Semiotics and the Modern Quebec Novel: A Greimassian Analysis of Thériault's Agaguk

Marguerite Andersen is a professor of French studies at the University
of Guelph.

Paul Perron, a professor of French Studies at the University of Toronto,
specializes in semiotics. In this book, he provides a Greimassian
analysis of Agaguk, the well-known novel about the life of the Inuit by
the Quebec author Yves Thériault.

The book begins with an overview of the history of Quebec literature.
Perron then discusses literary semiotics, its various schools, and its
relationship to the social sciences. (This study is based on
socio-semiotics.) His analysis of Agaguk leads him to conclude that the
novel’s setting and characters are metaphors for Quebec society: in
Thériault’s novel, a man and a woman separate themselves from the
traditional group and evolve into a new and unique couple.

Perron’s insightful and important study includes a short but useful
glossary.