The myth of the lost paradise in the novels of Jacques Poulin

This study presents the universal myth of the lost paradise in the first seven novels of the Quebecois writer Jacques Poulin and examines the way in which Poulin has adapted the myth for his own purposes. Each of Poulin's novels has at its center a creation narrative - or a series of creation narratives - which evokes an idealized world. The properties of this idealized world are inner peace and harmonious relationships which result from the search for an understanding of the self. The contrast between the ideal and the world in which the characters operate creates a tone of nostalgia and melancholy which recalls the image of a lost paradise, a world of perfection that once existed. In recalling the myth, Poulin's work is undeniably ancient - but it is also as modern as the world whose assumptions it must represent. Paul G. Socken shows that Poulin gains his authority by bridging converse realities.^

Socken analyzes the shape and direction of Poulin's creation narratives as they evolve in the novels and demonstrates their presence from the earliest quasi-political Un cheval pour mon royaume to the highly introspective Le Vieux Chagrin. The novels move from an outer-directed concept of the lost paradise as a state to be attained beyond the self to a sense of the lost paradise as the kingdom within, achievable first on the individual level as self-knowledge and only afterwards on the social level. Poulin introduces the theme of the soul and his personal concept of it, as the soul for him is proof of the inner life that embodies the qualities of tranquility and tenderness associated with the lost paradise. Lost paradise literature is universal and timeless. Poulin's portrayal is placed in historical context so that his contribution to the genre can be fully appreciated. Referring to studies by such critics as Mircea Eliade, Northrop Frye, Jerome S. Bruner, and Jack J.^

Boies, Socken demonstrates how Poulin's use of the myth reflects a modern tendency toward the personalization and internalization of myth. He further shows how Poulin puts his own stamp on the myth in moving from abstract and transcendent models to one person's resolution of the quest for the lost paradise at a given time and place. This resolution is not so much an attempt to recapture the former state of perfection as it is a voyage of personal discovery and inner growth - the acquisition of insight. Poulin's success in his quest for the lost paradise is partial, fragile, and problematic, and expresses the dilemma of the modern writer operating in a world of uncertainty and shifting values.