especially depends on experience acquired over a long period of time and can be characterized by the aspectualities of durativity and iterativity, the mythical is activated instantaneously (inchoativity) and is described in terms of feminine physiological maturation:

104 Semiotics and the Modern Quebec Novel the face she had loved so much from the first moment when, woman at last, she had felt the desire of man. She was eleven then, a chubby girl, and every night she watched the swelling of her round firm breasts, hard as the stone of the lamp. When her first period came, she had run to the woman in the neighbouring hut, but she had known already what she would hear. It was at that time that she had seen again the chief's son, but it seemed to her that she saw him with new eyes. (142)

She feels instant certainty in her innermost being, and her body acknowledges these sentiments in the mode of desire. 'Agaguk had smiled at her, and she had felt all her flesh move suddenly, an unexpected sensation that gave her pleasure' (142). And when she accepts him and decides to leave with him, 'she felt a joy she had never known. Like nothing before, a mysterious attraction warmed her body and troubled her heart' (142). Marked by her foreign origins, Iriook, who 'descended from the people on the other side of the world' (139), is also different from other women of the tundra because she possesses an instinctive awareness of truth and lies, of good and evil: 'He [Agaguk] lied without knowing how to lie, as Iriook knew perfectly well' (51); 'And yet Iriook found hateful this acceptance of murder as a normal gesture. She had never approved of it. In such matters was she different from her contemporaries? Had some human evolution shown up in her?' (175). Her moral consciousness and her intuitive knowledge of right and wrong do not stem from doctrine progressively taught over time, but spring forth as soon as she attains womanhood: 'Her revulsion of evil was a living thing which she approved, but it did not occur to her to be surprised that she felt this way' (175). In this universe, physical and moral maturation are the two co-extensive orders inscribed in the singular nature of woman. Again, contrary to the practical, the mythical is defined by the feminine appropriation of the logos (word, speech, reason) and its efficient, intuitive manipulation. Not only does woman garner all of the resources of language by saying I, thereby assigning herself as speaking subject in language, she also institutes her interlocutor, you, as virtual speaking subject, who in turn can appropriate all the resources of language and thereby create and maintain the conditions of intersubjective relations, in and through language. Comprehension here is not dependent on empirical observation, but arises instantaneously according to need: 'An instinct awoke in her, told her the gestures to make, the words to say' (152). Words and reason are spontaneously generated regardless of her

System of Modalities 105 will: 'Possibly I am not like the others. I have some things to say, and if I think, it's because I can't prevent myself (172). In addition, she is gifted with the power of logical thought, 'a reasoning ability that few women of her race possessed' (175). This instinctive, innate logos is directly opposed to masculine understanding, or the doxa, a form of public opinion, grounded in blindly accepted tradition. During the couple's last critical confrontation concerning their daughter's right to live, Agaguk attempts to convince Iriook, to win by logic. Yet 'the habits transmitted to him, the fears of many thousands of years, are not easily expressed. He sought for words' (224-5), but she anticipates his arguments and in the end he must give in to her all-powerful intuitive logic. Since the mythical appears suddenly, irrespective of all temporal processes, it simply actuates the possibilities inherent in woman's particular nature. From this perspective the degree of woman's power is proportional to the intuitive knowledge initially inscribed in her. In other words, feminine natural knowledge regulates the power of the mythical subject: [/knowledge (3)power/].

WILL: SOCIAL The modality of/will/, writes J.-C. Coquet (1973, 169), institutes the subject by transforming him/her into a personal actant /I/. The majority of the actors in Agaguk cannot legitimately lay claims to this distinction. Most of the time, they simply confirm collective /knowledge/, /power/, and /duty/ by patterning their desires on the accepted norms of the group or the social sender (duty(2)). Even their leader, bound by tradition, cannot safely function if he ignores the needs of the tribe: 'What punishment is inflicted on chiefs who err in their judgments, for a day's failures?' (194). When Oonak, nominated for the position, proposes unacceptable democratic conditions, he is instantly repudiated and returns to obscurity (196). The refusal to activate social understanding, /knowledge/, or /duty/ relegates the subject to an undifferentiated role within the group, undermines /power/, and annuls the positive series. Thus: [/will-duty(2)/] -» [/knowledge(2)-power/]. The kind of subject incapable of personal desire is likened to the gregarious beasts of the tundra (64, 127, 128) because he is governed by animal instincts. Without a leader, the pack/tribe becomes totally disorganized and cannot relate an elementary desire to a defined object of value: 'To decapitate a tribe by removing its chief unsettles its ways of living, bores all the men by imposing long palavers on them, provoking un-

106 Semiotics and the Modern Quebec Novel easiness among them, troubles they would like to be spared. Thus they had not gone hunting for several days. This might damage their life for months to come' (198). This anonymous, intransitive desire, characterizing each member of the group, is therefore the primary and necessary condition for its survival:

SOR (/group/) (/survival/) (/group/) (S = sender and R = receiver) Each renounces individual will and invests the chief with a power of absolute decision-making to be activated in the interests of the common good. One can recognize here two types of actants. The first, represented by /it/, includes most of the members of the collectivity and forms an indiscriminate mass without individual desires. The second, or the chief, who optimally should desire for the tribe and therefore be represented by /they/, gives free reign to his desires, naming or identifying the wished-for object of value. (Ramook, 'ambitious and dishonest,' accumulates bundles of skins of inestimable worth [197-8]) and can, in this particular case, be designated by /I/.) The individual male social /I/ is able to assert himself only by means of his ability to perceive and articulate the workings of the group: This Ramook was tricky. He had been able to marry a Montagnais woman and remain chief of the tribe. That showed an extraordinary ability' (73). He dominates the others by knowing when to speak and maintains his position by force, duplicity, and tradition. As for the group, knowledge and power are not oriented by personal desire or duty, and can therefore be attributed to an indeterminate agent (tradition, animal nature), an /it/. On the contrary, Ramook's personal will, /I/, or self-interest, as well as traditional obligations, guarantee his social understanding, which founds his power within the group: [/will-duty(2)/] -> [/knowledge(2)power/]. Will: Individual-Intransitive Instinctive male awareness and power also form an ordered pair. Agaguk's desires are mediated by his comprehension and intuition of nature. Even his vision of paternity is anchored in the concrete personal experience of his immediate environment. 'He would tell everything to this first witness he would have. Every day he would show him the mysteries of their own survival, in accordance with that of the tundra's animals'

System of Modalities 107 (33). He daydreams about his son who will become 'the hero of all the tribes, the man who would be sung about in the igloo evenings. Legendary hunter, powerful as the storm' (80). Yet the fulfilment of his dream, it has been suggested, will depend on both the thoroughness of the father's traditional instructions and the son's inherited physical and mental traits. 'What more was there to hope for, indeed, than that Tayaout should become a great hunter?' (83): [/knowledge(l)-power/] —» [/will-duty(2)/]. Nonetheless, this desire is not uniquely posited in terms of the other and, as such, remains partially intransitive, since the son's glory will necessarily reflect the father's merit: 'greater than all the storied heroes, Tayaout son of Agaguk ... grown from his seed, his own creation, flesh of his flesh issue of father who would also be hailed - Son of Agaguk!" (80-1).

of Agaguk!" (80-1). (/by me/) (/son/) (/for me/) (S = sender and R = receiver) Will: Individual-Transitive Dreams, which represent the innermost wishes of the practical agent, also disclose the aspirations of the mythical subject. Agaguk, while in a twilight state due to his wounds, reviews the salient moments of his life. He then has terrifying nightmares and in his delirium screams 'like an animal' (141). The horrible cries he feels rising from the depths of his being die away into a faint moan on his lips, and Iriook, who is asleep, wakes at hearing him groan. She too starts to daydream of her former life, of the particular moment when desire swelled up within her when she attained womanhood, became crystallized and permanently fixed upon an avowed object. 'It was a very simple mirage, often times repeated. She thought of nothing but the task to be accomplished, to accomplish it for this man whom she loved and who had chosen her for the children that she would bear. The passage of the days - she knew no miracle in them if not Agaguk's presence, in itself all miracles and the fulfilment of all her desires' (142). One notes that obligation here is not external to the subject but is edicted as a personal law or duty, duty (1). The advent of woman's personal mythical will is instantaneous, and the female actant fulfils, regardless of all previous experience, her physical and spiritual nature received at birth: [/will-duty(I)/] —> [/knowledge (3)-power/].

108 Semiotics and the Modern Quebec Novel The masculine agent, however, must slowly discover the meaning of the wished-for object of value, and unlike the female, his will must necessarily be mediated by his lived experience before it becomes operative. Sitting with his wife after the constables have departed, Agaguk dreams of carving Tayaout's likeness in stone. Iriook suddenly asks him if he would kill another man who tries to cheat him. The hunter hesitates: 'to reason so, not only to foresee events, but to decide a lifetime ahead what one would do, was much to ask of him' (176). He wants to answer her and feels a need to reassure her. He looks out over the tundra at the cloudless sky and the river flowing at their feet and sees Tayaout playing nearby, almost naked in the heat of day, rolling in the moss. Agaguk understands that to turn away from this peace and serenity would constitute disaster: 'He could not have put it into words, but he had the consciousness of decisions that must be taken. He felt the peace about him, and he valued its full worth ... "I would not kill again," he said firmly' (177) [/knowledge(3)-power/] -» [/will-duty(l)/]. Again, feminine mythical desire, unlike the practical, is transitive since it is dependent on the absolute original choice of the other, and expresses the unmitigated hope that man accept himself and become aware of his own worth: 'Would he adjust himself to his fall? What could she do to give back to the man she loved his will to live as absolute master of the hut, of the igloo and the tundra?' (152). And finally, the mythical agent desires ardently that man feel remorse for his crime (173) and discover the meaning of good and evil so that he too can live in peace: 'but there might be more. There might be the precise confirmation that Agaguk would never kill again, that he would never be taken away by the white men - his life saved once, and peace for all the years to come' (176). Thus:

SOR (/by me/) (/good/) (/for you/) (S = sender and R = receiver) In the above modal series, will, /I/, and duty (1) function as the regulators of/knowledge/. From this point of view, Iriook is a powerful natural subject since her mythical /doing/ takes effect irrespective of all acquired wisdom, whereas the masculine agent's practical and mythical comprehension activates his will and duty. The /I/ produced in the series governed by will is radically different from the one generated in the series regulated by knowledge.

System of Modalities 109 DUTY

A final modality, whose status and function is different from those of the previous three modalities that modalize ego, must now be examined. In the construction of the modalized subject having-to or duty can be broken down into two broad classes - having-to-do or prescription as opposed to having-to-be or necessity - but they maintain an undeniable semantic affinity. Since, in this chapter, we are investigating mainly the subject that is modalized and not the modalized object (utterance of state), we shall focus mainly on prescription - that is, on obligation and duty - instead of necessity. Contrary to the modalities of knowledge, power, and will, which identify and motivate the autonomous actant, ego, the modality of duty is considered as an overdetermined actant that enables us to distinguish and delimit the 'heteronomous' actant (see Coquet 1984, 11) Duty raises the problem of the actant subject that does not act in its own name in relation to an object of value, but in the name of another actant exercising institutionalized power. We can call this actant the sender. At its most elementary level, 'a semiotic subject is said to exist as subject only insofar as at least one determination can be recognized in it, in other words, only insofar as it is in relation with some object of value. Likewise, an object among the innumerable objects that a discourse contains - is such only if it is in a relation, if it is "aimed at" by the subject' (Greimas and Courtes 1982, 112). However, we also noted throughout our analysis of Agaguk that the subject did not exist in relation to the object of value without the opponent or anti-subject. Hence, as far as we are concerned, in a literary text such as the novel, we can say that the subject exists only in relation to objects of value and to other subjects. This ternary relation is what determines the semiotic existence of subjects in the novel: R (SI O S2) (R = relation, SI = subject, O = object of value, S2 = subject or anti-subject)

However, with the quaternary relation we introduce the notion of dependence. The subject (SI or S2) is subordinated to a fourth actant, the seat of an irreversible transcendental power that we can call the sender (S3): R[S3(S1 O S2)] The actant subject (SI or S2) is determined in relation to the sender S3.

110 Semiotics and the Modern Quebec Novel We noted in our study of Agaguk that the three modalities of knowledge, power, will constitute the identity of the ego. We also examined only a single type of actantial relation - the ternary relation subject-object-subject: R (SI —> O 4- S2) - which is egalitarian by nature, since even if there exists a hierarchical relation between actants an inversion of the terms by definition is always possible. For example, we saw that the chief and the sorcerer dominate the tribe, but in the end they fall from grace and are stripped of power; Agaguk dominates Iriook at the beginning of the novel and for a brief time just after his accident, and Iriook also dominates Agaguk, but slowly they become equal subjects who share their innermost feelings and thoughts; Brown cheats and robs Agaguk but then is killed by him; Henderson, who represents all-powerful white man's justice, arrives in the village but is eliminated by the chief and the sorcerer. We also noted that there exists another type of relation that does not admit involution, when the subject actant is subordinated to the sender: R [S3 (SI -» O [/knowledge (3)power/] (mythicalinstinctive) Assertion of the positive series [/knowledge (3)power/] —> [/will-duty(l)/] (mythical-transitive)

Sequence 5

131

Sequence 6

function: /negate/ actant: Woman object: secondary knowledge time: present

function: /institute/ actant: Agaguk object: happiness time: present

Sequence 5: The feminine actant negates secondary will, knowledge, power, and will exemplified by Ramook, the chief, and instantly asserts the supremacy of her mythical will, knowledge, power, and duty(l). Sequence 6: Through the eradication of the tribal atavism and deep- rooted tradition the actant institutes the couple and attains happiness. He instantaneously affirms the primacy of his mythical knowledge, power, will, and duty(l). Six sequences and four classes of actants, each occupying a specific place in the logical and chronological development of the narrative, replaced the numerous personages and the forty-nine chapters of the text. The above model also has the definite advantage of providing a clear and economical reading of this intricate and plethoric novel. If, for the moment, one brackets off the three intermediate sequences (2, 3, 4), one notices the symmetry that links the final sequence to the penulti-

132 Semiotics and the Modern Quebec Novel mate one; they are isomorphic (have the same syntax), but they have a different content. All of the secondary personages of the novel primarily function as representatives of a false solution for Agaguk and Iriook. Although the tribe (animality-tradition) and white men (commerceinjustice) are real dangers to be avoided, they nonetheless correspond to possible options that must be identified, analysed, and rejected by the couple, whose role is to provide a satisfactory conclusion to the theoretical and practical model of /happiness/ proposed by the narrative. Each sequence can be considered as a temporary phase in the actant's personal development on the way to /happiness/. The four intermediate sequences mark clearly identifiable stages or levels of attainment in man's progressive discovery of the primacy of the other. The final sequence, which establishes a relationship of reciprocity and consolidates a mythical order regulated by knowledge, adumbrates the secondary practical, the instinctive, and the mythical intransitive series. The constitutive model sets into motion an ongoing process that transforms the original posited content into its opposite: (practical [/knowledgepower/] -> [/will-duty(2)/]; —» mythical [/knowledge-power/] —» [/willduty(l)/]). If one now briefly re-examines the six sequences in light of the system of modalities, then one will see that sequences 1 and 6 and 3 and 4 are opposed in much the same way as a negative sign is opposed to a positive one. The second sequence is related to the first one and the fifth to the fourth, its completive form (intransitive-transitive). Borrowing from the well-known theories of Klein and Piaget concerning the functioning of logical groups, one can set up the following model, which elucidates the various relationships between the different series of the modalities: life

kpwd

kpwd

death

death

wdkp

wdkp

life

(where kpwd = the positive modalities of/knowledge/, /power/, /will/, and/duty/). The four positions are occupied: the positive (kpwd); the negative (kpwd); the inverse of the positive (wdkp); and the inverse of the negative (wdkp). The arrows represent the direction of the transformational

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processes. Yet if we take into account the substitutes proposed during the analysis of the actantial transformations, then we can commute the modalities with the pronouns and set up the following isomorphic group: (kpwd) /K + V

/it/

(wdkp) /IH/

/they/ (wdkp)

(kpwd)

However, it is possible to rewrite the diagram one last time in terms of the hierarchical organization of identically oriented relationships - their semantic equivalences - and thus propose a 'typology' of the actant-subject.

Knowledge love

(Man) /IH/ kpwd (mythical)

Knowledge love

COLLECTIVITY

COUPLE

Love knowledge

opposition

(Tribe) kpwd /it/ (practical)

/IH/wdkp (mythical) (Woman)

wdkp /they/ (practical) (Chief)

Love knowledge

In this logical group the relations inversion, opposition (minimal disjunction), and contradiction (maximal disjunction) diagram the relationships between the actants. The four posts of /knowledge/, /power/, /will/, and /duty/ are filled. [/IH/ kpwd], Agaguk in the narrative, represents the optimal actualization of the actant, whereas [/IH/ wdkp], or Iriook, is a lesser realization. The minimal realization in relation to the optimal one (maximal disjunction) is Ramook whose betrayal of filial love provokes his repudiation. In the same way, [/IH/ wdkp] is most

134 Semiotics and the Modern Quebec Novel widely separated from [/it/ kdpw] (the tribe). /!