Starting with a certain number of theoretical and analytical models, three interrelated operative patterns can be distinguished in the structuring of the discourse about the land and the soil in the rural St. Maurice Valley novel : the inculte, the defriche and the cultive. Keeping in mind the last three fundamental paradigms of creative activity and situating them according to those of the narrative discourse (the hero, the space, the time of narration), enabled us to analyse the typology of the earth discourse included in a corpus of Québécois novels of St. Maurice Valley inspiration, published between 1850 and 1950. By bringing out into prominence the organizing mechanisms of belief or myth, the authors emphasize the main symbolic rituals and archetypes specific to the world of objects described by novelists.