In this paper, I will be studying the combination of a traditional bildungsroman plot with a romance narrative in two contemporary works from Quebec: the 1998 film “Deux Secondes” by Manon Briand and the 2002 novel Le Coeur est un muscle involontaire by Monique Proulx. The film tells the story of Laurie, a 28-year-old professional mountain cyclist who has been forced to retire because of her “old” age. As she struggles to find her niche in the competitive world of bike courier delivery services in Montreal, she learns about herself and her love for the bicycle. The novel tells the story of Florence, a 26-year-old professional web designer, who creates websites for writers and artists hoping to find fame via the world wide web. Although in the beginning of the novel, she claims to abhor reading novels (too slow and cumbersome for the fast-paced internet age), her boss assigns her the impossible task of discovering the true identity of the mysterious writer Pierre Laliberté. As a result, Florence dives in to the world of reading and learns to understand both novels and people.

Both of these works focus on the personal coming-of-age narrative of these two women Laurie and Florence, with some of the archetypal elements of the traditional bildungsroman (finding a mentor, taking detours, coming to self-realization, etc). And both works tell their stories mainly in the setting of the heroine’s work environment, be it a bicycle shop or a computer programming office. What is remarkable is that both works end with the intervention of elements from the traditional romance plot. The mixing of the two genres, bildungsroman and romance narrative, results in an unusual “hybrid” text: while gender roles and public/private distinctions are reversed or questioned throughout the text, the use of familiar narrative elements such as the romance plot for women allows the reader/viewer to absorb and digest easily these inventive views of women at work.