Jacques Ferron's Cotnoir is about the relationship between salvation and imagination. The character of Dr. Cotnoir is the principal agent of salvation, but the narrator, who is also a character, is the artist who brings the salvation to public attention, thus suggesting the importance of art. However, the artist's role is necessarily secondary, as his creation and recreation of the world in his art would not be possible without Cotnoir's salvation of the character Emmanuel. Art, though important, is relegated to a kind of reportage, and must not be confused with the deeds to which the art alludes.
