Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'French literary culture'

Although historians have written extensively on both the early modern era and the development of an absolute monarchy, the history of Jewish communities in France and the role they played has been largely ignored. Beginning with the French Wars of Religion, this study analyzes to what extent France’s religious situation affected the growth of absolutism and how this in turn affected the Jews. Taking advantage of the fractured nature of the early French monarchy, Jews began settling in provinces along the border of both Spain and the Holy Roman Empire. Affected by economic jealousies and cultural perceptions of Jews, the treatment of these communities by local officials led to requests by Jews for royal intervention in these regions. Perceptions of Jews evolved through the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries as the French Enlightenment influenced the way Jewish characters were presented. This study then ties these perceptions of Jews to the political and economic reality of these communities in an attempt to create a unified history of France’s early modern Jewish population.

This thesis studies the interaction between language, people and culture in England in the century either side of 1300 by analysing the use of French in three Middle English texts: Laȝamon's Brut, Kyng Alisaunder, and Handlyng Synne. I explore the ways in which these texts exploit the sociocultural implications of French elements to negotiate the expression of collective identity, and consider what that suggests about the texts' audiences. This exploration also provides insights into the sociolinguistic relation between English and French. Specifically, I add to recent work on multilingualism within texts by providing a more systematic approach than has been adopted hitherto. Since this period saw the largest influx of French-derived vocabulary in English, evaluating the use of French elements requires consideration of the extent to which that vocabulary had become integrated in English. This aspect has not so far been included in studies of multilingualism in texts, and in approaching it this thesis brings together previous work on loanwords to offer a systematic methodology. Chapters 2 to 4 treat the lexis of the individual texts. Study of the broader context of the French elements in chapter 5 shows that they are distributed evenly across the texts and the majority are introduced independently of the source texts. Those that were carried over from the source texts were not adopted into Middle English more generally. Appeal to a specific register better explains the appearance of clusters. Chapter 6 concludes that the implications of the French elements in these texts centre on the negotiation of social and cultural identity. No clear support was found for the use or avoidance of French elements to express ethnic or religious identity in these texts. The style of both versions of Laȝamon's Brut was confirmed to be the result of redactors' choices and not the state of the language as a whole, since most French-derived words in either version were apparently well integrated by 1300. On a larger scale, the amount of well-integrated lexis of French origin in Handlyng Synne demonstrates the extent to which French-derived vocabulary had become accessible as early as 1300. Lastly, the atypical, specialised French elements in Kyng Alisaunder are best explained by supposing its initial audience included those with extensive knowledge of French. This supports the hypothesis of continuity of audience between French and Middle English literary culture.

Th. doct.--Histoire--New York--Columbia University, 1997.
Bibliogr. p. 338-387. Cette publication a d'abord été éditée sous forme multimédia dans la série "Gutenberg-e series", on peut y avoir accés en allant sur le site http://gutenberg-e.org., il s'agit d'un programme de l'"American historical association and Columbia university press"

This thesis examines the evolutionary journey of the concepts of the ‘child’ and ‘childhood’ during the French long-nineteenth century, as expressed through the period’s literary and visual culture. It analyses in what ways these concepts reflect a ‘shadowland’ existence in this period, and in turn how the shadow metaphor symbolises both the child itself and its complex, changeable condition. The shadow metaphor not only characterises various concepts associated with children and childhood, but extends to represent the nature of the study itself. The long-nineteenth century forms a stretch of ‘shadowland’ reflective of the abstruseness of the topic which lies between pre-Enlightenment ‘darkness’ and the illuminating ‘light’ of the twentieth century. The thesis focuses on this crucial though oft overlooked developmental period between the scholarly inception of children and childhood in the late Enlightenment, to their establishment as creative blueprints in twentieth-century modernism. Supported by a socio-historical grounding, an exploration of the work of Baudelaire, Hugo, Rousseau, Proust, Redon, Degas, Renoir, and Loïe Fuller, amongst others, enables us to ‘unpack’ the ways in which this shadowy quality gave rise to not only a curiosity to explore the fascinating ‘other’ of the child and its condition in this complex epoch, but also a proclivity to explain and control it. Investigating the rhetoric of children and childhood, considering their artistic and literary significance at this time, the thesis both accounts for how writers and artists reflected upon childhood, and explores the process by which children and childhood were harnessed by intellectual and creative endeavours. Various as the case studies prove, they can all be united in their fulfilment of a regression towards and reimagining of one’s childhood and personhood, like a re-engagement with the ‘shadow child’ within, in the face of the disturbing ephemerality of self alongside the destabilising onset of modernity.

Cette thèse met en perspective le contexte particulier du recul de l’enseignement du français dans les universités portugaises comme le symptôme de phénomènes plus vastes, dont la redéfinition de la mission des universités dans un champ éducatif transnationalisé, ou la mise en cause des humanités dont la littérature constituait un élément central. Sont examinées les transformations à l’oeuvre dans les sociétés contemporaines marquées par la dimension culturelle qui caractérise la mondialisation actuelle et par les bouleversements qui affectent la place et le statut des langues et l’ensemble des catégories qui informent les disciplines traditionnelles comme les Études françaises. La division disciplinaire en langues, littératures et cultures, est interrogée au regard de divers facteurs, comme la mise en valeur des fondements culturels de la langue, la redéfinition de la littérature comme discours et phénomèn! e culturel parmi d’autres, ou l’émergence de domaines professionnels consacrés à la gestion de contenus, de significations et de valeurs culturelles. Du point de vue épistémologique, la culture légitime et canonique et les littératures nationales sont également observées selon la perspective des Études culturelles et postcoloniales, qui remettent en cause les frontières disciplinaires et les logiques « mono-identitaires ». À la lumière de l’analyse de ces transformations la réflexion débouche sur un projet didactique qui envisage les Études françaises, mais aussi l’enseignement de la littérature et les humanités en général comme un chantier en devenir, où les disciplines traditionnelles sont amenées à se repenser et à se réinventer au contact de discours culturels et littéraires renouvelés dans lesquels l’adaptation et le mélange des langages jouent un rôle décisif
This thesis problematizes the specific context of the decline in the teaching of French in Portuguese universities as a symptom of other phenomena, such as the redefinition of the mission of universities in a transnationalised educational field, and the questioning of the Humanities, partly caused by the destabilization of areas of study where literature was a central element. Ongoing transformations in contemporary society, dictated by the cultural dimension of globalisation, have led to changes in the place and status of languages, which in turn have affected the categories that inform the so-called traditional disciplines, of which ‘French Studies’ is an example. As a consequence, the disciplinary division between languages, literatures and cultures has been questioned from a variety of angles, such as the valorization of the cultural essence of language, or the re-definition of literature as discourse and cultural phenomenon. This di! vision has been further destabilized by emerging professional fields dedicated to the production, management and circulation of cultural contents, meanings and values. Furthermore, canonical cultures and national literatures are now conceptualised and read from critical places informed by fields such as Cultural Studies and Postcolonial Studies, fields which question disciplinary boundaries and ‘mono-identitary’ logic. In a context where French Studies, as well as the teaching of literature, and the Humanities more generally speaking, are being induced to rethink and reinvent themselves, it becomes crucial to consider discourses that are closer to contemporary socio-cultural realities, discourses which operate within webs of intertextuality that are somewhat alien to canonical literatures and revelatory of the diversity of the cultures and languages associated with them
A tese problematiza o contexto específico do declínio do ensino do francês nas universidades portuguesas enquanto sintoma de outros fenómenos, como a redefinição da missão das universidades num campo educacional transnacionalizado e o questionamento das Humanidades, provocada pela desestabilização de áreas de ensino em que a literatura era um elemento central. As transformações em curso na sociedade contemporânea, marcadas pela dimensão cultural que caracteriza a globalização, levaram a transformações em relação ao lugar e ao estatuto das línguas, afetando as categorias que informam as disciplinas ditas tradicionais, das quais fazem parte os "Estudos Franceses".Assim, a divisão disciplinar em línguas, literaturas e culturas, tem sido questionada em relação a diversos fatores, tais como a valorização da essência cultural da língua, a redefinição da literatura enquanto discurso e fenómeno cultural entre outros, ou ainda o surgimento de campos profissionais dedicados à produção, gestão e comunicação de conteúdos, significados e valores culturais. Além disso, a cultura legítima e canónica e as literaturas nacionais são pensadas e interpretadas a partir de lugares críticos como os Estudos Culturais e Pós-Coloniais, questionando as fronteiras disciplinares e as lógicas "mono-identitárias". Num contexto em que os Estudos Franceses mas também o ensino da literatura, e as Humanidades em geral, são levados a repensar-se e a reinventar-se, torna-se crucial considerar novos discursos culturais e literários

One of the most defining moments in the histories of British satire and the public sphere took place in the late 1790s in an abandoned house in Piccadilly. Here George Canning and several fellow conservatives began writing and circulating their weekly newspaper the Anti-Jacobin. Although the periodical has been critically neglected, it is a valuable model for exploring how literary (partisan) politicians attempted to form a rational and critical public sphere through their satiric poetry. Founded by George Canning and edited by William Gifford, the Anti-Jacobin seems to reflect a reactionary conservative's ideology and has been summarily dismissed because of this one-sided nature. In this essay, I suggest a more nuanced reading of both Canning's biography and his Anti-Jacobin poetry that will give a fuller and more accurate version of Canning, one that illustrates a moderate reformer who is concerned with centralizing the extremism of the 1790s.

This thesis considers the Renaissance understanding of the virtue of chastity within the French court, countering the view that the Renaissance courtier perceived chastity to be simply an attribute properly assigned to women as a protective virtue. From within a context of Renaissance moral paradigms, religious and secular, this study demonstrates how the French nobility championed individual perfectibility and denounced passion, embracing reason as paramount moral virtue and valorizing social codes of conduct as signs of rational activity. The rational control of the body in a social context was perceived to be necessary to the smooth- running of the State, and this control was symbolically represented as 'chastity', being grounded upon principles of self-restraint familiar to women, who were nominally pre-eminent in this area of behaviour. Such an analysis informed the discourse of Perfect Love played out at court, in which a chaste female beloved stood as an icon of universal concord. Through her perfect status she induced a publicly chaste conduct in her lover, whose pursuit was rational and stabilizing to the social milieu. This 'chaste' game was a fiction which had little relevance to private morality, but was concerned with exhibiting chaste harmony to the public gaze. It exalted the female form as an icon of the purified social body, thereby bestowing symbolic control upon woman. This study also explores the extent to which the Renaissance noblewoman was a prisoner of her own corporeal nature within this chaste discourse of love. She was influential by reason of the sexual purity attributed to her, but precariously so, because her very sexuality risked the accusation that her real 'virtue' lay not in her purity, but in her dissimulation of desire.

This study considers Thomas Hoccleve’s role, throughout his works, as a “religious” writer: as an individual who engages seriously with the dynamics of heresy and ecclesiastical reform, who contributes to traditions of vernacular devotional writing, and who raises the question of how Christianity manifests on personal as well as political levels – and in environments that are at once London-based, national, and international. The chapters focus, respectively, on the role of reading and moralization in the Series; the language of “vice and virtue” in the Epistle of Cupid; the moral version of Chaucer introduced in the Regiment of Princes; the construction of the Hoccleve persona in the Regiment; and the representation of the Eucharist throughout Hoccleve’s works. One main focus of the study is Hoccleve’s mediating influence in presenting a moral version of Chaucer in his Regiment. This study argues that Hoccleve’s Chaucer is not a pre-established artifact, but rather a Hocclevian invention, and it indicates the transnational literary, political, and religious contexts that align in Hoccleve’s presentation of his poetic predecessor. Rather than posit the Hoccleve-Chaucer relationship as one of Oedipal anxiety, as other critics have done, this study indicates the way in which Hoccleve’s Chaucer evolves in response to poetic anxiety not towards Chaucer himself, but rather towards an increasingly restrictive intellectual and ecclesiastical climate. This thesis contributes to the recently revitalized critical dialogue surrounding the role and function of fifteenth-century English literature, and the effect on poetry of heresy, the church’s response to heresy, and ecclesiastical reform both in England and in Europe. It also advances critical narratives regarding Hoccleve’s response to contemporary French poetry; the role of confession, sacramental discourse, and devotional images in Hoccleve’s work; and Hoccleve’s impact on literary tradition.

D’une signification équivalente à la « civilisation » vers une conscience de la « culturalité » en mouvement, l’évolution des notions de culture et d’interculturel nous amène aujourd’hui dans une réflexion plus dynamique sur l’identité de la personne qui porte la culture et sur sa relation avec les autres. Ce dynamisme s’illustre notamment dans la perspective didactique du Français Langue Étrangère, en particulier dans l’enseignement de la littérature française en classe de FLE. Le texte littéraire, auparavant simple support pour la traduction, nous semble aujourd’hui un répertoire interculturel où prévalent les rencontres identitaires et culturelles entre l’auteur francophone et le lecteur étranger. Cette thèse tente d’éclaircir, sous l’angle d’une vision interdisciplinaire, l’appréhension de la culture et de l’interculturel dans l’enseignement du français et de la littérature française en classe de FLE, choisissant pour cadre d’étude le milieu universitaire chinois. En prenant appui sur des observations en classe et des entretiens auprès des enseignants chinois observés, nous avons effectué des réflexions relatives aux enjeux interculturels en didactique de la littérature française dans le contexte universitaire chinois. Cette recherche sur le terrain nous a permis de proposer des activités pédagogiques destinées aux apprenants chinois s’appuyant sur un corpus littéraire d’œuvres françaises du XXe siècle et qui permettent de faire émerger en classe de littérature de FLE, les réflexions sur le lien stéréotype et identité, sur la diversité des images, ainsi que sur l’altérité dans la relation avec les autres
From a signification of “civilization” to a consciousness of “culturality” with movement, the evolution of notions of culture and the intercultural leads us today to a more dynamic reflection concerning the culture bearer's identity and his relationship with others. This dynamism is notably apparent in the teaching of French as a foreign language, particularly when it is taught through the study of French literature. The literary text, once considered as simply material for translation, appears to us today to be an intercultural repertoire filled with identity and cultural contacts between the francophone author and the foreign reader. This thesis attempts to clarify, using an interdisciplinary approach, understanding of culture and the intercultural in French language and French literary teaching, choosing the Chinese university milieu as our object of study. Supported by observations in class and interviews with Chinese teachers, we have reflected on intercultural issues in French literary teaching in the Chinese university context. This research on the ground allows us to propose pedagogical activities for Chinese students, making use of a French literary corpus of the twentieth century, that encourage reflection about the link between stereotype and identity, image diversity, as well as alterity in relationships with others

La production culturelle de l’entre-deux-guerres se distingue par un intérêt renouvelé pour la représentation des enjeux sociaux qui troublent la vie quotidienne de la population française : le travail et la misère dans un espace de plus en plus urbanisé deviennent les sujets primordiaux dans la littérature, la photographie et le cinéma, notamment pendant la période entre 1928 et 1939. Face à la crise financière, les grèves ouvrières et l’essor du Front populaire, le champ artistique réagit avec un renouveau des formes de représentation réaliste qui doit aboutir à l’interrogation de la nature du ‘peuple’, des liens sociaux qui le déterminent et de la survie des traditions populaires pendant la modernisation des pratiques quotidiennes. En littérature, un courant éphémère du roman domine les débats à partir de 1929 : le roman populiste, courant fondé dans un manifeste de Léon Lemonnier. Il devient rapidement la toile de fond d’une discussion sur le besoin de renouveler le roman réaliste et naturaliste. Simultanément, le groupe de la littérature prolétarienne autour d’Henry Poulaille se réclame de la même volonté en donnant la voix aux ouvriers. Les deux groupes, ainsi que beaucoup d’autres auteurs qui se rapprochent du populisme littéraire, réclament un renouveau du roman par le biais de la description du ‘peuple’ et de ses conditions de vie. La notion de ‘peuple’ s’oppose, dans ce contexte, à la bourgeoisie et ses écritures ‘psychologique’ et ‘snobiste’. Recourir au ‘peuple’ signifie donc avant tout une certaine esthétique anti-bourgeoise, mais – contrairement aux avant-gardes – également antimoderne, créant l’imaginaire d’une normalité marqué par la pauvreté qui devrait correspondre à l’expérience de la majorité de la population française.La thèse présente cherche à dégager d’abord les éléments d’un tel imaginaire du ‘peuple’ en s’appuyant sur la critique artistique ainsi que sur l’analyse de plusieurs romans de la nébuleuse du roman populiste : Pierre Mac Orlan, Eugène Dabit, André Thérive, Marcel Aymé et Henry Poulaille. Elle montre ensuite la survie des éléments esthétiques du populisme dans le film du réalisme poétique et dans la photographie documentaire qui donne naissance à la photographie humaniste. Ce faisant, ce travail représente une contribution sociocritique à l’histoire des idées de l’entre-deux-guerres français et signale les pièges idéologiques d’une esthétisation de termes comme ‘petites gens’ et du ‘peuple’
The cultural production of the interwar period in France is noted for its renewed interest in the representation of social issues which shake the everyday life of the French population : work and urban misery become the main subjects in literature, photography and cinema, especially in the period between 1928 and 1939. In view of the financial crisis, labour strikes and the rise of the Front Populaire, the artistic field reacts with a renovation of realist representation styles, which should lead to a questioning of the nature of ‘people’, of the underlying social connections in the masses and of the place of popular traditions in a modernized way of life. In the ambit of literature, a short-lived movement of novel writers dominates the discussions from 1929 onwards: the populist novel, a movement founded in a manifesto written by Léon Lemonnier. This movement becomes quickly the backround for a further discussion about the needs for a renewed literary realism or naturalism. Simultaneously, the group for proletarian literature, founded by Henry Poulaille, follows the same aesthetics and claims to be the real representants of the working people by giving workers the occasion to publish. Both groups, as well as many other authors close to the literary populism, try to renew the novel by describing the ‘people’ and their living conditions. In this context, the notion ‘people’ is opposed to the bourgeoisie and its ‘psychologic’ or ‘snobby’ writing style. Thus, resorting to the term ‘people’ means first and foremost that the creator subscribes to an anti-bourgeois aesthetics, but also to an anti-modernist mindset – which distinguishes populism from the French avantgardes. It means furthermore that the creator strengthens a conception of everyday life marked by poverty which should correspond to the experiences of a majority of the French population. This thesis tries to bring out the elements of such an imagination of the ‘people’ on the basis of the artistic criticism and of the analysis of several novels written by authors who are more or less associated to the populist novel movement: Pierre Mac Orlan, Eugène Dabit, André Thérive, Marcel Aymé and Henry Poulaille. The thesis goes then on to highlight the survival of aesthetic elements of populism in the cinema of poetic realism and in French documentary photography which marks the beginning of humanist photography. By doing so, the thesis represents a sociocritical contribution to the history of ideas of the French interwar period and indicates the ideological traps of aesteticization of terms like ‘little people’ or ‘people’ in general

Thirteenth-century France saw the construction of the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris to house the Crown of Thorns and other Relics of the Passion which had been purchased by King Louis IX. As a result, a fictitious history that explained how Charlemagne had rescued these Relics from the Saracens and brought them to Paris gained widespread popularity in later medieval France. This history was in the form of an epic poem entitled the Chanson de Fierabras, of which English translations were also made. The history was, in addition, taken to Ireland, where the Irish translation, Sdair Fortibrais developed a wide circulation. However, the Irish text had as its source a Latin translation of the French epic poem. This Latin text is preserved only partially in a unique Irish manuscript of the fifteenth century. It is assumed to be the work of an Irish cleric due to the non-appearance of this version of the story outside Ireland. Hitherto unedited, the principal aim of this project is to provide an edition of the Latin text that lies between the French epic and the Irish text, and then to discuss the position of the story in the Irish literary tradition. The first part of this thesis is entitled 'The Irish Fierabras- the Historical and Literary Framework', divided into five chapters. The first chapter asks why a certain selection of literary texts were translated into Irish during the later Middle Ages, and how they were representing the literary tastes of contemporary France. A comparison is then made with the translation literature of English, Welsh and Old Norse, leading to the conclusion that the history of the Relics of the Passion was the major reason for the interest in the Fierabras story in Ireland as in England. The second chapter outlines the spread of the Fierabras story in France, England and Ireland from the thirteenth to the fifteenth century, noting any political reasons as to why the story may have been popular at any one time. The third chapter considers how the subjects of the Fierabras story were used elsewhere in the Irish tradition in order to see if any political interpretations may be applied. The results are inconclusive. The fourth chapter demonstrates that the Irish text is a close translation of the Latin, which is itself an economical translation of the French poem. The final chapter notes how the Latin text can be considered a scholastic text of the early fourteenth century, and asks if it was the work of one particular author, by comparison with another datable text. The second part, 'Manuscript, Text and Translation', is centred upon the edition of the Latin text. The edition presents the text as it is written in the manuscript, with appropriate emendations - an 'editio princeps'. The title of the text in the manuscript, Gesta Karoli Magni, is preserved. The edition is prefaced by a description of the manuscript, along with the editorial principles. It is noted how the text is preserved on one quire that would probably have been followed by a similar quire, now lost. The edition is followed by a textual apparatus, in which the editorial corrections are explained, and some further notes. A reasonably literal translation lies at the end, in which the difficulties in the Latin text are clarified as far as possible.

Thesis (M.A.)--Indiana University, 2009.
Title from screen (viewed on February 1, 2010). Department of English, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). Advisor(s): Ulla M. Connor, Frank M. Smith, Honnor Orlando. Includes vitae. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 138-139).

Though learning content in a second language (L2) requires additional time, students in immersion classes are expected to keep up with the curricular pace of traditional classes. One possible way to secure sufficient time for both language and science content learning is to integrate language arts instruction with core curricular content. This action research study investigated the effectiveness of purposefully integrating literacy instruction with the Utah Core Standards for science with 53 fourth-grade French partial immersion students in Utah. The purpose of this study was to discover how such a model might affect students' French reading skills, science knowledge, and attitudes about their immersion experience. Findings revealed statistically significant differences between pre- and post-tests on some measures of student performance, and yielded pedagogical implications regarding the development of reading fluency, science proficiency, and student engagement.

La thèse examine ce que signifie être intellectuel et communiste à travers le cas du critique littéraire. Dans ce but elle reconstitue « l’ordre des livres » communiste lors de la première Guerre froide (milieu des années 1940-milieu des années 1950). Après une présentation liminaire du contexte d’exercice et d’écriture de la critique littéraire d’« expression communiste » en Guerre froide, une première partie dresse un panorama de cette critique et de ses caractéristiques dans l’avant-Guerre froide et un contexte encore de basses eaux idéologiques. Puis la thèse étudie son durcissement et sa « pamphlétarisation », son anti-américanisation : son entrée en Guerre froide. Une troisième partie restitue le déploiement bibliographique, la « petite bibliothèque rouge » communiste de Guerre froide qui en découle, tandis que la dernière partie brosse les variantes, la crise larvée et l’ébauche d’inflexion du milieu des années 1950 de cette critique littéraire. Il résulte de ce parcours un portrait du critique littéraire communiste en « penseur d’orthodoxie » des livres et des auteurs, aux tendances « publicistes » fortes et un aperçu de la « culture littéraire » communiste : réaliste social(ist)e, soucieuse de thématiques issues du quotidien, des luttes politiques et sociales en France et dans le monde, dix-neuviémiste dans ses références esthétiques et littéraires, soucieuse d’efficience politique et sociale, anti-formaliste sur les plans esthétique et thématique…
This Master's thesis tackle what it means to be a Communist and an intellectual through the example of literary appreciation. In order to do so, it will reconstruct the Communist “order of books” during the first Cold War (mid 1940s-mid 1950s). After a presentation of how this literary criticism came to be and its writing process, a first part will give a comprehensive overview of the criticism and its caracteristics, before the Cold War, when ideologies were still fledgling. Then the thesis will focus on how the literary criticism became more radical, sounding more like pamphlets and being more anti-American; in other words, how it took part in the Cold War. The next part will analyze the development of a bibliography, which would later evolve into the "little red library" of Communism during the Cold War. Finally, the last part will show how the literary criticism started to morph in the mid 1950s, it will explain its variations and the dormant crisis that it experienced. As a result of this work, we will be able to draw a portrait of the Communist literary critic as a thinker who would envision his readings and its authors through the prism of Marxist orthodoxy, someone who would strongly feel about expressing his political views. We will see a glimpse of the Communist literary culture, with its both social and socialist realism, which was concerned with everyday issues or political and social struggles, both in France and abroad. In this culture, the influence of the 19th century could be seen in its esthetic and literary references alike, as it strove to achieve something socially and politically, in an uncluttered fashion, as far as topics and style were concerned

Victor Hugo fait partie des écrivains étrangers les plus publiés et les plus lus en URSS. Ce travail revient sur la diffusion et la réception de ses œuvres en Russie, en URSS et en Russie postsoviétique, et notamment sur l’entrée de l’écrivain dans le panthéon littéraire russe puis soviétique des écrivains étrangers, qui permet une large diffusion de ses œuvres.La méthodologie s’inspire de celle adoptée dans l’étude des transferts culturels (M. Espagne) et place au centre de l’attention les processus d’appropriation par la culture d’accueil. On s’intéresse à la création, à travers les traductions, de ce qu’on peut décrire comme l’« œuvre russe » de Victor Hugo ainsi qu’à la formation d’une figure de l’auteur. Alors que les travaux soviétiques affirment que les œuvres de Victor Hugo sont poursuivies par la censure avant la révolution de 1917 malgré l’intérêt des grands écrivains et penseurs russes, puis mises en avant à la période soviétique, on s’aperçoit que Victor Hugo entre dans le panthéon littéraire russe dès le tournant des XIXe et XXe siècle et ne fait que consolider sa place après la Révolution. La réinterprétation de l’œuvre et de la figure de l’auteur à la période soviétique est bien plus superficielle qu’il n’y paraît au premier abord
Victor Hugo was one of the most published and well-known foreign writers in USSR. We will analyse the dissimination and the reception of his works in Russia, USSR and post-soviet Russia. We will pay a special attention to the way Victor Hugo joined the Russian (and then the Soviet) literary pantheon of foreign writers, which made it possible for his works to be widely published.Our methodology is based on the one proposed in the cultural transfers studies (M. Espagne). Thus, we will focus on the process of inclusion of Victor Hugo in the Russian/Soviet culture. The translations, especially the most published ones, came to form what can be described as Victor Hugo’s “Russians works”. The Russian image of Victor Hugo created by translations and critical works also differs from the French one.Soviet works on Victor Hugo in Russia state that Hugo’s works were censored until the Revolution in 1917, although Russian writers showed interest for them, and that they began to be widely published only after 1917. However, Victor Hugo joined the Russian literary pantheon as early as the turn of the 20th century, consolidating his place after the Revolution. In Soviet times Victor Hugo and his works underwent a process of reinterpretation that might seem cardinal at first sight, but occurs to be quite superficial indeed

Comment l’étude de la réception d’une littérature étrangère dans les revues – objets hybrides et fluides dont les spécificités essentielles sont l’inscription dans la durée et le rapport entretenu avec le temps historique, ainsi que le fait d’être le résultat polyphonique d’une création collective – permettrait-elle de dépasser les distinctions entre les approches de l’« esthétique de la réception » et de l’« histoire de la réception » (et encore, de la sociologie et de la sociopolitique), et entre les notions de « réception critique » et de « réception créatrice » ? Notre recherche, portant sur un corpus hétérogène composé de trente revues littéraires et politico-littéraires italiennes, s’est articulée autour de cette question. En s’appuyant sur les notions de transfert et de réseaux et en croisant les approches quantitative et qualitative des textes français, des traductions et des contributions critiques publiés dans les revues, notre travail vise à identifier les lieux et les modalités de la réception, ses évolutions et ses invariants après la Deuxième Guerre mondiale. L’optique interdisciplinaire adoptée, s’attachant aux multiples facettes de ce phénomène, porte un nouveau regard sur les histoires croisées des littératures française et italienne, ainsi que sur l’activité des revues et les pratiques de la critique littéraire. En interrogeant les mécanismes par lesquels les revues s’approprient la littérature étrangère, ce sont les rapports qui existent entre la réception des œuvres littéraires, l’histoire d’un champ littéraire national et les facteurs extra-littéraires (historiques, politiques, idéologiques…) que nous nous proposons de sonder
Being periodicals a hybrid and fluid object, whose essential particularities are periodicity and the relationship with historical time, as well as being the polyphonic results of a collective creation, how would the study of the reception of a foreign literature in periodicals allow to overcome the distinctions in approaches between the aesthetics of reception and the history of reception, and between the notions of critical reception and creative reception? My research focuses on this question through the analysis of a heterogeneous corpus of thirty Italian literary and politicalliterary periodicals. Building on the notions of “transfer” and “networks” and by crossing quantitative and qualitative approaches in the analysis of French texts, translations and criticism edited in the reviews, my research aims at identifying reception’s places and modalities, its evolutions and invariants after World War II. The interdisciplinary point of view adopted, focusing on the phenomenon’s many aspects, takes a new look on the intermingled histories of French and Italian literature, as well as on the periodicals’ activity and forms of literary criticism. By questioning the mechanisms through which periodicals adapt foreign literature, I aim at surveying the relationships between the reception of literary works, the history of a national literary field and the extraliterary factors (history, politics, ideologies…)

Cette Thèse porte sur les échanges culturels entre la France et l’Italie, au début du XXIe siècle, dans le domaine de la traduction littéraire et de l’édition. Son but principal est l’étude des phases qui précèdent, accompagnent et suivent la publication d’une œuvre littéraire française en Italie. Après avoir situé notre sujet dans le cadre des relations historiquement très importantes entre les deux pays dans le domaine littéraire, notre analyse se focalise sur trois moments cruciaux : le choix de l’œuvre ; sa traduction ; sa parution et réception.C’est que le goût, le canon, la tradition littéraire et la culture propres à chacun des deux pays ont une influence certaine sur la réception, sur l’horizon d’attente des lecteurs et des critiques, ainsi que sur les stratégies éditoriales, tout au long des étapes qui vont de l’achat des droits aux décisions « paratextuelles » censées susciter l’intérêt du lecteur ou fournir des informations. Nous ne négligerons pas le rôle du traducteur, véritable « passeur » du texte, ses choix linguistiques et stylistiques étant souvent la clé de la bonne compréhension d’une œuvre. Si la publication et la fortune d’une œuvre littéraire dans un pays étranger sont donc le résultat d’un processus complexe, d’une accumulation stratifiée d’échanges, de stéréotypes, et de multiples interventions d’acteurs différents, notre recherche fait appel à des outils méthodologiques relevant de plusieurs champs disciplinaires, appliqués, enfin, à une sélection des romans publiés en Italie dans les dix dernières années
This thesis focuses on the cultural exchanges between France and Italy in the fields of literary translation and publishing at the beginning of the 21st century. Its main goal is to study the various stages that precede, accompany and follow the publication of a work of French literature in Italy. Having placed our subject in the context of the main historical relations between the two countries in the field of literature, our analysis concentrates on three key moments: the choice of book, its translation and finally, its publication and reception.At the centre of our analysis is the knowledge that the tastes, canons, literary traditions and cultures of the two countries undoubtedly affect the reception of a work and the expectations of readers and critics. We will therefore take into consideration the role of editorial strategies throughout this process from the purchase of the copyright to paratextual decisions, i.e. the methods used to arouse readers’ interest or supply information. We will also examine the figure of the translator, the “driving force” in the text’s transition, as it is often their choice of language and style that provides the key to our understanding of it.Given that the publication and fortune of a literary work in a foreign country are the result of a complex process and a stratified accumulation of exchanges, stereotypes and multiple operations, our research has adopted analytical methods from a wide range of fields and applied them to a selection of novels published in Italy over the last ten years

Paris a fourni à des écrivains et à des peintres polonais de multiples motifs textuels et iconiques. Il a été transformé, voire déformé, représenté sans cesse par des générations de créateurs slaves qui ont contribué à la naissance du mythe d’un Paris polonais. Si tout mythe apparaît comme irrationnel, s’il ne se préoccupe pas de la vérité historique, il n’en a pas moins un lien nécessaire avec l’Histoire et une fonction sociale. Leur connaissance reste fondamentale pour le déchiffrage du symbole, de l’allégorie et de la métaphore du Paris polonais qui revêt plusieurs significations. Il témoigne du fait que la nation polonaise s’y est créée au XIXe siècle sa « capitale » - le lieu de refuge et de rassemblement des exilés voulant reconquérir l’indépendance de la Pologne dès la fin du XVIIIe et tout au long du XIXe siècle. Plus tard, Paris devient une patrie spirituelle pour des paysans venus en France pour des raisons économiques ou politiques. Mais Paris en lui-même a également exercé sur les Polonais une influence profonde. Si le Paris cosmopolite a éduqué les Sarmates du XVIIe au XVIIIe siècle, il s’est imposé en tant que foyer de culture universelle et d’innovation dans tous les domaines de la création dans les années 1890-1939. Certes, le Paris des Polonais a une place légitime parmi les représentations nationales slaves. Toutefois, son exploitation dans une classe de Français Langue Etrangère permet l’étude des relations franco-polonaises sous le double signe de la fascination et de la désillusion. Tandis que l’Esprit français reste synonyme d’élégance et que le langage parisien témoigne d’un art de vivre, Maria Walewska demeure l’emblème de la relation affective franco-polonaise. A son tour, la représentation de l’émigré polonais rappelle l’exil, et Paris occupé par les nazis, le combat pour « notre liberté et la vôtre ». Quant aux artistes slaves de l’Ecole de Paris, ont-ils réussi à réinventer le Paris polonais ?
Paris has provided writers and Polish painters, multiple textual and iconic motifs. It has been transformed or deformed, constantly represented by generations of Slavic artists who contributed to the birth of the myth of a Polish Paris.If every myth appears as irrational, if it is not concerned with historical truth, than there is not a necessary link with history and a social function neither. Their knowledge remains fundamental to deciphering the symbol, allegory and metaphor of the Polish Paris that has several meanings.It reflects the fact that the Polish nation has created in the XIXe century his “capital” - the place of refuge and ingathering of the exiles wanting to regain the independence of Poland abroad since the late XVIIIe and all throughout the XIXe century. Later, Paris becomes the spiritual capital of peasants polish who came in France for economic and political reasons. But Paris had also a profound influence over Poles. If the Paris cosmopolitan has educated the Sarmatians of the XVIIe and XVIIIe centuries, it has established itself as a universal center of culture and innovation in all areas of creation in the years 1890-1939.Certainly, the Polish Paris has a rightful place among the Slavic national representations. However, his use in a class of French as a foreign language allows the study of Franco- Polish relations under the double sign of the fascination and disillusionment. While the French Spirit remains synonymous with elegance and the Parisian language reflects a lifestyle, Maria Walewska remains the emblem of the Franco-Polish emotional relationship. In turn, the representation of the brave Polish immigrant reminds the exile and the occupied Paris - the struggle for “our freedom and yours”. As for the Slavic artists of the Ecole de Paris, did they manage to reinvent the Polish Paris?

La présente thèse tente d’identifier les difficultés et les spécificités linguistico-culturelles marquantes qui relèvent de l’environnement de l’interprétation (français/anglais-arabe) aussi bien en pratique qu’en formation. L’interprète arabophone utilise le dialecte au quotidien mais doit s’exprimer en arabe littéraire moderne dans les conférences internationales. Il fait alors face à une variété d’arabe non acquise depuis la naissance qui est sensiblement différente des dialectes locaux, notamment sur le plan morphosyntaxique. Ainsi, l’interprète arabophone peut être amené à déployer plus d’efforts que l’interprète francophone ou anglophone dans la production de son discours (traduisant quant à eux vers leur langue maternelle) et à travailler à proximité de la saturation cognitive (Gile, 2009). Nous avons collecté des données par trois moyens : a) un questionnaire rempli par 35 praticiens et enseignants de l’interprétation de conférence, b) deux types d’enquêtes par entretien, l’une auprès de 12 interprètes professionnels, et l’autre auprès de 14 étudiants et 8 enseignants-praticiens appartenant à 4 établissements et c) par l’analyse d’un corpus d’enregistrements de l’interprétation de 2 discours. Les explorations empiriques réalisées ont permis d’identifier un certain nombre de difficultés linguistiques que rencontrent les praticiens en activité ainsi que les enseignants et les étudiants participant à une formation d’interprètes. Nous y retrouvons notamment ce qui concerne la redondance dans le discours arabe et les difficultés qui découlent de la spécificité de l’arabe. L’ALM, notamment en phase de production orale, ne serait pas considéré comme une langue « A » au sens de l’AIIC. Il s’apparenterait plutôt à une langue « B ». Tous les participants ont mis l’accent sur la difficulté de la maîtrise de leur langue « A », l’ALM. L’analyse de corpus a notamment soulevé un grand nombre de fautes et de maladresses linguistiques dans le produit oral des interprètes professionnels. De ces constats, il résulte qu’il est important d’améliorer la maîtrise active de l’ALM chez les interprètes et les étudiants. Le perfectionnement linguistique dont il est question ne peut se faire par une simple immersion linguistique dans un pays arabophone. Il faudra en effet des efforts ciblés
This thesis attempts to identify the key linguistic-cultural difficulties and specificities that are relevant to the interpretation environment (French/English-Arabic) in both practice and training. The Arabic interpreter uses the dialect in daily life, but has to speak modern literary Arabic in international conferences. He/she then faces a variety of Arabic which is not acquired since birth. It is significantly different from local dialects, in particular on the morphosyntactic level. Thus, the interpreter may have to make more efforts than the French or English interpreter in producing his speech (translating to their mother tongue) and working close to cognitive saturation (Gile, 2009). To carry out this study, we collected data in three ways: a) a questionnaire completed by 35 practitioners and teachers of conference interpreting, b) two types of interview surveys, one with 12 professional interpreters, and the other with 14 students and 8 teacher-practitioners from 4 institutions and c) by analyzing a the interpretations of 2 discourses. Empirical explorations led us to identify a number of language difficulties faced by practitioners as well as teachers and students participating in an interpreting training. We find in particular what concerns redundancy in the Arab discourse and the difficulties that arise from the specificity of Arabic. MLA, especially in the oral production phase, cannot be considered as an “A” language within the meaning of the AIIC, and is more like a “B” language. All participants emphasized the difficulty of mastering their “A” language, MLA. In particular, our corpus analysis revealed a large number of mistakes and linguistic blunders in the oral product of professional interpreters. From these findings, it is important to improve the active control of MLA among interpreters and students. The linguistic improvement in question cannot be done by a simple linguistic immersion in an Arabic-speaking country. It will indeed require targeted efforts

L'oeuvre de Gustave Oelsner-Monmerqué que notre thèse permet de découvrir offre une vision double, française et allemande, sur la société coloniale à Bourbon au début des années1840. Après une reconstitution détaillée de la biographie d'Oelsner-Monmerqué, l'étude met l'accent sur son pragmatisme abolitionniste dans l'exercice de ses fonctions de rédacteur en chef de la Feuille hebdomadaire de l'île Bourbon et de professeur de philosophie et de proviseur du Collège royal de Bourbon. En Allemagne, il poursuit son militantisme abolitionniste activement par voie littéraire à travers un roman, des articles de presse, des communications et une conférence. En publiant Schwarze und Weiße. Skizzen aus Bourbon (Noirs et Blancs. Esquisses de Bourbon) dans un pays qui ne possède pas d'esclaves, l'écrivain tente de contribuer à une émancipation plus rapide et complète. Son éclairage sur les conditions de la traite clandestine et sur la vie des esclaves dans la société bourbonnaise se distingue par son réalisme qui doit son expressivité au genre littéraire novateur de l'esquisse. Au-delà des frontières, cet ouvrage peut être considéré comme le premier roman abolitionniste bourbonnais
Gustave Oelsner-Monmerqué's work unearthed by us and presented in our doctoral thesis offers a double – French and German – vision of colonial society in Bourbon (now Reunion) Island in the early 1840s. This study begins with a detailed reconstitution of Oelsner-Monmerqué's life, then focuses on his abolitionist stance and actions as editor of the Feuille hebdomadaire de l'Ile Bourbon [Bourbon Island Weekly] and philosophy teacher at and principal of the Collège royal de Bourbon high school. Oelsner-Monmerqué pursued his abolitionist activism in Germany through literary channels: a novel, press articles andconferences. By publishing Schwarze und Weiße. Skizzen aus Bourbon [Blacks and Whites. Sketches of Bourbon] in a country which had no slaves, the author meant to contribute to their quicker and more complete emancipation. His descriptions of illegal slave trade and slave life in Bourbon Island's society have a realistic, expressive touch made possible by the use of an innovative literary genre, the sketch. A cross-boundary testimony, this work can be regardedas Bourbon Island's first abolitionist novel

For the past two decades, scholars have been reassessing the ways in which Western writers and intellectuals have traditionally misrepresented the non-white world for their own ideological purposes. Orientalism, Edward Said's ground-breaking study of the ways in which Europeans projected their own social problems onto the nations of the Near East in an attempt to take their minds off the same phenomena as they occurred closer to home, was largely responsible for this shift in emphasis. Fantasy America: The United States as Seen Through French and Italian Eyes is an exploration of a parallel occurrence that could easily be dubbed "Occidentalism." More specifically, it is a study of the ways in which French and Italian writers and filmmakers have sought to situate the New World within an Old World context. "Among the (More Advanced) Barbarians" (a.k.a. Chapter One) examines the continuities and discontinuities of French travel writing in America from the days of the Jesuits to the heyday of the existentialists. Certain motifs and idees fixes—the uniqueness of American racism; the "magic" of New York—are first identified and then examined. "A Meeting of the Mafias" (Chapter Two) is more cosmopolitan in scope, tracing the ways in which French, American, and Italian crime fiction have historically influenced each other, as well as the relationship of the policier to differing notions of the nation-state. "The Ruins of Rome" (Chapter Three) demonstrates how Italian intellectuals have looked to the United States for new World Solutions to Old World problems. This chapter encompasses two major sub-themes: the positive possibilities for Italy of "Fordismo" (the American industrial model) and American literature (which was believed to promote political, as well as cultural, liberty). "Lurching Towards the Millennium" picks up the threads of the first three chapters and places them in the contemporary context of globalization, a process which threatens to replace the hegemony of the nation state with the omnipresence of corporate power. The cultural model of Quebec is introduced at this point as a New World/Old World paradigm that embodies the chimerical contradictions of a globe on the brink of a new millennium.

Tese de doutoramento em Ciências da Cultura (ramo de conhecimento em Culturas Francófonas)
Cette thèse a pour premier objectif la problématisation du recul de l’enseignement du français dans les universités portugaises comme symptôme de phénomènes plus vastes que constituent la redéfinition de la mission des universités dans un champ éducatif transnationalisé, et la mise en cause des Humanités, en partie provoquée par la déstabilisation d’enseignements dans lesquels la littérature était un élément central. Les transformations à l’oeuvre dans les sociétés contemporaines, marquées par la dimension culturelle qui caractérise la mondialisation actuelle, ont mené à des bouleversements concernant la place et le statut des langues et affectant l’ensemble des catégories qui informent les disciplines traditionnelles comme les « Études Françaises ». Ainsi, la division disciplinaire en langues, littératures et cultures, s’est vue interrogée au regard de divers facteurs, comme la mise en valeur de la substance culturelle de la langue, la redéfinition de la littérature comme discours et phénomène culturel parmi d’autres, ou l’émergence de domaines professionnels consacrés à la production, à la gestion et à la communication de contenus, de significations et de valeurs culturelles. Par ailleurs, la culture légitime et canonique et les littératures nationales sont pensées et interprétées du point de vue Etudes Culturelles et postcoloniales, interrogeant les frontières disciplinaires et les logiques « mono-identitaires ». C’est à la lumière de l’analyse de ces transformations que le second moment de cette réflexion se consacre à l’élaboration d’un projet didactique qui envisage les Études Françaises, mais aussi l’enseignement de la littérature et les Humanités en général, comme un chantier en devenir, où les disciplines traditionnelles sont amenées à se repenser et à se réinventer, au contact de discours culturels et littéraires plus proches de réalités nouvelles, rendant compte tout à la fois de déplacements dans des espaces où s’opèrent des jeux d’intertextualité inédits aux littératures consacrées et de la multiplicité des cultures, auxquelles autant de langues sont rattachées.
This thesis problematizes the specific context of the decline in the teaching of French in Portuguese universities as a symptom of other phenomena, such as the redefinition of the mission of universities in a transnationalised educational field, and the questioning of the Humanities, partly caused by the destabilization of areas of study where literature was a central element. Ongoing transformations in contemporary society, dictated by the cultural dimension of globalisation, have led to changes in the place and status of languages, which in turn have affected the categories that inform the so-called traditional disciplines, of which ‘French Studies’ is an example. As a consequence, the disciplinary division between languages, literatures and cultures has been questioned from a variety of angles, such as the valorization of the cultural essence of language, or the re-definition of literature as discourse and cultural phenomenon. This division has been further destabilized by emerging professional fields dedicated to the production, management and circulation of cultural contents, meanings and values. Furthermore, canonical cultures and national literatures are now conceptualised and read from critical places informed by fields such as Cultural Studies and Postcolonial Studies, fields which question disciplinary boundaries and ‘mono-identitary’ logic. In a context where French Studies, as well as the teaching of literature, and the Humanities more generally speaking, are being induced to rethink and reinvent themselves, it becomes crucial to consider discourses that are closer to contemporary socio-cultural realities, discourses which operate within webs of intertextuality that are somewhat alien to canonical literatures and revelatory of the diversity of the cultures and languages associated with them.
A tese problematiza o contexto específico do declínio do ensino do francês nas universidades portuguesas enquanto sintoma de outros fenómenos, como a redefinição da missão das universidades num campo educacional transnacionalizado e o questionamento das Humanidades, em parte provocada pela desestabilização de áreas de ensino em que a literatura era um elemento central. As transformações em curso na sociedade contemporânea, marcadas pela dimensão cultural que caracteriza a globalização, levaram a transformações em relação ao lugar e ao estatuto das línguas, afetando as categorias que informam as disciplinas ditas tradicionais, das quais fazem parte os "Estudos Franceses". Assim, a divisão disciplinar em línguas, literaturas e culturas, tem sido questionada em relação a diversos fatores, tais como a valorização da essência cultural da língua, a redefinição da literatura enquanto discurso e fenómeno cultural entre outros, ou ainda o surgimento de campos profissionais dedicados à produção, gestão e comunicação de conteúdos, significados e valores culturais. Além disso, a cultura legítima e canónica e as literaturas nacionais são pensadas e interpretadas a partir de lugares críticos como os Estudos Culturais e Pós-Coloniais, questionando as fronteiras disciplinares e as lógicas "mono-identitárias". Num contexto em que os Estudos Franceses mas também o ensino da literatura, e as Humanidades em geral, são levados a repensar-se e a reinventar-se, torna-se crucial considerar discursos culturais e literários mais próximos de novas realidades, que se configuram em áreas onde se operam jogos de intertextualidade inéditos às literaturas consagradas e refletem a diversidade das culturas e das línguas que lhes são associadas.

Tese de Doutoramento em Ciências Humanas e Sociais na especialidade em Estudos Portugueses e Franceses, Época Medieval apresentada à Universidade Aberta
O século XII francês caracteriza-se por múltiplas transformações (políticas, sociais, económicas, jurídicas, ideológicas, culturais) que redefinem, lenta mas profundamente, os contornos da civilização medieval. Ora, uma das mutações mais decisivas (senão a mais decisiva e marcante) reside justamente na passagem, que perscrutamos atentamente a partir dos múltiplos discursos que in-formam o texto poético, de uma economia oblativa, intimamente ligada ao pensamento simbólico, para uma economia mercantil e monetária, subordinada ao imaginário do signo. Será por mero acaso se vemos nascer e desenvolver-se, neste preciso contexto, a narrativa ficcional em língua vernacular (em romance)? Ou será uma mesma viragem epistemológica que dá simultaneamente origem à notável monetarização (aos mais diversos níveis) das relações sociais, ao renascimento da vitalidade urbana (factores através dos quais tendem a dissolver-se os laços, extremamente fortes e ritualizados, que uniam os homens uns aos outros na sociedade feudal), ao desabrochar do pensamento escolástico e das Ordens Mendicantes, à irrupção das catedrais góticas e à emergência de uma literatura profana que reivindica, pouco a pouco, a sua autonomia perante os sistemas poéticos latinos ou neolatinos? Surgia assim uma rede coerente de possíveis analogias na qual se vislumbrava a estranha e singular geminalidade entre a imagem ambígua do mercador (modelo da fertilidade e comunicação restauradas sobre o qual plana, todavia, e inelutavelmente, o espectro da usura, da avareza, da fraude, da mentira e da falsificação diabólicas) e a não menos ambígua figura do poeta, esse demiurgo que se compraz no jogo, ao mesmo tempo lúdico e subversivo, dos simulacros da Palavra, da Criação e da Verdade. Sobre ambos, pesa o anátema da danação; ambos aspiram, no limiares de uma espécie de Purgatório da linguagem, à plena legitimação dos respectivos discursos. Numa altura em que começam a desagregar-se os valores constitutivos do feudalismo, em que a relação com um Significado fundador, referencial, se torna cada vez mais longínqua e irrecuperável, a ficção e a moeda cunhada emergem assim como dois novos tipos de mediação ante o objecto de desejo, como duas formas de escrita (homólogas, embora distintas e autónomas) que modificam as relações com o Outro e com o mundo (e com o Outro-Mundo inclusive), tanto quanto as suas respectivas representações, e através das quais se elaboram, em suma, novos processos de simbolização. A dualidade e duplicidade que se instauram entre estes dois modos privilegiados de representação (mental e socialmente construída) não podia deixar de ter influências na própria concepção da palavra poética. Com efeito, a forma como dialogam, se entrelaçam, colidem ou se excluem mutuamente imaginário oblativo (bem patente no ideal cavaleiresco e cortês de liberalidade, por exemplo) e imaginário mercantil, abre-nos um terreno de investigação único para observarmos o modo como os dois principais géneros narrativos em verso dos séculos XII-XIII (a canção de gesta e o romance que analisamos mais minuciosamente), reflectem e/ou inflectem o universo que os rodeia e, nesse processo, verificar de que forma se interrogam sobre o seu próprio estatuto e se posicionam um face ao outro através de secretas ou explícitas relações dialógicas e intertextuais. Se, nesta perspectiva, vemos o discurso épico dar, frequentemente, corpo e voz ao inconsciente ideológico e textual recalcado nos inúmeros inter-ditos, ou não-ditos, que estruturam o imaginário romanesco (e vice versa), evidenciando simultaneamente as potencialidades e os limites de uma determinada concepção da linguagem poética e da visão do mundo que (a) sustenta e veicula, caberá à chamada narrativa "realista" do século XIII levar este processo de reflexão (no sentido cognitivo e especular do termo) às últimas consequências. Com efeito, ao multiplicar falaciosamente os "efeitos de real" e as referências ao universo económico, esta narrativa sugere que a única realidade da/na literatura consiste, na verdade, no facto de ser uma arte, subtil e engenhosamente, tecida através de uma temível e sedutora manipulação da retórica da linguagem e das formas significantes nas quais se espelha incessantemente. Desta nova economia poética, emerge uma (in)suspeita, mas agora triunfal e triunfante, relação entre o poeta e o mercador de palavras, entre a usura e a narrativa ficcional enquanto infinita reprodução de simulacros e perpétua deslocação metafórica de uma significação ao mesmo tempo proliferante e sempre ausente; relação na qual se vislumbra a natureza paradoxal, evanescente e profundamente enganadora, do texto medieval como eterna falsa moeda sígnica e semântica.
The twelfth century is a complex period, characterised by an unusual quantity of transformations at all levels (political, social, economic, juridical, ideological and cultural) which would, slowly but profoundly, redefine the contours of Western Civilization. One of the most decisive mutations (if not the most decisive and impactive one) lies in the transition, deeply analysed by us through the several discourses which in-form the poetical text, from the so-called gift economy, closely related to the symbolic though, to a monetary mercantile economy, subordinated to the sign imaginary. Can it be mere chance if we can also find, precisely during that period and context, the beginning and development of the written fictional narrative in vernacular language, (the romance)? Or is it not rather the same epistemological turnover which originates, simultaneously, the remarkable monetarization of social relationships, the rebirth of urban vitality (the towns being the set for an important progressive weakening of the strong and ritualised personal bonds which maintained the cohesion of the traditional feudal society), the flourishing of scholastic thought and Mendicant Orders, the irruption of Cathedral churches and the emergence of profane Literature which slowly takes its autonomous place among the latin and neolatin poetic systems? Faced with this vast net of possible analogies, we were forced to recognise the strange and singular similarity and closeness between the ambiguous image of the merchant (a model of restored fertility and communication, upon whom, nevertheless, always planes the spectre of usury, greed, fraud, lie and devilish forgery) and the none the less ambiguous one of the poet, the demiurge who indulges himself permanently in the vain, ludic and subversive gamble of playing with the Word, the Creation and the Truth. The anathema of damnation stands upon both of them; they both aspire - at the verge of a sort of Purgatory of the Language – to the universal recognition of the legitimacy of their respective discourses. In an era in which the feudal values were starting to dissolve, and the relation to a founding Signified, source of every reference, becomes more and more distant and irrecoverable, the fiction and the minted coin emerge as the two new models for mediation in the face of the object of desire, as two forms of writing (similar although very distinct and autonomous), which drastically modify the relation to the Other and to the World (and to the Other World, as well), just as their respective representations, thus creating a whole new process of simbolization. The duality and duplicity which pervade these two privileged forms of representation (mentally and socially constructed) would forcibly end up behaving serious reflections in the poetic word. In fact, the forms through which the oblative imaginary (in the centre of the chivalric and courtly code of honour) communicates, intermixes, collides or opposes the mercantile imaginary, opens a unique field of research which enables us to observe the way in which the two main versified narrative genres in the twelfth-thirteenth centuries (the chanson the geste and the romance being the ones here under scrutiny) reflect and/ or inflect the universe surrounding them. And, in the course of that same process, to verify the ways in which they position themselves facing one another, through secret or explicit dialogic and intertextual relations. If, under this perspective, we frequently see the epic discourse as voicing and embodying the ideological and textual unconsciousness of the repressed inumerous inter-dicts or non verbalised (unsaid) concepts which shape the romance imaginary (and vice versa), thus enlightening the potentialities and the limits of a certain conception of poetic language and of the respective world vision which feds it and promoted it, it will be the "realistic" narrative of the thirteenth-century to take this process of reflection to its last consequences. By fictively multiplying the "reality effects" and the references to the economic universe, this narrative suggests that the only reality of/ in Literature consists, basically, in the fact that it is an art, subtle and ingeniously, woven through a frightening and seductive rhetoric manipulation of the language and the signifier forms in which it is unceasingly mirrored. From this new poetic economy comes an unsuspected but now triumphal and triumphant relation between the poet and the merchant of words, between usury and fictional narrative. An infinite reproduction of fictiveness and a perpetual metaphoric dislocation of a meaning which is simultaneously proliferating and absent. A relation in which we can envisage the paradoxical, evanescent and profoundly deceiving nature of the medieval text as an eternal false coin of sign and meaning.
Le XIIe siècle est incontestablement une période bigarrée dont les contours multiformes traduisent les diverses transformations (sur le plan politique, social, économique, juridique, culturel ou idéologique) qui redessinent, lentement mais en profondeur, les traits de la civilisation médiévale. Or, une des plus marquante, sinon la plus marquante et décisive, de ces mutations réside justement dans le passage, que nous observons attentivement en nous appuyant sur les nombreux discours qui in-forment le texte poétique, d'une économie du don, intimement liée à la pensée symbolique, à une économie monétaire et marchande subordonnée à l'imaginaire du signe. Est-ce, dès lors, une simple coïncidence si nous voyons immerger et se développer, dans ce contexte, une foisonnante littérature écrite en langue vernaculaire (le roman)? Ou est-ce un même tournant épistémologique qui ouvre simultanément les portes à une remarquable (sous tous les points de vue) monétarisation des rapports sociaux, au renouveau de la vitalité urbaine (la ville étant l'espace où se distendent désormais les liens, extrêmement forts et ritualisés, qui unissaient les hommes au cœur de la société féodale traditionnelle), à l'éclosion de la pensée scolastique et à la multiplication des Ordres Mendiants, à l'irruption des cathédrales gothiques et à la naissance d'une littérature profane qui revendique, peu à peu, son autonomie face aux systèmes poétiques latins ou néo-latins? On voit ainsi se mettre en branle un réseau très cohérent d'analogies possibles au sein duquel on commence à soupçonner d'une étrange et singulière gémellité entre l'image ambiguë du marchant (modèle de fertilité et exemple d'une communication restaurée sur lesquels plane cependant le spectre diabolique de l'usure, de l'avarice, de la fraude, du mensonge et de la contrefaction) et celle, non moins ambiguë, du poète, ce démiurge qui se plait incessamment à prendre le lecteur au jeu tout à la fois vain, ludique et subversif des simulacres de la Parole, de la Création et de la Vérité. Sur l'un comme sur l'autre pèse l'anathème de la damnation; tout deux aspirent également – au seuil d'une espèce de Purgatoire du langage – à voir leurs discours accéder pleinement à la légitimité. À une époque où l'on assiste à la désagrégation des valeurs constitutives de la féodalité, où le rapport à un Signifié fondateur et source de toutes références devient de plus en plus lointain et irrécupérable, la fiction et la monnaie frappée émanent comme deux nouveaux modèles de médiation à l'égard de l'objet du désir, comme deux formes d'écriture (analogues bien que distinctes et autonomes) qui modifient profondément les rapports à l'Autre et au monde (et à l'Autre-Monde, bien entendu), aussi bien que la façon dont ils sont représentés, et autour desquelles se bâtissent, en somme, de nouveaux processus de symbolisation. La dualité et la duplicité qui s'instaurent ainsi entre ces deux modes privilégiés de représentation (mentalement et socialement construite) avaient forcément des reflets sur la conception même de la parole poétique. En effet, la façon dont l'imaginaire oblatif (au cœur de l'idéal de la largesse chevaleresque et courtoise, par exemple) dialogue, s'entrelace ou entre en rupture avec l'imaginaire marchand, ouvre à la recherche un domaine riche et unique où il est permis d'observer comment les deux principaux genres narratifs en vers des XIIe et XIIIe siècles (la chanson de geste et le roman que nous analysons le plus en détail) réfléchissent et/ou infléchissent l'univers qui les entoure, et ce faisant, comment ils se questionnent sur leur propre statut et se positionnent l'un par rapport à l'autre par le biais des relations dialogiques ou intertextuelles qu'ils maintiennent secrètement ou explicitement. Si le discours épique apparaît, dans cette perspective, comme une forme qui donne fréquemment corps et voix à l'inconscient idéologique et textuel refoulé ou enfoui dans les innombrables inter-dits et non-dits qui structurent l'imaginaire romanesque (et vice versa), mettant ainsi en évidence les potentialités et les limites d'un certain langage poétique et de la vision du monde qu'il véhicule et qui le soutient tout à la fois, il incombera au récit - que la critique désigne vulgairement de "réaliste" - du XIIIe siècle de pousser jusqu'aux ultimes conséquences ce processus de réflexion (au sens cognitif et spéculaire du terme). En effet, en multipliant illusoirement les "effets de réel" et les références à l'univers économique, ce récit suggère, en fait, qu'il d'existe d'autre réalité de/dans la littérature que celle qui la définit comme un art subtilement tissé par une menaçante et séductrice manipulation (de la) rhétorique du langage et des signifiants où il se miroite continûment. Il ressort de cette nouvelle économie poétique un (in)suspect, mais désormais triomphal et triomphant, rapport entre le poète et le marchant de paroles, entre l'usure et la fiction en tant que reproduction infinie de simulacres et perpétuel déplacement métaphorique d'une signification à la fois sans cesse foisonnante et toujours absente; rapport qui laisse deviner la nature paradoxale, évanescente et profondément trompeuse, du texte médiéval en sa qualité d'éternelle fausse monnaie du signe et du sens. Sujets: Littérature médiévale française (XIIe-XIIIe siècles); Le marchant dans la littérature médiévale; Culture et civilisation du Moyen Âge, Histoire et critique littéraires; Théorie(s) de la littérature (rhétorique, poétique, théorie des genres); Économie et littérature; Langage et imaginaire.

This thesis is focused on a study of translation strategies in Guillaume Oyono Mbia's plays. By using the sociological, formalistic and semiotic approaches to literary criticism to inform the analysis of the source texts and by applying descriptive models outlined within the framework of descriptive translation studies (DTS) to compare the source and target texts, the study establishes the fact that in his target texts Oyono Mbia, self-translating author, has produced a realistic and convincing portrait of his native Bulu culture and society depicted in his source texts by adopting the same default preservation and foreignizing strategy employed in his source texts. Oyono Mbia's works, his translation strategies and translational behaviour are situated in the context of the prevailing trend and attitude (from the sixties to date) of African writers writing in European languages and it is posited that this category of writers are in effect creative translators and that the strategies they use in their original compositions are the same as those outlined by translation scholars or effectively used by practitioners. These strategies enable the writer and the translator of this category of African literature to preserve the "Africanness" which is the essence and main distinguishing feature of that literature. Contrary to some scholars (cf. Bandia 1993:58) who regard the translation phenomenon evident in the creative writings of African writers writing in European languages as a process which is covert, semantic and secondary, the present study of Oyono Mbia's translation strategies clearly reveals the process as overt, communicative and primary. Taking Oyono Mbia's strategies as a case in point, this study postulates that since for the most part, the African writer writing in a European language has captured the African content and form in his original creative translation, what the translator simply needs to do is to carry over such content and form to the other European language.
Linguistics
D.Litt. et Phil. (Linguistics)

While many high school English instructors in the United States teach world literature in translation, few of them explicitly present the literature as translated. High school English students would benefit from learning more about the linguistic origins of the world literature they read. This awareness would increase student understanding of the source culture and benefit their language skills. Various translation theorists have suggested methods to teach translational awareness, but few have offered advice on the type of translation to select. In my research, I examined the question of whether students would derive more cultural knowledge, and specifically language-related knowledge, by reading domesticated or foreignized translations. To explore this question, I created two different English translations of the same French literary texts and presented them to several classes of U.S. American high school students. One translation (Version A) was intended to be a domesticated version and the other (Version B) was deliberately foreignized. Classes read two versions of either Anna Gavalda’s short story “Happy Meal” or of a selection from Joseph Zobel’s novel La Rue Cases-Nègres. Following the reading, they completed a series of multiple-choice and free-response questions. Responses to the readings indicated that students found the foreignized translations more “sophisticated” but did not consistently demonstrate a greater cultural understanding as a result. The results failed to prove one translation method more effective than the other, but they did suggest limitations to Lawrence Venuti’s foreignization approach.