Representation and Transposition of the Christian Beyond in Hubert Aquin’s writing
This article analyses the representation of the Christian and more specifically of the Catholic hereafter in three of Hubert Aquin’s major books: The Invention of Death, Blackout and Next Episode. This representation, nourished by a solid religious culture (Bible, dogma, liturgy) of a writer who was notably a student of the Jesuits, is not true to his roots. On the contrary, reverting to counter-eschatology, it systematically contradicts the discourse of the Church. Two methods are used: pure and simple rejection of the main dogmas or of Biblical events often presented in a blasphemous manner; the misappropriation of the major symbols connected to the figure of Christ in the Bible (the Transfiguration) and to the liturgy (the Transubstantiation). In The Invention of Death where the hero dies theatrically by suicide and where the death of Christ is presented as a suicide, the author uses the two methods, whereas in the other two books, centered around the independent movement from Quebec, to which Aquin belonged, favour a major event in the Passion of Christ. He actually choses His descent into « hell » to free the souls of the Just, an event which becomes for Aquin the symbol of Quebec waiting its freedom.