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A Utopian Construct in the Canadian Desert: Lesage’s Experiment in the Empowerment of the Female Roseann Runte U TOPIAN CRITICISM may deal with the notion of utopia as eutopos , u-topos, or a combination of both, as Trousson calls those travels to nowhere which deal with a perfect society and happi­ ness.1 It may also deal with utopia as revolt,2 a form of criticism,3 a refusal of the reigning ideology of a given state,4as a picture of a flawless ideal5or as an ideal in which one admits a certain level of pragmatism.6 Utopian writing may be treated as a verbal construction, a narrative frame, a way of thinking or a fiction.7It may be seen as a discourse of concepts or figures.8In all cases, it tends to fit into one of four categories. First, it is characterized by the eternal question of topos which necessarily involves a description of place and usually entails the defini­ tion of utopia by the depiction of categories. Secondly, there is the approach to the topic which involves the invocation of general, broad definitions. Most informative in this respect is Leibacher-Ouvrard’s syn­ thesis and analysis of these definitions. Suvin’s definition, which is pre­ ferred by Leibacher-Ouvrard, is in turn replaced by Trousson with one of his own invention. Suvin defines utopia as the verbal construction of a particular quasi-human community where socio-political institutions, norms and individual relationships are organized according to a more perfect principle than in the author’s community, this construction being based on estrangement arising out of an alternative historical hypothesis.9 Trousson, while maintaining the concept of community and thus exclud­ ing adventures a la Robinson Crusoe, multiplies the organizing principles to include political, economic, and moral concepts. Besides introducing this level of complexity, Trousson also eliminates from discussion Golden Age or Arcadian dreams which could, conceivably, be included in Suvin’s definition. He also includes, alongside the concept of the con­ structive utopia, the notion of the modern anti-utopia. Finally, he clari­ fies any ambiguity of the concept of distancing by specifying that the utopia may be situated in a real space, an imaginary space or in time, 18 W i n t e r 1994 R u n te past or future, at the conclusion of an imaginary voyage which may or may not have elements of realism (Trousson 28). The third approach to the topic is to study the structure of utopia as a discourse composed of three parts: a critique of an existing society, a description of a better or the perfect state, and the enumeration of the conditions which render the previously described society flawless. This approach is the most conservative in that it reflects the structure of More’s utopian narrative. Finally, there are critics who have approached the subject most originally and creatively by studying, for example, the use of language in the utopian vision and the role of “ micro-utopias” in the framework of larger works, and who have concentrated on the works of individual authors alone1 0 or have done comparative analyses (Leibacher-Ouvrard). The text proposed here for discussion, Les Avantures de Monsieur Robert Chevalier, dit De Beauchêne, capitaine de flibustiers, by AlainRen é Lesage,1 1is, according to Trousson, a continuation of the agrarian utopian segment found in Fénelon, a text in which the Noble Savage plays the role already familiar from Lahontan’s dialogues in criticizing royalty and inequality. Thus, according to Trousson, Lesage’s text fits with the popular myth explained by Cro. Indeed, Cro specifies that utopia must respect individual freedom. For example, Prévost’s texts do not follow this precept, the “ perfect society is condemned because happi­ ness is imposed and not desired.” 1 2Thus, Lesage’s work would represent a more perfect utopian construct than that of Prévost because individual freedom is nominally, at least, and, depending on one’s interpretation, in reality as well, respected. At the same time, Lesage’s work is dismissed by Racault who declares that, since, in his view, Lesage is much less inter­ ested in the collective experience than in the adventures...

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