L'esthétique baroque et l'être brisé

Abstract

If a number of critical works have found traces of the Baroque diffused in the novels of Québécois writer Hubert Aquin, it is due in part to the consciousness and the pronounced interest that Aquin had for this aesthetic. But what characterizes this aesthetic, and how are we able to apply it to works written almost five centuries after the Baroque period? More precisely, how does it manifest itself in Aquin s L Invention de la mort, and finally, what is the effect of reading the novel through this particular lens? This study examines the manner in which L Invention de la mort, once analyzed through a Baroque prism, functions as a mirror that on the one hand reflects the psychological states of the characters - in particular the duality of intentions and the internal rupture that plagues them - and on the other, evokes tension in the hopes that the reader, too, becomes divided.