The Quebec Landscape of Cinematic Imagination: A Socio-Cultural Analysis of the Spectral Absurd in Contemporary Quebec Cinema

This master examines Quebec cinema since 2019, aiming to describe and analyze a new poetics, which it terms the Spectral Absurd. This concept refers to a cinematic style in contemporary Quebec productions, characterized by the presence of ghosts or an eerie atmosphere while simultaneously incorporating absurd situations, often with comedic undertones. The study builds on research into the prevailing melancholy in Quebec cinema, explored by scholars such as L. Czach, A. Loiselle, and D. Hanley. Additionally, it draws on K. Dyer's dissertation on the growing trend of incorporating supernatural and ghostly elements in Quebec cinema since the 1990s. Inspired by Dyer's research, this thesis takes a socio-cultural analytical approach but focuses on an aspect not previously explored in relation to spectrality-the absurd. It asks key research questions: What does the Spectral Absurd reflect within contemporary societal debates in Quebec? What aspects of Quebec's social reality does this cinematic phenomenon reveal? Through socio-cultural analysis, the thesis interprets the Spectral Absurd as serving three key functions: as a political tool offering insight into power relations within Quebec's ethnically and ethnoculturally diverse society; as a critique of outdated and dysfunctional Christian norms and...