Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Politics and literature Malawi History 20th century'

In this thesis I explore instances of literary engagement with the major transitions in national political formation in Malawi and South Africa; both countries moved from a totalitarian regime to democratic government, brought in by multi-party elections, in 1994. Most analyses of the wave of democratic transitions in Southern Africa are either historical, political or economic in their approach. The shift of political power from one constituency to another also requires another kind of study, of the impact of the political changes on lived experience through an analysis of people's creative expression. The artistic expressions of the experi nce of change are at times strikingly similar in the two countries, especially how artists imagine newness and simultaneously negotiate a past which was subject to repression. Literature is important in this political process, for it has a licence to reinterpret conventional representations and dominant narratives, often through fictionalising and creating new imaginative possibilities. I consider whether literary production in Malawi and South Africa is comparable in the light of this idea, despite the obvious differences in political configuration, geographic factors and levels of industrialisation and urbanisation, and ask whether political transition is a legitimate point of departure for interpreting literature. In the process I seek to identify similarities, and even overt influences or alliances between the literary practices in Malawi and South Africa during and since the transition. I analyse a wide variety of literary forms, some of which may transgress conventional definitions of 'literature'. Examples include the reader-contributions sent in to a newspaper's literary pages by its readers and the two historical accounts of women's experience. I discuss the porous distinction between fiction and history, realism and magic realism, as well as the subjective distinctions between formal and popular literature. The ambiguity of the title of my thesis therefore conveys the fact that the more established modes of literary interpretation are themselves also currently in transition. My intention here is not to argue what kind of literature is good or bad, valuable or trivial, but to discuss and interpret contextually the kinds of literature which are being produced and published. Chapter 1 of my thesis discussesth e work of JackM apanje and Nadine Gordimer, two 'veterans' of censorship under their respective regimes, suggesting how their writing has changed with freedom of expression. With the transition came experimentation and a wave of writing on fantastical, magical and irrational subjects. The writers discussed in Chapter 2 serve as a contrast to the engaged realism of Gordimer and to some extent, Mapanje. Steve Chimombo, Lesego Rampolokeng, Seitlhamo Motsapi and Zakes Mda convey a burlesque, transgressive style, which I discuss, drawing on Bakhtin, under the eading 'carnivalesque'. Chapter 3's emphasis on newspaper literature from Malawi reflects the importance of the form in contrast to South Africa where popular writing largely finds its main outlet in literary journals and magazines rather than in daily newspapers. Chapters 4 and 5 are related in their considerations of memory and searches for truth. In Chapter 4 Antjie Krog and Emily Mkamanga challenge the distinction between literary and factual chronicle in their woman-centred accounts of the past. The final chapter discusses two texts that are overtly literary, yet function in a mode of mourning and reflection, returning from the bustle of the present moment to a continuing, necessary reflection of the past which defines the new present. I conclude by suggesting that the comparative analysis is viable and enriching and that this study of literature from societies in transition demonstrates how poetry and fiction tell stories of history.

The purpose of this study is to arrive at a critical overview of politics and literature in the Chinese context. The relationship has increasingly become a "field" of studies and theoretical inquiry that most scholars in either disciplines are wary to tread. This thesis tries to venture into this problematic field by a theoretical examination as well as an empirical critique of Chinese literature and politics, where the relationship seems even more paradoxical, but adds more insight into the argument. The Introduction and Chapter One set up a framework by asking some general but fundamental questions: what literature is, and how it is to be related to politics. Chapter Two examines the historical function of literature and Chinese writers in society to establish the basis of argument in the Chinese context. Chapter Three focuses the discussion on the relationship between politics and literature during the Mao era and after. Chapters Four analyses the literary works published during the post-Mao period to establish the argument that literature, as part of our perception of the world, is most concerned with human society and social amelioration and participates in the socio-political development by contributing to it through a discourse that is otherwise inaccessible. Chapter Five explores the argument further by extending it into the field of cinema, which basically comes from the same narrative tradition of prose literature, but offers a wider and different dimension to the argument pursued. Chapter Six and the Conclusion try to draw together the argument by examining literature as both form and content to argue how and why literature is related to politics and how it has functioned in a political manner in Chinese society. To summarise, Chinese literature in this period will b& shown to be involved In a process of political reform and development by way of bringing the reader to participate in a critical and philosophical dialogue with power, history and future. In the long run, it offers emancipating visions and possibilities revealed to the reader in ways that are historical, developmental, philosophical and comparative. This study focuses on the prose fiction published in this period, for it is the leading force in China's cultural development and constitutes the major trunk of the modern Chinese canon. In addition, the research also extends to drama and films, and the way they, together with prose fiction, make up the most popular perception and intellectual discovery of contemporary Chinese society and politics and best inform the argument of the study of politics and literature.

This dissertation re-examines an era in the production and reception of English language poetry in South Africa by black writers. Intellectually the 1970's was the Black Consciousness phase of South African history and very few aspects of life in the country were untouched by the intellectual movement led by Steve Biko and other young black student leaders. The aesthetic and literary output of the time, like all other facets of South African life, exhibited the influence and pressures brought to bear by Black Consciousness. Moreover, the Black Consciousness poets introduced the most vibrant and innovative phase for English language poetry produced in South Africa. It is my contention, however, that such vibrancy and innovation has consistently been compromised by unsympathetic, often hostile, and almost-always ill-informed criticism. The dissertation offers a critique of the academic and journalistic practice of criticism in South Africa. I argue that critical practice in South Africa has been engaged throughout the twentieth century in the discursive enforcement of ‘discipline’. In his Discipline and Punish (1977) the French post-structuralist philosopher Michel Foucault demonstrated how power is wielded against oppressed/suppressed groups through self regulated proscriptions, and argued that power is a discursive rather than a corporeal phenomenon. My dissertation follows Foucault in reading the critical reception of Black Consciousness poetry as the practice of disciplinary power. The dissertation also engages critically with the poetry of Oswald Mtshali, Mongane Serote and Sipho Sepamla, and argues that their work is the inscription of black subjectivity into the literary and cultural mainstream. It situates their work within wider 6 societal debates and definitions of ‘blackness’. In this regard use is made again of Michel Foucault’s insights and methodology of discourse analysis as shown in The Archaeology of Knowledge (1972). I argue that Oswald Mtshali’s work is a failed attempt at a dissection of apartheid and colonialism from a broadly Christian and humanist perspective. In my reading of Mongane Serote I explore the relationship between women’s bodies and the practice of representation. It is my contention that Serote is most concerned with claims of belonging, and this is shown through his extensive use of the trope of ‘Mother’. My discussion of the poetry of Sipho Sepamla focuses on language and (self- )representation, particularly the use of practices of naming in constructing subjectivity. My contention is that Sepamla ultimately abandons attempts at representation in favour of oppositional self-construction in language. In the concluding chapter I defend the thesis that the politics of discipline have prevented the broad critical establishment from gaining access to these discursive constructions of blackness in the committed poetry of South Africa.

This study traces the current status of Spanish ethics as seen through the optics of historical memory. Starting from the Spanish Civil War in 1936, the thesis relates contemporary themes to their proposed origin throughout three additional distinctive eras of the 20th and 21st century in Spain: 1982-1996 (Socialist Spain), 1997-2010 (Post-modern Spain), and 2011-present (current Spain). Spanish narratives ranging from Los Abel by Matute, La magnitud de la tragedia by Monzó, "Fidelidad" of Ha dejado de llover by Barba and Las fosas de Franco by Silva are contextualized through their ethical architecture, in accordance with their socio-political context, and relationship to past historical traumas. This work proposes that the themes of anticlericalism, the pursuit of social equality, anti bureaucracy, and political distrust are trends culminating from Kohlberg's third level of morality. The thesis aims to be an exposition and legitimization of different ethical schemas that might otherwise be polarized as wrong and inferior by others.

Das Wort was a literary journal published by German Communist writers and fellow-travelers exiled in Moscow from 1936 to 1939. It was to be a mouthpiece for German literature in exile and to promote the Popular Front policy, which sought to unite disparate elements in non-Fascist Europe in opposition to the Nazis. Das Wort, under the editorship of German Communist writers whose close association with the Soviet Union had been well established in the previous decade, tried to provide a forum for exiled writers of various political persuasions, but was unwavering in its positive portrayal of Stalin's Soviet Union and the policies of that country. As the level of hysteria grew with the successive purges and public show trials in the Soviet Union, the journal adopted an even more eulogistic and militant attitude: any criticism or expression of doubt about Soviet policy was equated with support for Fascism. Thus the ability of the journal to contribute to the formation of a true common front in Europe to oppose Fascism was compromised from the outset by its total support for the Soviet Union. The Popular Front policy foundered on this issue, and that portion of German literature in exile which was to form the first generation of East German literature was inextricably bound to the Soviet Union well before the German Democratic Republic came in to existence.

This study examines the political theory of modernity as it appears in the work of contemporary Latin American writers and thinkers (pensadores). It is designed to help bridge the gap that separates the North American and European dialogue on modernity from the parallel dialogue on modernity currently flourishing in Latin America. The dialogues are brought together in two ways. First, the theory of modernity, which is still often thought to apply only or primarily to the developed world, is subjected to the challenge of the Latin American political and cultural context. Many features of the theory are found to apply equally well to both cultures, and these features provide the basis for the second "bridging" of the two dialogues, in which some of the most interesting Latin American responses to the problems of modernity are brought to the attention of North American and European political scholars. After reviewing the problem of modernity in some depth, the work of Jose Ortega y Gasset is presented both as a link to German philosophical thought and as a pattern for subsequent discussion of modernity in the Spanish-speaking world. Ortega's uniquely Latin way of understanding modernity is then compared to other philosophical approaches, and placed within the context of political literature in Latin America. Literature is shown to be a uniquely suitable forum for conveying Ortega's approach to modernity because it expresses in itself the central role of arts and culture in his political thought. The balance of the study focuses on the works of three contemporary Latin American authors: Octavio Paz of Mexico, Gabriel Garcia Marquez of Colombia, and Mario Vargas Llosa of Peru. Each author's major works are placed within the context of the model Latin American response to modernity inspired by Ortega and analyzed for significant contributions to the discussion of modernity. Their most important insights center around the need to assimilate the value of tradition in a new approach to modernity by means of some form of democratic dialogue combined with critical appreciation for the cultural uniqueness of nations.

This thesis examines the development of the political outlook of the German author and revolutionary politician, Ernst Toller. It begins by looking at Toller's early years and explains how his experience as a front-line soldier during the First World war transformed his views, causing him to reject the conservative-nationalist ethos he had grown up with and to become, in his own description, a revolutionary pacifist. It then looks at his involvement in the revolutionary events which took place in Bavaria at the end of the First World War, the so-called Räterepublik, examines how they affected his understanding of social and political reality and traces their artistic reflection in the plays he wrote in the following period. A recurrent theme in Toller's political thinking throughout the years of the Weimar Republic was the idea of an Einheitsfront, a defence block of workers' organisations, which he advocated as the only means of halting the rise of National Socialism. Unfortunately, Toller's appeals to the main workers' parties to form such a block went unheard, yet they are significant all the same in that they reveal the acute political insight of a man whom many of his contemporaries dismissed as a hopeless utopian. Interestingly, and a point often missed in studies of his politics, Toller abandoned the Einheitsfront after he went into exile in 1933 and came to favour instead the creation of a Volksfront a broad, cross-party anti-fascist coalition which the Soviet Union vigorously promoted all through the 1930s until the signing of the Stalin-Hitler Pact in 1940. Toller's support for this idea, in part a corollary of his support for the Soviet Union itself, had a profound impact on his political outlook in exile, and caused him to close his eyes to the repression suffered by the opponents of the Stalin regime both inside and outside Russia, and, most significantly, led him to ignore the nascent socialist revolution which flourished in Spain after the defeat of Franco's coup d'etat in 1936. This study examines in some detail, therefore, Toller's involvement in the Volksfront, redefines his attitude towards Communist Russia and shows how his efforts to suppress his revolutionary beliefs and to become instead a mere anti-fascist affected his creative spirit during his years of exile.

'The Politics of Place in the Work of Hugh MacDiarmid' argues that there is no fundamental contradiction in MacDiarmid's politics, his Scottish nationalism and international communism issuing in a radical Scottish Republicanism that synchronizes the local and universal, seeking to unify the cultural and political divisions of Scotland. This thesis suggests that MacDiarmid challenges the metropolitan location of culture through a provincialist poetry and politics energized and exasperated by intimate relationship with home. It analyses the connections between MacDiarmid's ideological valorization of difference and the Scottish places from which his politics evolve. Chapter One suggests that modem Scottish cultural politics is still thirled to the imperialistic dualities of the metropolitan Scottish Enlightenment. MacDiarmid's strategic essentialism reasserts an autonomous cultural and political practice that aims to make Scotland whole. The chapter traces MacDiarmid's communism to his defiance of the churchy parochialism of Langholm. Using uncollected newspaper material, Chapters Two and Three illustrate the internationalism of MacDiarmid's localism in Montrose and Whalsay. From examining how engagement with specific places shapes MacDiarmid's politics. Chapter Four returns to analysis of the ideological construction of Scotland. The chapter explores how education has formed ideas of Scotland crucial to its political position and bound up with the specialized Scottish educational system's suppression of a Scottish Republican tradition, whose energies MacDiarmid uncovers and endeavours to release through an autodidactic generalism. Prioritizing this particularity of local culture. Chapter Five argues that the apparent contradictions in the modernist MacDiarmid's politics are best understood in terms of global capitalism's construction of mass culture, a division of labour he opposes through an internationalist poetry of generalist knowledge. This thesis finds theoretical alliance with the internationalism of Marxism and postcolonialism, synthesizing these with an autochthonous critical apparatus, declaring Hugh MacDiarmid a major modem component of a tradition of radical Scottish Republicanism.

The specific instances of R.H.W. Shepherd and H.I.E. Dhlomo are used in this thesis to investigate some of the many factors that influence the formation of a colonial literature, such as politics, social structures and personal ideals. By isolating the Lovedale Mission Press ~s a "contact zone" - a·place where the cultures of the colonizer and the colonized come into direct contact with each other - it is possible to trace how the interaction between these cultures shaped the writing of a particular African writer, H.I.E. Dhlomo. This is done through an analysis of historical factors that shaped the policy of the Lovedale Mission Press in the twentieth century: the development of liberalism in South Africa, the·role of the missionary in African education, the function ofa liberal magazine such as The South African Outlook and the appointment of an ambitious missionary, R.I.W. Shepherd, to the position of Director of Publications. This necessarily included a study of Shepherd's vision of African literature. On the other hand, this study takes cognisance of the factors that shaped Herbert Dhlomo's vision of literature: the development of African nationalism, the entrenchment of segregation as a politial doctrine, and most importantly, his struggle to have his creative writing published by the Lovedale Press. It is shown how Shepherd's vision of what African literature should entail contrasted with Dhlomo's, and how, as a result, Dhlomo deliberately structured his critical writing as a response to Shepherd's Eurocentric approach to African literature.

This thesis is a critical study of Scottish literary culture since 1989. It examines and interrogates critical work in Scottish literary studies through a ‘critical nationalist’ approach. This approach aims to provide a refinement of cultural nationalist literary criticism by prioritising the oppositional politics of recent Scottish writing, its criticism of institutional and state processes, and its refusal to exempt Scotland from this critique. In the introduction I identify two fundamental tropes in recent Scottish literary criticism: opposition to a cultural nationalist critical narrative which is overly concerned with ‘Scottishness’ and critical centralising of marginalised identity in the establishment of a national canon. Chapter one interrogates a tendency in Scottish literary studies which reads Scottish literature in terms of parliamentary devolution, and demonstrates how a critical nationalist approach avoids the pitfalls of this reading. Chapter two is a study of two novels by the critically neglected and politically Unionist author Andrew O’Hagan, arguing that these novels criticise an insular and regressive Scotland in order to reveal an ambivalent, ‘Janus-faced’ nationalism. Chapter three examines representations of Scottish traditional and folk music in texts by A. L. Kennedy and Alan Bissett, engaging with the Scottish folk tradition since the 1950s revival in order to demonstrate literature and music’s ambivalent responses to aspects of literary and cultural nationalism. Chapter four examines texts by Janice Galloway, Alasdair Gray and James Kelman, analysing the relationships they construct between gender, nation and class. Chapter five examines three contemporary Scottish texts and elucidates an ethical turn in Scottish literary studies, which reads contemporary writing in terms of appropriation and exploitation.

This thesis deals with Girolamo Savonarola and with his place in the imagination and collective memory of Italians from the early nineteenth century to the present. It examines the works of a variety of Italian fictional authors who turned to Savonarola in the belief that he could help them pursue objectives which, in their opinion, Italy and Italians should strive to achieve. At first, he was called upon by nationalist writers of the Risorgimento to inspire a people and convince it of the need for a free, united Italy. Later, as the new nation began to consolidate and Italians came to realize that unification had not delivered all that it had promised, Savonarola was employed in a negative way to show that military action and force were necessary to ensure Italy's progress to the status of great power. As Italians became more aware of the grave social issues facing their nation, he was called upon, once again, to help change social policy and to remind the people of its civic responsibility to the less fortunate members of society. The extent of Savonarola's adaptability is also explored through the analysis of his manipulation by the writers of Fascist Italy. Remarkably, he was used to highlight to Italians their duty to stand by Mussolini and the Fascist Regime during their struggle with the Catholic Church and the Pope. At the same time, however, one writer daringly used Savonarola's apostolate to condemn the Regime and the people's blind adherence to its philosophies. As Fascism fell and Italy began to rebuild after the Second World War, there was no longer a need for Savonarola to be used for political or militaristic ends. In recent times, emphasis has been placed on the human side of the Friar and he has been employed solely to guide Italians in a civic, moral and spiritual sense. From the Risorgimento to the present, the various changes in Italian history have been foreshadowed in the treatment of Savonarola by Italian fictional authors who turned to him in difficult times to help define what it is to be Italian.

The aim of this thesis is to arrive at a characterisation of twentieth century poetry and science by means of a detailed study of the work of four poets who engaged extensively with science and whose writing lives spanned the greater part of the period. The study of science in the work of the four chosen poets, Hugh MacDiarmid (1892 – 1978), Judith Wright (1915 – 2000), Edwin Morgan (1920 – 2010), and Miroslav Holub (1923 – 1998), is preceded by a literature survey and an initial theoretical chapter. This initial part of the thesis outlines the interdisciplinary history of the academic subject of poetry and science, addressing, amongst other things, the challenges presented by the episodes known as the ‘two cultures' and the ‘science wars'. Seeking to offer a perspective on poetry and science more aligned to scientific materialism than is typical in the interdiscipline, a systemic challenge to Thomas Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962) is put forward in the first chapter. Additionally, the founding work of poetry and science, I. A. Richards's Science and Poetry (1926), is assessed both in the context in which it was written, and from a contemporary viewpoint; and, as one way to understand science in poetry, a theory of the creative misreading of science is developed, loosely based on Harold Bloom's The Anxiety of Influence (1973). The detailed study of science in poetry commences in Chapter II with Hugh MacDiarmid's late work in English, dating from his period on the Shetland Island of Whalsay (1933 – 1941). The thesis in this chapter is that this work can be seen as a radical integration of poetry and science; this concept is considered in a variety of ways including through a computational model, originally suggested by Robert Crawford. The Australian poet Judith Wright, the subject of Chapter III, is less well known to poetry and science, but a detailed engagement with physics can be identified, including her use of four-dimensional imagery, which has considerable support from background evidence. Biology in her poetry is also studied in the light of recent work by John Holmes. In Chapter IV, science in the poetry of Edwin Morgan is discussed in terms of its origin and development, from the perspective of the mythologised science in his science fiction poetry, and from the ‘hard' technological perspective of his computer poems. Morgan's work is cast in relief by readings which are against the grain of some but not all of his published comments. The thesis rounds on its theme of materialism with the fifth and final chapter which studies the work of Miroslav Holub, a poet and practising scientist in communist-era Prague. Holub's work, it is argued, represents a rare and important literary expression of scientific materialism. The focus on materialism in the thesis is not mechanistic, nor exclusive of the domain of the imagination; instead it frames the contrast between the original science and the transformed poetic version. The thesis is drawn together in a short conclusion.

Marta Traba (1923-1983), écrivaine et critique d’art argentino-colombienne, est principalement connue en Amérique latine pour ses écrits critiques, son engagement pour le développement de l’art moderne en Colombie, et plus largement pour sa « théorie de la résistance » qui prône dans les arts plastiques une défense des identités culturelles latino-américaines. Son œuvre littéraire, en revanche, est beaucoup moins connue. Or, elle est non seulement très riche, mais elle forme le pendant narratif à son œuvre critique, un ensemble de récits innervés, de manière plus ou moins profonde, des conceptions et de la culture trabiennes sur l’art. Il s’agit dès lors de reconsidérer ces deux pans de sa production écrite comme un tout cohérent, et de montrer les influences et les interactions entre sa critique d’art et sa littérature, mais également entre les arts plastiques qui forment sa culture artistique et ses écrits fictionnels. Il apparaît alors que Marta Traba conçoit et pratique son écriture critique comme une écriture « littérarisée » et, réciproquement et surtout, sa littérature comme une littérature « artialisée » : la valorisation constante du regard esthétique sur le monde et d’une sensorialité exacerbée dessine un idéal de contemplation tout au long de son œuvre littéraire ; les insertions continues d’une terminologie critique et de références aux œuvres d’art, sur un mode tantôt clairement didactique, tantôt subtilement ludique, invitent le lecteur à lire ses fictions et poèmes au prisme du sous-texte artistique qui enrichit leur sens ; enfin, le récit devient le lieu d’expérimentation des théories trabiennes de la « résistance », entre réaffirmation de la place de l’Amérique latine sur la carte de l’art mondial, mise à distance défensive des influences nord-américaines et réappropriation locale, par « transculturation », des modèles artistiques étrangers. L’étude de l’artialisation de la littérature trabienne est donc loin d’être l’analyse d’un simple procédé formel : elle dégage, nous semble-t-il, un véritable style trabien, miroir de l’écrivaine et de ses convictions
Marta Traba (1923-1983), an Argentinian-Colombian writer and art critic, is most famous in Latin America for her critiques, her commitment to develop modern art in Colombia, and, more generally, for her “theory of resistance” which advocates the defence of the many cultural Latin-American identities in fine arts. Her literary work, however, is far less well-known. And yet, not only is it very rich, but it also constitutes the narrative counterpart to her critiques – a collection of tales innervated, to different degrees, with Traba’s notions on and knowledge of art. It is consequently about reconsidering these two sides of her written production as a consistent whole, and identifying the influences and interactions between her art critiques and her literary work, as well as between the fine arts which make up her artistic culture and her fictional writings.It then appears that Marta Traba devises and practices her critical writing “literarily” as she does, above all, her literary work “artistically”: the constant enhancement of the aesthetic eye on the world and of an intensified sensory experience shape an ideal of contemplation throughout her literary work; the continuous inserts of a critical terminology and of references to art works, sometimes in a clearly didactic mode, sometimes in a subtly playful manner, invite the reader to read her fiction stories and poems in the light of the artistic subtext which enriches their meaning; finally, the tale becomes the place where Traba’s theories of “resistance” are tested, at the crossroads of the re-affirmation of the place of Latin America on the map of international art, of the defensive distancing from North American influences, and of the local re-appropriation, by “transculturation”, of the foreign artistic models. The study of the artistic mutation of Traba’s literary work is therefore far from boiling down to the analysis of a mere formal process: from our point of view, it reveals an authentic style, Traba’s style, which is the mirror of the writer and her convictions

Le présent travail de recherche entend passer au crible l’Histoire contemporaine de l’Espagne grâce à la production romanesque de Lourdes Ortiz. Écrivaine révélée avec son premier roman Luz de la memoria en 1976, dans lequel elle brosse le portrait de sa génération, Lourdes Ortiz cherche à réhabiliter la mémoire des vaincus de la future Transition et à faire émerger les vérités cachées. En ce sens, cette thèse s’attache à étudier exhaustivement trois romans Luz de la memoria (1976), La fuente de la vida (1995) et Andrés (1971) un roman jamais publié, en adoptant une approche à la fois littéraire, historique, sociale et politique. À partir de différentes historiographies, d’ouvrages consacrés à l’écrivaine, d’archives privées, de commentaires de la propre auteure, ce travail vise à analyser quelle est la nature du positionnement idéologique de cette ancienne militante du Parti Communiste Espagnol face à des évènements historiques qu’elle a vécus. Parallèlement, il s’agit d’appréhender dans quelle mesure les dispositifs formels adoptés dans ses récits invitent le lecteur à remettre en question le discours dominant. Ce travail vise à actualiser la connaissance de cette écrivaine engagée, dont la critique politique lucide et clairvoyante propose un autre regard sur les enjeux de l’Histoire contemporaine
The present thesis aims to examine Spain’s contemporary History with a fine-tooth comb thanks to Lourdes Ortiz’ novels production. This author became known because of her first novel Luz de la Memoria published in 1976, in which she paints her generation’s portrait and attempted to redeem the memory of the coming Transition victims, through hidden truths yet to be unearthed. With this in mind, this PhD dissertation endeavours to study three novels exhaustively, Luz de la memoria (1976), La Fuente de la vida (1995) and Andrés (1971) - the latter being unpublished – while approaching literature, history, society and politics at the same time. Through different historiographies, publications dedicated to the writer, private archives and commentaries from the author herself, this study aims to analyse what would be the ideological positioning of this former Spanish Communist Party activist, compared to the historical events she went through. In parallel, this work is about to apprehend how the formal orientations she is using in her novels would tempt the reader to reconsider the dominant thinking. This thesis intends to bring this committed writer to light, whose lucid and clear-sighted political criticism offers another view to the contemporary History stakes

1. Introduction

Le 10 mai 1940 et pour la seconde fois en vingt ans, la Belgique est envahie par l’Allemagne. Contrairement à l’invasion de la Grande Guerre, il ne faut que dix-huit jours aux armées teutonnes pour écraser l’armée belge et occuper le territoire national tout entier. Peu avant la fin des hostilités, la vie culturelle reprend néanmoins timidement. Dès la fin mai 1940, les cinémas rouvrent leurs portes. La presse reparaît sous surveillance allemande. L’édition du livre, machine beaucoup plus lourde, ne reprend son activité qu’à la fin de l’été de 1940. Avec la signature des conventions bilatérales puis internationales sur la propriété intellectuelle dans la seconde moitié du XIXe siècle, la Belgique a vu le secteur de l’édition du livre s’effondrer. Le public belge marque en outre une certaine désaffection envers les auteurs belges et plus particulièrement envers ceux qui se font éditer localement. N’est-ce pas le mémorialiste français Georges Suarez qui écrivait, en 1932, que « L’écrivain wallon trouve devant lui une route hérissée de difficultés ;son public est clairsemé, épars, capricieux […] ;les snobs locaux, acceptent les yeux fermés tout ce qui vient de Paris […] mais exercent un contrôle hautain sur leurs auteurs nationaux » (Georges Suarez, La Belgique vivante. Préface d’André Tardieu. [Louvain, Editions Rex, 1932], p.28-29). Toutes catégories confondues – presse quotidienne ou périodique, livres et brochures diverses –, la production éditoriale belge – domaines francophone, néerlandophone, germanophone et dialectal wallon confondus – connaît pourtant entre 1936 et 1939 une courbe ascendante ;puis, de 1941 à 1945, une inflexion avant de voir remonter lentement la production de 1946 à 1949. Le pic de l’année 1938 ne sera pas égalé dans les dix années qui suivent. En 1939, nous constatons une très infime baisse de l’offre de titres :1,1%. Les sommets atteints par l’éventail de titres proposés en 1938 et 1939 s’explique par la mobilisation des réservistes qui n’ont d’autres loisirs que la lecture. En 1940, le chaos qui suit la Campagne des Dix-Huit Jours contraint la plupart des éditeurs à l’inactivité. La reprise de certains secteurs de l’édition au début de l’été permet toutefois de maintenir une production de titres supérieure aux années 1935-1936. La production reprend de façon spectaculaire en 1941, dépassant le niveau de 1939 et se rapprochant de celui de 1938. Nous interprétons cette remontée du nombre de titres par l’effet de la fermeture des frontières et donc par la nécessité de présenter de nouveaux titres au public belge avide de lecture. De 1942 à 1944, la chute spectaculaire s’explique sans doute par la disparition d’une grande partie de la presse périodique et par le caractère de plus en plus contraignant de la censure allemande. Celle-ci réduit le nombre de titres publiés à cause de la raréfaction croissante du papier disponible. Remarquons que la raréfaction des titres disponibles sur le marché n’implique pas obligatoirement une diminution quantitative des tirages. A partir du mois de septembre 1944 et en 1945, un certain nombre d’éditeurs sont placés sous les projecteurs de la Justice militaire et interrompent ou cessent leurs activités. Par ailleurs, une série de petits éditeurs occasionnels qui publiaient n’importe quoi sous n’importe quelle forme disparaissent du champ éditorial. De plus, la pénurie de papier, les ruptures de fourniture d’électricité industrielle qui fait tourner les rotatives et la réouverture des frontières aux importations françaises, puis néerlandaise dans la seconde moitié de l’année 1945, incitent les éditeurs belges à la frilosité. Enfin, en 1946, la reprise peut s’expliquer par la stabilisation économique.

2. L’épuration des bibliothèques et des librairies

Même si la liberté de presse est garantie par la Constitution, la loi belge organise les délits de presse. Les circonstances exceptionnelles de la déclaration de guerre de la France et de l’Angleterre à l’Allemagne à la suite de l’invasion de la Pologne provoquent la création d’un éphémère Ministère de l’Information nationale (1939-1940), puis d’un Service d’Information du Premier Ministre (1940). Une censure larvée, justifiée par la sécurité du territoire et le respect de la neutralité de la Belgique, est d’ailleurs exercée dès le mois de septembre 1939 afin d’éviter tout prétexte d’intervention de la part des belligérants. Durant les premiers mois de l’Occupation, une épuration anarchique s’exerce à l’encontre des bibliothèques privées et des librairies. Ce sont tantôt des soldats qui brûlent des livres trouvés sur les rayonnages de leur logement réquisitionné, tantôt des officiers qui prennent la mouche en découvrant chez le libraire de leur nouveau lieu de résidence un opuscule de l’espèce J’ai descendu mon premier Boche. Dès le 13 août 1940, la Militärverwaltung ordonne l’épuration systématique des bibliothèques publiques et des librairies. Tout livre ou brochure anti-allemand ou anti-nazi doit être immédiatement mis sous clef et bientôt déposé entre les mains des services allemands. Le soin de déterminer ce qui tombe ou non dans cette catégorie particulièrement vague est laissé à la seule appréciation des bibliothécaires et des libraires. Ceux-ci doivent attendre le mois de septembre 1941 pour que la Propaganda Abteilung daigne publier une liste de 1800 titres interdits. Des compléments sont ensuite régulièrement insérés dans le Journal de la Librairie de la Gilde du Livre et dans les Mededeelingen van het Boekengilde. Le Ministère de l’Instruction publique charge de surcroît des enseignants et des inspecteurs d’épurer les manuels scolaires de tout propos anti-allemands. Cette mesure a pour but d’éviter que l’occupant ne s’en charge lui-même et n’impose le manuel unique à l’instar de ce qui se passe Outre-Rhin. Le 8 octobre 1940, sans en avoir soumis le texte aux autorités allemandes, le Ministère de l’Instruction publique crée donc une Commission chargée de la révision des ouvrages classiques pour l’enseignement normal, moyen, primaire et gardien, plus communément désignée sous le nom de Commission pour la Révision des Ouvrages Classiques. Composée de collaborationnistes notoires mais également d’authentiques résistants, la Commission examinera près de 5000 titres entre la fin octobre 1940 et la fin mai 1944 ;elle interdira l’usage de 564 manuels et en fera modifier 182 autres.

3. La censure des livres

Au début de l’été, les Allemands chargent l’Union des Industries Graphiques & du Livre (UNIGRA), le syndicat des imprimeurs belges, d’exercer une censure préalable générale et d’empêcher ainsi la publication de tout propos anti-allemand. Cette censure est ensuite circonscrite, à partir du 20 août 1940, à la littérature qui traite de sujets militaires et politiques (en ce compris les questions concernant la race, le judaïsme et la Franc-maçonnerie). Le 24 septembre 1940, la Propaganda Abteilung prend le relais de l’organisme belge. Le Referat Schrifttum est dirigé par le Sonderführer Pr Dr Hans Teske et par son adjoint le Sonderführer Leutenant Bruno Orlick. Durant son premier exercice, ce bureau de la littérature refuse 100 manuscrits sur les 600 qu’il examine. A partir du 15 janvier 1943, invoquant le manque de papier, le Referat Schrifttum impose aux éditeurs de soumettre tous leurs manuscrits. Chaque demande est établie en triple exemplaire. Le premier est conservé dans les dossiers de la Propaganda Abteilung, les deux autres exemplaires sont transmis à l’Office Central du Papier - Papier Centrale (OCP-PC). Celui-ci y appose un numéro correspondant à un bon de consommation de papier. L’un est conservé dans les archives de l’OCP et l’autre est retourné à l’éditeur qui doit le présenter à l’imprimeur. Sans ce bon de consommation, l’imprimeur ne peut entreprendre le travail puisqu’il doit justifier les quantités utilisées dans ses ateliers. Tout le processus de contrôle apparaît dans les livres sous la forme de numéros précédés des mentions « Autorisation PA n° » / « Toelating PA nr » / « Zulassung Nr… » et « OCP n° » / « PC nr ». Parfois encore, le numéro d’affiliation de l’imprimeur auprès de l’OCP figure dans le colophon du volume. Chaque numéro est lié à un titre et à l’éditeur qui le demande. En cas d’annulation du projet par l’éditeur, le numéro est alors perdu. Du côté de la SS, l’Abteilung III C 4 de la Sicherheitsdienst se charge notamment de la surveillance des Editions autorisées. Contrairement à la Propaganda Abteilung qui intervient le plus souvent en amont, la SD intervient essentiellement en aval. Celle-ci saisit les ouvrages « séditieux » qui auraient pu échapper à la sagacité des censeurs de la Propaganda Abteilung, ou à l’autocensure des éditeurs belges.

4. La pénurie de papier

Avant la guerre, la Belgique importait la quasi-totalité des matières premières destinées à la fabrication du papier et du carton. Mais le déclenchement des hostilités a rendu l’approvisionnement difficile et réduit en conséquence la fabrication du papier. La pénurie des matières premières provoque une réaction rapide de l’administration militaire allemande. Dès le 17 juin 1940, elle exige un état des lieux de la production, des stocks et de la consommation qui permette la rationalisation de l’économie. Parallèlement à ces mesures et en complément à celles-ci, le Ministère des Affaires économiques crée en février 1941 un Office Central du Papier pour veiller à la production et à l’utilisation rationnelle du papier et du carton. Près de la moitié de la cellulose est alors consacrée à la fabrication de produits ersatz comme le carton-cuir pour les chaussures ou le « Balatum » et l’« Unalit ». En mai 1941, l’OCP interdit la fabrication de produits de luxe tels les confettis, les sous-bocks et le papier-dentelle pour tarte. Les besoins en papier et carton augmentent cependant :pour les emballages en replacement d’autres matières devenues rares, pour le papier d’occultation, ou encore pour la paperasserie administrative occasionnée par la rationalisation de l’économie. En avril 1942, le Referat Papier, sous prétexte de rationalisation, ordonne la fermeture de près de la moitié des papeteries. Mais celles qui restent en activité souffrent de la pénurie de matières premières et de combustible qui entraîne une baisse de la production. En octobre 1942, prétextant cette fois la pénurie de papier, le Referat Schrifttum interdit la publication de livres à plus de 5.000 exemplaires mais autorise des dépassements aux éditeurs suffisamment bien en cour. La consommation de papier est alors contrôlée par l’OCP. En avril 1943, le spectre de la pénurie permet encore le recensement des stocks de papier chez les imprimeurs. Or personne n’est la dupe de ces dernières mesures qui relèvent plus de la censure que de l’économie.

5. La restructuration économique et professionnelle

Dès le début de l’été 1940, la Militärverwaltung commence de saisir les biens ennemis, c’est-à-dire français et britanniques. Grâce à la mise sous séquestre des avoirs du Groupe Hachette, l’actionnaire français de l’Agence Dechenne, le principal distributeur de presse en Belgique est administré par un Allemand, représentant des intérêts du groupe éditorial allemand Amann. Celui-ci obtient le monopole de l’importation de quotidiens étrangers et de la distribution des journaux belges. Il réussit également à devenir le principal grossiste en livres, imposant aux éditeurs le choix de certains titres, le tirage et parfois la couverture des livres. En novembre 1940, tous les éditeurs de livres et de périodiques ainsi que les libraires doivent s’inscrire au Cercle belge de la Librairie ou à son homologue flamand. En juin 1942, le Ministère des Affaires Economiques institue la Gilde du Livre / Boekengilde qui détient, par le biais de ses deux chambres linguistiques, le monopole de la représentation professionnelle. En 1941, l’Occupant suscite la formation d’un organisme de collaboration, la Communauté culturelle wallonne (CCW) qui devrait investir le champ culturel, à l’instar de la Deutsch-Vlämische Arbeitsgemeinschaft (DeVlag). Dirigée par l’écrivain prolétarien Pierre Hubermont, la CCW tente de regrouper les auteurs au sein d’une Chambre des Lettres françaises et d’une Chambre des Lettres dialectales. Très peu d’intellectuels se rallieront à cet organisme rapidement démonétisé. A la suite du congrès européen des écrivains tenu à Weimar en octobre 1941, une Europäische Schriftsteller Vereinigung est par ailleurs fondée le 27 mars 1942. Cette Société Européenne des Ecrivains (SEE), destinée à remplacer le PEN-Club international, encourage les traductions et la diffusion des ouvrages de ses membres. Pierre Hubermont est désigné pour tenir le rôle de porte-parole de la Section wallonne et belge de langue française (SWBLF) qui commence d’être organisée dans le courant du mois de mars 1942. Seule une poignée d’écrivains répondront aux sirènes de Weimar. En 1943 la Communauté Culturelle Wallonne fonde une nouvelle structure plus discrète, et surtout, moins discréditée :la Fédération des Artistes wallons et belges d’expression française (FAWBEF) dont l’intitulé est très proche de celui de la section locale de la SEE. Il ne s’agit pas d’un repli stratégique de la part de Pierre Hubermont – qui est cependant contraint de constater le semi échec de la CCW – mais d’une tentative d’officialisation de la structure corporative ébauchée par la CCW sous l’œil attentif du Ministère de l’Instruction publique. La FAWBEF ébauche la création d’une Chambre de Littérature subdivisée en Chambre des Ecrivains d’expression française, en Chambre des Ecrivains d’expression wallonne, en Chambre des Traducteurs et en Chambre des Editeurs. Le but est d’aboutir à une adhésion obligatoire et ainsi à un contrôle de l’accès à la profession. Depuis l’instauration de la législation et la signature des conventions internationales sur la protection des droits d’auteur dans la seconde moitié du XIXe siècle, les redevances sont essentiellement perçues en Belgique par des sociétés de droit français. Face à cette situation de perceptions multiples, l’administration militaire allemande impose une perception unique par une société de droit belge. Dans un premier temps, la Militärverwaltung place sous séquestre les sociétés françaises qui disposent du monopole de fait de la perception des droits d’auteur en Belgique francophone. Dans un second temps, au début du mois de janvier 1941, la Nationale Vereeniging voor Auteursrecht (NAVEA) est réquisitionnée et désignée pour détenir le monopole de la perception des droits. Toujours en janvier 1941, une tentative de rallier l’Association des Artistes professionnels de Belgique (AAPB) à la société unique afin d’en faire sa section francophone échoue grâce à la résistance de ses dirigeants. L’AAPB est alors dissoute par les Allemands. Le monopole de la NAVEA pose de nombreux problèmes juridiques. Pour toucher les droits de suite, les artistes et leurs ayants droit doivent devenir membre de la NAVEA, alors que les sociétés françaises interdisent la double appartenance sous peine de perdre les droits à la pension. Après d’âpres pourparlers, la NAVEA s’engage à payer les pensions pour les artistes qui la rejoindraient rapidement. La NAVEA ne collabore pourtant pas avec l’occupant puisque, clandestinement, celle-ci noue un accord avec la société anglaise The Performing Right Society, via Lausanne et Lisbonne, et répartit en secret les droits des auteurs anglais et américains. Elle tente de surcroît de protéger ses affiliés juifs en refusant de livrer la liste des ses adhérents.

6. La production

Malgré les contraintes liées à la pénurie de papier et celles qu’impose la censure, les éditeurs belges profitent des circonstances pour éditer à tour de bras tout et n’importe quoi, puisant essentiellement dans le vivier des littérateurs locaux. En effet, les Belges s’adonnent au loisir peu onéreux de la lecture. La fermeture des frontières bloque les importations de livres français et néerlandais. D’une part, la culture flamande est revalorisée alors que toute velléité pan-néerlandaise est combattue. D’autre part, la littérature française est contingentée :les Lettres françaises sont systématiquement dénigrées car on les juge délétères. Enfin, la germanisation rampante va bon train grâce à la promotion des Lettres scandinaves et allemandes :il s’agit de remodeler les structures mentales des lecteurs grâce aux traductions. Les tirages sont énormes pour des valeurs sûres comme le Leeuw van Vlaanderen (200 000 exemplaires) d’Hendrik Conscience et De Vlaschaard (100 000 exemplaires) de Stijn Streuvels. La plupart des maisons d’édition développent ou inaugurent des collections de lettres étrangères. A la suite de pressions du Referat Schrifttum, rares sont les grands éditeurs qui ne publient pas de traductions de l’allemand. Aux quelques éditeurs rétifs, le chef du Referat Schrifttum suggère de remplacer les textes allemands par des traductions d’auteurs scandinaves et finno-estoniens. C’est ainsi qu’une maison anti-allemande éditera des romans du prix Nobel norvégien Knut Hamsun pourtant rallié à la collaboration la plus dure. Mais les éditeurs ne peuvent pas publier toutes les traductions :les auteurs slaves du nord (Russes et Polonais), anglo-saxons contemporains et juifs sont considérés comme indésirables et interdits. Le Referat Schrifttum autorise la publication de romans anglo-saxons qui ne sont pas encore tombés dans le domaine public. Ces autorisations exceptionnelles ont trait à des textes qui dénigrent systématiquement le modèle social britannique et américain. Curieusement sont ainsi traduits des romans remettant en cause un ordre social ou moral comme Babbitt (1943) de Sinclair Lewis, The Grapes of Wrath (De Druiven der gramschap, 1943 et Grappes d’amertume, 1944) de John Steinbeck, The Picture of Dorian Gray (Le Portrait de Dorian Gray, 1944) d’Oscar Wilde ou encore The Rains came (La Mousson, 1944) de Louis Bromfield. La réédition de The Scarlet Pimpernel (Le Mouron Rouge, 1943) de la baronne Emmuska Orczy dénonce le fanatisme de la Révolution Française et stigmatise l’hédonisme de la Gentry anglaise. A titre d’exemple, les Editions de La Toison d’Or, financées par les Allemands, publient 26 % de traductions, les Editions Les Ecrits sortent 31,75 % de traductions. A l’Uitgeverij De Lage Landen qui publie en langues néerlandaise, allemande et française, les traductions constituent 44 % du catalogue néerlandais.

7. Les éditeurs

La demande permet à une nouvelle génération d’éditeur de se manifester. Certaines maisons d’édition sont créées avec l’appui de l’un ou l’autre service allemand. D’autres, qui ne s’inscrivent pourtant pas dans une politique de collaboration, sont fondées sous le regard attentif de la Propaganda Abteilung. Des maisons jugées hostiles au national-socialisme sont mises sous séquestre. Enfin, des administrateurs provisoires et des directeurs littéraires inféodés au nouveau pouvoir sont nommés. Comme le reste de la population, les acteurs du champ éditorial adoptent un éventail de positions qui va de la Résistance à la Collaboration avec, pour le plus grand nombre, une accommodation à des degrés divers. Si certains choisissent de résister et freinent la politique allemande du livre dans la mesure de leurs moyens, aucun toutefois n’entre dans la clandestinité. A partir du 15 janvier 1943, tous les manuscrits doivent toutefois passer entre les mains de l’administration allemande ;ce sera souvent la seule compromission des éditeurs. La grande majorité des maisons reste patriote, à l’instar des Editions Casterman, des Editions Dupuis ou des Editions Charles Dessart. Un réseau éditorial d’Ordre nouveau est en revanche composé par Léon Degrelle et des rexistes. Le 25 août 1940, la s.a. La Presse de Rex obtient de pouvoir sortir à nouveau son quotidien de combat, Le Pays Réel (1936). La ligne éditoriale outrancière du journal ne parvient pas à fidéliser son lectorat (moins de 10 000 exemplaires vendus en 1942) et Degrelle renfloue les caisses de la rédaction grâce aux bénéfices du Palais des Parfums, une entreprise juive spoliée, et à des subventions de la SS. En 1943, Degrelle finance un nouveau quotidien, L’Avenir, inspiré de Paris Soir. Le groupe de presse de Degrelle publie également des hebdomadaires :une version collaborationniste du Pourquoi Pas ?intitulée pour l’occasion Voilà ;Tout, copié sur les géants Match, Tempo et Signal ;Indiscrétions, un magazine de mode qui prend rapidement le titre Elle et Lui ;et une revue pour jeunes gens, Mon Copain « volé ». La Presse de Rex possède encore trois maisons d’édition :les Editions Rex (1929), les Editions Ignis (1939), l’Uitgeverij Ignis (1941) et les Editions de L’Archer (1944). La s.a. Editoria, dirigée par le critique d’art Paul Colin, fait également partie du même réseau. Editoria regroupe la Nouvelle Société d’Edition (1934), l’hebdomadaire Cassandre (1934) et Le Nouveau Journal (1940). Des journalistes rexistes participent à la création de maisons littéraires :Claude Chabry fonde, en 1943, les éditions du même nom, les Editions du Rond-Point (1943) puis les Editions de La Mappemonde (1943) ;Victor Meulenijzer s’associe au caricaturiste de Cassandre René Marinus pour monter Les Editions du Dragon (1944) ;Eugène Maréchal relance en 1941 les Editions Maréchal (1938) et participe à la création des Editions du Carrefour (1943). Julien Bernaerts, le fondateur des Editions de la Phalange (1934) et de l’Uitgeverij De Phalanx (1938), se rallie à l’Ordre nouveau. Il est bientôt remarqué par le SS-Hauptsturmführer Hans Schneider qui travaille pour l’Ahnenerbe, le cercle académique de la SS. En 1943, Schneider persuade Bernaerts de créer l’Uitgeverij De Burcht. Dans le même cadre, Franz Briel, Léon Van Huffel et René Baert mettent sur pied les Editions de La Roue Solaire (1943). Proche de la SS, le directeur de l’Uitgeverij Steenlandt (DeVlag), Jan Acke, est abattu par la résistance. Il n’est pas le seul puisque Paul Colin est bientôt exécuté par un étudiant de l’Université libre de Bruxelles, Arnaud Fraiteur. Toujours dans l’orbite de la collaboration, les deux grands trusts de presse allemands Mundus et Amann essayent de pénétrer le marché belge. Tandis que le groupe germano-slovaque Mundus finance la création des Editions de La Toison d’Or (1941), fondées par Edouard Didier, Guido Eeckels et Raymond De Becker, Amann tente de s’emparer de l’Uitgeverij De Lage Landen (1941) de Guido Eeckels, puis Mundus devient un temps actionnaire de l’entreprise qui publie alors des ouvrages pour le compte du Deutsche Institut. Rappelons que, par l’entremise d’administrateurs provisoires, Amann pèse sur l’édition grâce à l’Agence Dechenne et signalons que Mundus a fait tomber le quotidien mosan La Légia (1940) dans son escarcelle. Les Editions de Belgique de Maximilien Mention, qui porte pourtant l’uniforme noir des cadres rexistes, ne semblent pas exprimer les idées nouvelles. Les journalistes rexistes Jules Stéphane et son épouse Marguerite Inghels dirigent la coopérative Les Auteurs Associés (1942) et Het Boek (1943) qui ne sont pas non plus d’obédience nazie. A la marge de ce réseau, mais très impliquées dans le réseau national-catholique, figurent les Editions L’Essor (1939) de Léon Renard. Comme toutes les coopératives ouvrières, les Editions Labor d’Alexandre André sont placées sous séquestre. André est maintenu à la direction commerciale de la maison tandis que le chef de la CCW est propulsé par l’occupant à la direction littéraire.

8. La Libération

A la Libération, l’Etat Belge instaure à nouveau un régime de censure larvée dans le but d’empêcher la diffusion des idées ennemies :des auteurs réputés inciviques sont interdits de publication dans la presse, des livres sont saisis et des maisons d’édition sont placées sous séquestre et leurs livres mis à l’index. Quelques éditeurs de la nouvelle génération quittent Bruxelles pour Paris en prétextant la mauvaise conjoncture économique mais en réalité ils fuient un climat qu’ils jugent répressif. Plusieurs retrouvent une place importante dans les champs éditorial et littéraire parisiens où leur passé est ignoré. Notons que la Justice militaire belge a rarement poursuivi un éditeur pour ses activités, comme si les éditeurs n’étaient pas responsables des idées qu’ils ont mises sur le marché. Le refus de livrer la liste de ses adhérents juifs et les accords clandestins avec The Performing Right Society permettent à la NAVEA de survivre après la Libération sous une nouvelle appellation :la Société des Auteurs Belges-Belgische Auteursmaatschappij (SABAM). L’Etat de droit rétabli, les sociétés françaises reprennent leurs activités en Belgique, restaurant ainsi le système de la perception multiple. L’Association des Artistes professionnels de Belgique constitue un jury d’honneur pour sanctionner ses membres qui auraient fauté. L’Association des Ecrivains belges exclut de ses rangs les auteurs compromis. Les Académies expulsent des immortels et en blâment d’autres, les écartant provisoirement de leur honorable société. Des écrivains, peu ou prou impliqués dans la collaboration, suivent le chemin des éditeurs et posent leurs valises sur les bords de la Seine. Les uns deviennent conseillers littéraires de grandes maisons parisiennes, d’autres, comme Paul Kenny, deviennent millionnaires en publiant des romans d’espionnage. Plusieurs exilés ci-devant anti-bolchevistes se lancent dans la traduction de romans anglais et américains. D’aucuns inventent la solderie de livres neufs à prix réduit s’ils ne revêtent pas l’habit vert. La réouverture des frontières aux livres d’écrivains français, néerlandais et anglo-saxons repousse la plupart des littérateurs belges dans l’ombre dont ils étaient sortis à l’occasion de circonstances exceptionnelles. On pourrait croire que l’âge d’or de l’édition est terminé. Or la crise du papier va entraîner l’émergence d’une nouvelle littérature et la création de nouvelles sociétés d’édition :les imprimeurs sont tenus de prendre deux qualités de papier, l’une bonne et l’autre médiocre. Celle-ci est alors utilisée pour des publications à destination de la jeunesse. Naissent ainsi une quinzaine d’hebdomadaires parmi lesquels figurent Franc-Jeu (1944), Lutin (1944), Perce-Neige (1944), Story (1945), Wrill (1945), Cap’taine Sabord (1946), Jeep (1945), Annette (1945) et Tintin (1946). Les deux derniers deviendront de véritables « blanchisseries » pour les réprouvés de l’Epuration… La bande dessinée belge et ses deux écoles, Marcinelle et Bruxelles, ainsi que les sociétés qui éditent leurs albums vont bientôt dominer le marché francophone.

Doctorat en philosophie et lettres, Orientation langue et littérature
info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

The vast corpus of testimonial literature that has been produced in Latin America since the 1960s, reaches a peak in the 1970s and continues to the present day. The dissertation investigates this phenomenon in Chile, Argentina and Uruguay, through the examination of a group of literary works that range from personal testimonies to documentary novels. This genre is defined by a pact of truth established with the reader in relation to the experience that is being narrated. The first chapter describes testimony as a collective discourse that responds to a counter-hegemonic cultural project which opposes the doctrine of “National Security” that prevailed in the region during that period. Chapter II presents the guidelines that will frame the dissertation, preparing a synthesis of several existing models based upon diverse criteria: social, semantic, syntactic and functional. In establishing the relationship between narration, history and testimony, the thesis emphasizes that narrative techniques are needed in order to tell any story, even those which were not developed with a literary purpose. Testimony is not an exception, because it transforms experience into stories, applying to remembrances the structure of a plot. The texts are organized accordingly, taking into account the types of narrativization employed, and this taxonomy is connected with the reception theory and the contributions of the social criticism, in order to provide a comprehensive understanding of the genre. Chapters III, IV and V examine various works from the three countries mentioned above, establishing a connection between the historic-social situation, the collective symbols, the artistic production of that period, and testimonies. The conclusion suggests that the return of Latin American literature to its hybrid origins implies transformations such as the democratization of writing and the disappearance of the author as the centre of the literary production. It also claims that this corpus provokes a change in the direction of contemporary writing in those countries, generating a necessary catharsis and a new elaboration of a fragmented collective identity.

張詠梅.
論文(哲學博士)--香港中文大學, 2001.
參考文獻 (p. 235-273).
中英文摘要.
Available also through the Internet via Dissertations & theses @ Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web.
Mode of access: World Wide Web.
Zhang Yongmei.
Lun wen (Zhe xue bo shi)--Xianggang Zhong wen da xue, 2001.
Can kao wen xian (p. 235-273).
Zhong Ying wen zhai yao.

Relying on Lucien Goldmann's theory of genetic structuralism, this study examines the relationship between ideology (world vision) and the autobiographical form in South African writing. The five autobiographers selected for discussion represent different social groups in the South African social formation. The central argument of this thesis is that there is a relationship between autobiographical self-portraiture and the collective interests, values and attitudes of particular social groups in South Africa. Therefore, most South African autobiographies are more concerned with the articulation of collective consciousness than with the celebration of individual talents and achievements. Chapter 1 on Peter Abrahams explores the values underpinning the ideology of liberal humanism and their influence on the process of self-representation within the mode of autobiography. The second chapter examines the apparently contradictory conceptions of self-identity in Bloke Modisane's autobiography. Chapter three focuses on the conflict between Naboth Mokgatle's ethnic loyalty to the Bafokeng tribe and his newly acquired radical working class consciousness. The fourth chapter examines the liberal-Christian ideology in Alan Paton's two volumes of autobiography. The fifth and final chapter explores counter hegemonic modes of self-definition in Sindiwe Magona's two-volumed autobiography. In all the five chapters there is an attempt to link the authors' self-presentation to specific social classes or groups. The thesis argues for a literary-sociological approach to the analysis of autobiography and seeks to challenge the deconstructive theoretical perspectives on autobiography which, by rejecting the validity of humanist assumptions regarding human subjectivity, deny any possibility of meaningful socio-political action.
English Studies
D.Litt. et Phil. (English)

This thesis examines works written about imprisonment by four South African political prison writers who were incarcerated for political reasons. My Introduction focuses on current research and literature available on the subject of political prison-writing and it justifies the study to be undertaken. Chapter One examines the National Party's policy pertaining to the holding of political prisoners and discusses the work of Michel Foucault on the subject of imprisonment as well as the connection he makes between knowledge and power. This chapter also considers the factors that motivate a prisoner to write. Bearing in mind Foucault's findings, Chapters Two to Five undertake detailed studies of La Guma's The Stone Country, Dennis Brutus's Letters to Martha, Hugh Lewin's Bandiet and Breyten Breytenbach's The True Confessions of an Albino Terrorist, respectively. Particular emphasis is placed on the reaction of these writers against a repressive government. In addition, Chapters Two to Five reflect on the way in which imprisonment affected them from a psychological point of view, and on the manner in which they were, paradoxically, empowered by their prison experience. Chapters Four and Five also consider capital punishment and Lewin and Breytenbach's response to living in a hanging jail. I contemplate briefly the works of Frantz Fanon in the conclusion in order to elaborate on the reasons for the failure of the system of apartheid and the policy of political imprisonment and to reinforce my argument.
English Studies
D. Litt. et Phil. (English)

Text in Afrikaans
’n Merkbare opbloei in die publikasie van literêre niefiksietekste wêreldwyd het gelei tot die klassifikasie van sodanige tekste as ’n vierde genre. Die politieke oorgang in Suid-Afrika in 1994 het gelei tot ’n soortgelyke toename in outobiografiese tekste waarin kommentaar gelewer word op die Suid-Afrikaanse politieke werklikheid deur die vertel van sowel persoonlike as kollektiewe geskiedenisse. Daymond en Visagie (2012) identifiseer outo-etnografie, apologie en belydenis as kenmerke van die Suid-Afrikaanse outobiografie ná 1994. In hierdie navorsingsverslag word enkele resente skrywersoutobiografieë van onderskeidelik Elsa Joubert (’n Wonderlike geweld: jeugherinneringe (2005); Reisiger (2009)), André P. Brink (’n Vurk in die pad (2009)) en Koos Kombuis (Seks & drugs & boeremusiek: die memoirs van ‘n volksverraaier (2000); Die tyd van die Kombi’s: ‘n persoonlike blik op die Afrikaanse rock-rebellie (2009)) gemeet aan die kriteria wat deur Daymond en Visagie voorgestel word. Die beskrywing en interpretasie van verskeie outo-etnografiese merkers lei daartoe dat hierdie outobiografieë as ’n vorm van kulturele introspeksie beskou kan word.
A marked proliferation in the publication of literary nonfiction globally led to the classification of such texts as a fourth genre. The political transition in South Africa in 1994 caused a similar increase in autobiographical texts in which commentary is offered on the South African political reality through the telling of both personal and collective histories. Daymond and Visagie (2012) identify autoethnography, apologia and confession as characteristics of post-1994 South African autobiographies. In this research report some contemporary writers’ autobiographies, respectively those of Elsa Joubert (’n Wonderlike geweld: jeugherinneringe (2005); Reisiger (2009)), André P. Brink (’n Vurkin die pad (2009)) and Koos Kombuis (Seks & drugs & boeremusiek: die memoirs van ‘n volksverraaier (2000); Die tyd van die Kombi’s: ‘n persoonlike blik op die Afrikaanse rock-rebellie (2009)) are evaluated using the criteria proposed by Daymond and Visagie. The description and interpretation of various autoethnographical markers confirm that these autobiographies can be considered a form of cultural introspection.
Afrikaans and Theory of Literature
M.A. (Afrikaans)

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)
Although many of Lola Ridge's poems champion the causes of minorities and the disenfranchised, it is too easy to state that politics were the sole reason for her neglect. A simple look at well-known female poets who often wrote about social or political issues during Ridge's lifetime, such as Edna St. Vincent Millay and Muriel Rukeyser, weakens such a claim. Furthermore, Ridge's five books of poetry illustrate that many of her poems focused on themes beyond the political or social. The decisions by critics to focus on selections of Ridge's poems that do not display her ability to employ multiple aesthetics in her poetry have caused them to present her work one-dimensionally. Likewise, politically motivated critics often overlook aesthetic experiments that poets like Ridge employ in their poetry. Few poets during Ridge's time made use of such drastically varied styles, and because her work resists easy categorization (as either traditional or avant-garde), her poetry has largely gone unnoticed by modern scholars. Chapter two of my thesis focuses on a selection Ridge's social and political poems and highlights how Ridge's social poetry coupled with the multiple aesthetics she employed has played a part in her critical neglect. My findings will open up the discussion of Ridge's poetry and situate her work both politically and aesthetically, something no critic has yet attempted. Chapter three examines Ridge’s role as editor of Modern School, Others and Broom. Ridge's work for these magazines, particularly Others and Broom, places her at the center of American modernism. My examination of Ridge's social poetry and her role as editor for two leading literary magazines, in conjunction with her use of multiple aesthetics, will build a strong case for why her work deserves to be recovered.

Critics and historians of science fiction widely recognize the genre's importance as a forum for political ideas during the 1950s. But the political role of science fiction diminished during the 1960s, overshadowing the ongoing involvement of sf writers in future-related debates. This paper employs biography, autobiography, memoir, archival papers, recordings, and secondary sources to demonstrate that sf writers continued to discuss the future and its potential problems after the 1950s. Judith Merril and Isaac Asimov, two giants in science fiction, form the core of this paper's focus. Merril and Asimov began to discuss the future in essays, interviews, and documentaries in the 1960s. By the early 1970s, Merril and Asimov were examining the then-emerging problems of overpopulation and planetary ecology in mainstream non-fiction. Merril and Asimov demonstrate that sf writers still addressed political and social issues in the 1960s and early 1970s - even if their involvement increasingly took place outside the boundaries of science fiction literature.
Arts, Faculty of
History, Department of
Graduate

In this thesis, I examine a critical procedure appropriate to Black South African autobiography of the 1950s and early 1960s. In particular, I examine these autobiographies as examples of counterhegemonic writing in which the self counters the hegemonic apartheid notion of identity, based on racial and cultural purity, and I propose that the hybrid selves encoded in these narratives have the capacity to inform a new South African nationhood. Chapter One necessitates an autocritique, in which I locate my own discourse within the intersecting discursive strands of Western and local theory, an effort that is guided by the imperatives that emerge from the autobiographies themselves. In Chapter Two, I suggest that the postcolonial autos displaces Humanist, and appropriates postmodernist, conceptions of the "I". Rewriting the terms of the autobiographical pact, the authority of grapos is re-instated in counternarratives that give privileged status to the bios - to lives that claim "I AM!" and selves that reconstruct identity. A related concern is the relationship between autobiographical criticism in South Africa and hegemony. In the chapters that follow, I examine the various ways in which counterhegemonic selves are constructed in Tell freedom, Down Second Avenue, Drawn in colour: African Contrasts and The Ochre People. Peter Abrahams's autobiography is discussed largely in terms of Frantz Fanon's insights on identity construction and the notion of a "hybrid I". Es'kia Mphahlek's (re)writing of the self - whose main feature is ambivalence - forms the focus of Chapter Four. These notions are developed in the final chapter, which focuses on Noni Jabavu's narratives that encode an "in-between" cultural identity and, as in the autobiographies of Abrahams and Mphahlele, a metonymic "I".
English Studies
D. Litt. et Phil. (English)

在中國現代文學中，文藝與政治之間有著密切而複雜的關係，此一問題在現代戲劇中尤其值得重視。過往戲劇研究長期位處邊緣，這與戲劇此一文類所獨具的綜合藝術特質不無關係，其橫跨文學、美術、音樂、表演等領域的跨藝術特徵，導致其複雜性實際上遠超純文學的範疇。另一方面，戲劇運動的集團性和政治性，亦導致論者對於中國現代戲劇發展較為簡單化的論述，戲劇史的書寫往往與時代話語緊密連繫。不論是純粹文藝化還是政治化的角度，皆很可能遮蔽了戲劇本身一體兩面的問題，導致研究單一化和簡單化。洪深 (1894-1955)、田漢 (1898-1968)和夏衍 (1900-1995)均是中國現代重要戲劇家，同時亦長期被定位為左翼文藝陣營中的重要成員。戲劇家和政治家的身分重疊，導致他們的研究情況往往與時代的意識形態掛鈎，而目前有關他們的研究更是受到冷落，與他們的文學成就並不相稱。本文以三位劇作家為研究對象，希望通過他們的不同面向，重新審視文藝與政治之間各種複雜關係的可能性。
本文分為五章。第一章為導論，主要介紹本文的寫作理念、方法和背景。第二章以洪深為研究對象，重新探討他的現實主義戲劇創作和主張。洪深對改譯劇的主張和實踐，體現了他與晚清鴛鴦蝴蝶派文學和西方戲劇的深刻淵源，而他和蕭伯納之間的文學關係，反映了他對早期文明戲的戲劇改革和西方舞台的繼承，突顯了洪深如何在中西文化之間思索中國現代戲劇中的現實主義問題。第三章從西方唯美主義和先鋒文學運動的角度，重新探討田漢的創作和政治轉向。本章考察田漢對外國文學的譯介活動，當中包括英國唯美主義作家威廉．莫里斯、德國表現主義影劇、俄國和日本左翼劇場，反映了田漢戲劇運動的左翼國際主義特徵；然而田漢對日本作家佐藤春夫和谷崎潤一郎的翻譯，則體現了他對唯美主義的回歸。第四章以夏衍的戲劇創作為研究對象，重新探討夏衍的戲劇文學的獨特性。本章把夏衍此時期的劇作分為歷史劇和上海都市劇兩個角度作出分析，並將它們放在當時文學場域中與郭沫若的歷史劇、國防文學、現代派小說和左翼電影作一比較，並分析夏衍的現實主義與左翼現實主義的相異。第五章為結論，綜合前文各章的討論，重新思考三位劇作家的戲劇實踐，並重審中國現代戲劇中文藝與政治之間的複雜關係。
There is a complicated relationship between literature and politics in modern Chinese literature, especially in modern Chinese drama. As a result, the research of modern Chinese drama has long been placed at a marginal position. Drama is an integrated artistic form consisting of literature, art, music, and performance, and therefore presents a complexity that goes far beyond "pure literature". On the other hand, the history of modern Chinese drama is closely integrated with historical discourse as a result of the organizational and political characteristics of drama movements. This shows that either literary or political point of view may confine the interpretation of their inter-related complexity and interaction. Hong Shen (1894-1955), Tian Han (1898-1968) and Xia Yan (1900-1995) are three of the most important dramatists in modern Chinese literature, who were also regarded as representative members in the left-wing literary camp. Due to their dual identities as dramatist and politician, their images are often connected with historical and ideological discourses. This has also resulted in desolation in their researches, which is not commensurate with their literary achievements. This dissertation, therefore, focuses on the three dramatists by presenting different perspectives of their works and activities, with the aim to explore the possibilities of various relations between literature and politics.
There are five chapters in the dissertation. Chapter one introduces the framework, method and background of the research. Chapter two re-examines the realistic works and theories of Hong Shen. Hong’s adaptation reflects his literary relationship with both the Mandarin Ducks and Butterflies literature and the Western drama. Moreover, Hong’s literary relationship with Bernard Shaw reflects his succession of both the tradition of the civilized drama and the Western theatre. This highlights that the characteristics of Hong Shen’s realistic theories were adapted from both China and the West. Chapter three re-explores the political transformation of Tian Han from the Western literary movements of aestheticism and the avant-garde. This chapter demonstrates the characteristics of left-wing cosmopolitanism in Tian Han’s drama movements by studying his translation activities of international literature, which include the English poet William Morris, German expressionist cinema and theatre, Russian and Japanese left-wing theatre. In the meantime, Tian Han’s translations of Japanese writers Sato Haruo and Tanizaki Junichiro reflect his return to aestheticism. Chapter four discusses the uniqueness of Xia Yan’s literary works, including his historical drama and his modern drama centering on Shanghai. This chapter emphasizes the difference of Xia Yan’s realistic style from left-wing realism by comparing Xia’s works with National Defence Literature, modernist fictions, left-wing cinema, as well as the historical drama by Guo Moruo. Chapter five concludes the significance of the dramatic transformation by Hong Shen, Tian Han and Xia Yan, and reviews the relationship between literature and politics in modern China.
Detailed summary in vernacular field only.
Detailed summary in vernacular field only.
盧敏芝.
Parallel title from added title page.
Thesis (Ph.D.) Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2015.
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 135-157).
Abstracts also in English.
Lu Minzhi.