Meaning despite ambiguity: discourse of narrator and character in Bernanos’ Monsieur Ouine

Abstract

The authenticity, even reality, of spiritual and imaginative experience has in recent years been put to a severe test by the human sciences. The work of Bernanos has this theme at its core. The character of Monsieur Ouine, especially seems to be a predecessor of many a deconstructionist critic. He submits a young boy to what can be called a counter-initiation whereby all meaning ceases to have any importance at all. At first glance there seems to be a marked resemblance between the style of the narrator and that of the discourse of Ouine, but a careful reading reveals in the narration a rhythm and the existence of a dense network of images which constitute the coherence of the work and point to an incarnational conception of language.