Sinotte focused her thesis on Putain and Folle and explains that she was initially interested in studying Arcan’s because she felt touched by the writing: “Arcan’s writing is very factual; it takes place in Montreal (my hometown) and I admire the courage she had to talk about her past and about certain issues of our society (beauty, plastic surgery, prostitution, religion). I also simply liked her written style. She is cynical, and uses a lot of a black humor and images when she writes.” Also drawn to the philosophical facets of the writing, Sinotte wanted to explore the ways the author mediated her self-representation through the art of autofiction (autobiographical fiction).
Sinotte’s thesis examined the way the narrator’s constructed speech and dialogue reflected the contradictory ways the author saw herself: “The narrator seems to be trapped between two kinds of speech: speech about who she really is (the autobiographical part of her writing) and speech about who she wants to be and wants to project to people around her (the fictional part). Society makes it even harder for her to accomplish her goals (and show the real 'her') because it so strongly influences her to follow certain criteria to be accepted, to be considered normal and beautiful. On top of that, the narrator (living and evolving in that society) ends up mixing those two kinds of language; it becomes difficult for her to determine which parts of her personality are real and which parts are acted. The performance of everyday life becomes a part of her and of who she really is.”