A comparative study of secular accounts of the apocalypse in four contemporary novels:---Kurt Vonnegut's 'Galapagos', 'The Road' by Cormac McCarthy---Nicolas Dickner's 'Tarmac', and 'Les larmes de saint Laurent' by Dominique Fortier

This thesis is a comparative analysis of the apocalypse as a theme in four novels, two American and two Quebecois. Originally a biblical myth, apocalyptic tales are comprised of three narrative aspects defined Bertrand Gervais as Crisis, Time, Meaning / Sense. The four novels are analyzed individually according to these three elements. The American novels correspond to the more traditional pattern of the myth in which the world faces mass destruction followed by the survival of of the chosen-ones who will experience redemption. Contrarily, the two others demonstrate the conceptualization and representation of the traditional myth of the apocalypse towards a modern analogy of transformation of individuals within a profane world; one in which the mythical becomes farcical.;Key words: Apocalypse, crisis, time, meaning, sense, destruction, collective, individual, intertexuality.