French and Francophone Language and Literature Commons^™

A Semiotic Approach To Visual Analysis Of Dress: Symbolic Communication Of Clothing Color, Cut, And Composition Through The French Film Costumes Of Anaïs Romand, Leigh Danielle Honeycutt

LSU Master's Theses

This study examines the communicative role of clothing in film. Using the skillful costume canvas of French designer Anaïs Romand, we explore the possible visual messages and potential cultural and linguistic meanings that clothing choice conveys. This analysis uses Roland Barthes’ Theory of the “Five Codes” from his book S/Z as well as psychological sources about color analysis as its methodological basis. Images from each of the five period piece films were chosen and analyzed using semiotics. The costumes in all five films chosen for analysis were designed under the direction of Anaïs Romand and were all either nominated for, …

The Stylistic Development Of Jean Despujols (1886-1965), Kelly M. Ward

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis is the first comprehensive scholarly analysis of the life and most extant works by Jean Despujols. The French and later naturalized American painter, writer, poet, philosopher, deep-thinker, and mystic was best known for his Neoclassical and academic style. This thesis briefly discusses the artist’s beginnings as a young painter at the School of Fine Arts in Bordeaux and in Paris, his sketches in the trenches of the First World War, his time at the Villa Medicis after winning the distinguished Rome Prize, and his paintings and thoughts as a philosopher and political writer throughout his life. An outstanding …

Bernard Palissy: Early Career - Securing Patronage And Mimicking Nature In A Moment Of Crisis, Karissa Bailey

LSU Master's Theses

Early in 1562, France was experiencing a state of high religious tension between Protestants and Catholics that would precipitate the outbreak of the Religious Wars on March 1. A week before, Bernard Palissy, a Huguenot potter, wrote a letter to his Catholic patron from prison inBordeaux where he was being held on charges associated with an iconoclastic incident in his home city of Saintes. This letter would later be published as a dedication letter for the pamphlet Architecture et Ordonnance, which featured the description of a grotto commissioned by Anne de Montmorency, Palissy’s patron, seven years earlier. This thesis analyzes …

L'Apport Des Écrivains Catholiques Du Début Du Xxe Siècle Au Roman D'Analyse À Travers Leur Étude Du Mariage, Edouard D'Espalungue D'Arros

LSU Master's Theses

The psychological novel (roman d’analyse) as a genre starts in France with Mme de Lafayette (1634-1693) in the seventeenth century with the publication of La Princesse de Clèves (1678). However, the use of a psychological perspective is less known among early twentiethth century catholic authors. At the beginning of the century, several authors have used this genre extensively to convey their moral message: Paul Bourget (1852-1935); Henry Bordeaux (1870-1963); and Émile Baumann (1868-1941). The works of these writers have not been the object of research when it comes to analyzing their views and their accounts of their epoch. …

Bending Gender In French Literature, Jacey Flatte

LSU Master's Theses

This paper looks at French literature that defies binary and heteronormative gender roles and identities. The literature spans from the seventeenth- to the nineteenth-century. My goal is not only to bring these pieces of literature to light, proving that non-binary genders have existed long before the recent liberal LGBTQIA+ movement, but also to help modernize these identities from the past. In doing this, I aim to explain that contemporary gender identities are not new, but timeless. The experiences seen in this literature are strikingly similar to how people experience gender today. As a result, I hope that readers will be …

La Place De L'Honneur Dans L'Evolution De La Guerre Au Moyen Age, Nicolas Cyril Franchitti

LSU Master's Theses

The goal of this study is to understand the role that honor represents for warriors through certain conflicts from the XIIIth to XVth century. The Christian ethic was in opposition to the Feudal ethic, and the opposition between the two provoked several changes in the way honor was perceived in warfare throughout the centuries. The notion of honor depends on the thoughts and the context into which individuals or groups belong. It implies reciprocity; measured by norms often recognized by an other entity. The chivalrous ideology was born out of the social rise of the milites and through the simultaneous …

Jean Cocteau: Orpheus Narcissus, Gordon Elliott Walker

LSU Master's Theses

Over the course of thirty years, the poet and filmmaker Jean Cocteau created a singular artistic project he called the Orphic trilogy: Le Sang d’un poète (1930), Orphée (1950), and Le Testament d’Orphée (1959). This trilogy is marked by an Orphic pattern of a poet’s journey into an underworld to confront death. I will show that Cocteau’s invention is to have Orpheus be in love with death, for death to be an attractive and irresistible force to the poet. Simultaneously, Cocteau avails himself of the Narcissus myth, the man in love with his own reflection. Orpheus and Narcissus converge in …

I'Ay Recours A Vous: An Historical And Discursive Analysis Of The Lettres Circulaires Des Décédées Of The Ursuline Order In Old And New France During The Louisiana French Colonial Period, Jarrette K. Allen

LSU Master's Theses

The Ursulines of New Orleans have been serving their beloved community now for just short of 300 years, ever since they arrived from France in 1727. They brought with them long-standing traditions and values from the Old World and innovated in many ways to adapt to the New. One of these traditions was the sending of circular letters that served as eulogies for their deceased sisters. They maintained this tradition in New Orleans but also developed a unique style, creating a livre des décédées (or “book of the dead”) that contains the biographies of the sisters and memorializes them for …

Construction De L'Identité Culturelle Afro-Antillaise : Regards Croisés Entre Maryse Condé, Gisèle Pineau Et Fabienne Kanor, Jeanne Jégousso

LSU Master's Theses

The theme of cultural identity is one of the main problematic of francophone literature. Through the years, women writers, especially in Guadeloupe and Martinique, used this theme as the main topic of many of their writings. Characters, especially women narrators, try to understand this notion of cultural identity and its construction in other to make this theme theirs, since cultural identity is at the crossroads of their own story, the history of the Caribbean, and the perception these young women have of themselves. A new generation of writers, born in France of Caribbean families, tries today to offer a new …

L'Envers De L'Histoire De Jacques Collin: On A New Approach To Balzac's Most Infamous Criminal Mastermind, Lauren Elise Pendas

LSU Master's Theses

Scholarship has failed to explore adequately how Honoré de Balzac evokes the human condition’s universal elements through his most infamous criminal mastermind: Jacques Collin, alias Vautrin. Unlike analyses of Collin that I have encountered, this thesis takes all three novels and the obscure play in which Collin appears into account, challenges the transparency of his statements and the narration’s descriptions of him, explores the conservative position framing Balzac’s critique of early nineteenth-century Paris, and actively focuses on evidence of Collin’s typical subjectivity (i.e. his insatiable desire and fallibility). Consequently, this reading does not evaluate Collin’s significance solely through his apparent …

Between Bodies: (Re)Constructing The Corps Québécois In Roch Carrier's La Guerre, Yes Sir!, Tara Beth Smithson

LSU Master's Theses

Published during Québec’s Révolution Tranquille, but set during the final phase of World War II, Roch Carrier’s novel La guerre, yes sir! (1968) chronicles how one community copes with the sober homecoming of its first “son of the village” to die in the war. The novel centers on the fallen Corriveau’s repatriation to what was then considered French Canada. The body’s passage from one realm, in Europe, associated with French Canada’s multi-layered, quasi-colonial control, to another, in soon-to-be Quebec, associated with the province’s self-definition and burgeoning sense of sovereignty, offers an allegorical commentary on the Québécois people’s passage from a …

Simmering In The Tombs: The Role Of The Zombie In Patrick Chamoiseau's Chronique Des Sept Misères And Simone Schwarz-Bart's Ti Jean L'Horizon, Andrew Walton Hill

LSU Master's Theses

The figure of the zombie is a recurring trope for writers in the French Antilles. Two of the most influential and popular authors in modern French-Antillean literature are Patrick Chamoiseau from Martinique and Simone Schwarz-Bart from Guadeloupe. Both of these authors use the figure of the zombie as representations of colonization and the lingering trauma of slavery in Antillean society. In this thesis, I examine two of the most well-known works by these authors, Chamoiseau’s Chronique des Sept Misères (1986) and Schwarz-Bart’s Ti Jean L’horizon (1979), and how these texts use the nature of the zombie in an effort to …

La Place Et Le Rôle De La Mère Dans La Construction Identitaire De Ken Dans Le Baobab Fou De Ken Bugul, Natacha Jeudy

LSU Master's Theses

At a time when francophone women writers are hardly published, the Senegalese author Ken Bugul becomes the talk of the town with her 1982 novel Le baobab fou. At that point, not only is she becoming a francophone literary precursor to other francophone writers, she also imposes a style which explores and contradicts traditional views. Indeed from the beginning of the story in rural Senegal where the mother is traditionally defined and held responsible for educating her children so that the tradition can endure, Ken has to face her mother’s disappearance when she is just a child. The lack of …

Le Nègre Blanc De Bel Air: La Construction D'Une Identité Hybride Réunionnaise, Jessica Bombard

LSU Master's Theses

Reunion Island and its literature both reflect a unique world of métissage unveiling a hybrid culture and population. Through centuries, Reunionese authors have used their writings as a means to portray the reality of their complex métisse society. Uninhabited until the seventeenth century, Reunion became a focal point for many nations and peoples who brought their own cultures and traditions. Such diversity, linked to the economic needs of the colony, led to the creation of a new creole language along with a new culture. In the novel Le Nègre Blanc de Bel Air, the Reunionese author Jean-François Samlong focuses on …

Marriage In Seventeenth-Century French Theater, Adam Michael Babin

LSU Master's Theses

In seventeenth-century France, social and political confusion abounded. Absolute monarchy, which was principally created by Richelieu and glorified by Louis XIV, began gradually replacing the medieval feudalism that remained popular among the nobles. Likewise, préciosité, a proto-feminist literary and cultural movement that was not in line with official political ideals, emerged in France during this century. The institution of marriage was an important element of the complicated sociopolitical tapestry of seventeenth-century France. Through the depiction of marriage in Pierre Corneille’s Le Cid (1636), Jean-Baptiste Poquelin de Molière’s L’École des femmes (1662), and Jean Racine’s Andromaque (1667), three works of the …

Louisiana's Hope For A Francophone Future: Exploring The Linguistic Phenomena Of Acadiana's French Immersion Schools, Albert Sidney Camp

LSU Master's Theses

Cajun and Creole French are thought of by scholars and lay-people alike as the two varieties of French spoken in Louisiana. While this may have been true to some extent in the past, the linguistic landscape of Louisiana is constantly evolving. As in other parts of the world, globalization, higher education, and an ever expanding media presence are changing the linguistic reality for Louisiana’s French speaking community. The twentieth century has seen a complete shift in the status of the French language in relation to public schools in Louisiana. In the early twentieth century, many children learned French at home …

Se Rã©Ã©Crire: L'Appropriation Du Langage Du Colonisateur, Une Lecture Du Chemin Des Ordalies D’Abdellatif Laã¢Bi, Nadia Miskowiec

LSU Master's Theses

After the independence of Morocco in 1956, the question of the language arose among Moroccan writers. Highly aware of its historical implications authors had to choose between a vernacular such as spoken Arabic or Berber and a traditionally written language such as classical Arabic or French, languages of the colonizers. From there arose the contested choice of French, perceived by some as a patriotic treason. Use of French was predicted to disappear, however some authors defended its use. One such author is Abdellatif Laâbi, father of the famous review Souffles created in 1966, that played a crucial role in defining …

Stereotype And Representation Of Near And Middle Eastern Peoples In La Bande Dessinee, Brandon Matthew Thomas

LSU Master's Theses

Representation of social groups in the comics is serious. In 2006, a series of twelve cartoons published in a Danish newspaper sparked a controversy that precipitated the deaths of hundreds of people. The images depicted Mohammed and other images that supposedly mocked Islam. All across Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa protesters paraded through the streets, some calling for the death of the cartoonists. Trials in Europe over the publication of these cartoons resulted in several firings. Counter protests have also arisen. These protesters found grievance with the firings, claiming that the freedom of the press was being violated …

Mightier Than The Sword: Writing 19th-Century Crime, Megan Lawrence

LSU Master's Theses

Nineteenth-century France, obsessed with personal property, strained under multiple changes in government and the new 1804 Code Napoléon, becomes fascinated with criminal literature. Victor Hugo, Eugène Sue, and Emile Zola span the century with their criminal literature and fascinate their audience. Taking advantage of this nineteenth-century French interest in crime, these popular authors also spread political commentary through their novels. Theft, rape and murder are each treated differently in the nineteenth-century French Penal Code, and I suggest that Hugo, Sue and Zola mirror this inconsistency on the part of the law and its resulting effect on society so well that …

Rejecting The Epistolary Woman: Modern Female Protagonists In Mariama Bâ'S Une Si Longue Lettre And Ying Chen's Les Lettres Chinoises, Rosemary Michele Harrington

LSU Master's Theses

One of the most interesting thematic elements of the male-authored epistolary texts of the 18th century is what Katharine Ann Jensen refers to as the “Epistolary Woman”: “Seduced, betrayed, and suffering, this woman writes letter after letter of anguished and masochistic lament to the man who has left her behind” (Jensen 1). Jensen notes a pattern of this portrayal in texts such as Lettres portugaises and also in the letter-writing manuals written by men of the period. Epistolary Woman stems from masculine efforts to limit and define women’s writing as highly emotional, and in turn, Epistolary Woman is “a male …

Turn-Taking And Gaze Behavior Among Cajun French And Cajun English Speakers In Avoyelles Parish, Andrew Mandell Riviere

LSU Master's Theses

Languages are the verbal and non-verbal codes of a culture. A culture houses a language(s) and is comprised of the gaze and distance/use of personal sphere. Linguists and anthropologists have long since argued over which takes priority: culture or language. French and Louisiana are synonymous: it is unimaginable to picture Louisiana without French because French constitutes the culture in Louisiana. Since linguists have debated the priority of language or culture, looking at Louisiana within the confines of this debate proves informative.

The language shift forced upon the residents of South Louisiana by the 1921 State Legislature made English the sole …

Postcolonial Writing In Louisiana: Surpassing The Role Of French Traditionalism In Alfred Mercier's L'Habitation Saint-Ybars, Mary Florence Cashell

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis explores the roles of French patriarchal ideologies of the Enlightenment and exoticism in Alfred Mercier’s novel, L’habitation Saint-Ybars. His novel portrays the antebellum Creole plantation as a hierarchy of strict gender roles similar to those that Enlightenment philosophy espoused. I use the family in Bernardin de Saint-Pierre’s classic, Paul et Virginie, as one example of such a hierarchy. There are also, however, several instances where Mercier departs from the paternalistic norm. I interpret Mercier’s moving away from this model to be a declaration of a unique Louisianian identity.

Getting Warm(Er) An Investigation Into Linguistic Relativity And Its Significance In The Translation Of The English Lexical Term "Warm" Into French, Elizabeth Neuerburg Addison

LSU Master's Theses

Students of foreign languages are well aware that every language has its own vocabulary and word-for-word translations are rarely valid. It is therefore unsurprising that identifying literal translations in French for the English lexical term “warm” is problematic. This study demonstrates that not only is there a variety of French lexical terms that can be used to convey the meaning that the English lexical term “warm” conveys, but that certain French lexical terms are more likely to be used only in certain situations. Furthermore, an examination of this phenomenon through the lens of linguistic relativity has revealed differing conceptualizations of …

Les Cuisines Mères: Une Analyse Historique Des Racines Francophones De La Gastronomie De La Nouvelle Orléans, Mark Huntsman

LSU Master's Theses

New Orleans’ culinary history is amongst the most rich and storied of any American city, yet very few academic works have addressed this subject. While texts ranging from cookbooks to explorer’s journals offer glimpses into the evolution of the gastronomy of the city, the stories they present are often rife with myth, legend, and misinterpretation. Contemporary and historic authors also paint a misleading picture of the evolutionary processes involved in the creation of the cuisine and gastronomy of New Orleans, presenting a “melting-pot” model that portrays the culinary landscape of the city as a homogenous and over-simplified product of a …

Claude Simon Et Paul Ricoeur: Identification Et Identité, Guy-Marcel Mbira

LSU Master's Theses

Narrative identity is one of the very controversial concepts in literature. Since the mid-nineteenth century, the question is still the same as it has been since it was discovered or since its invention in literature and philosophy: What is a narrative? What’s the basis of a self identity? The authors selected in this essay have each in his own manner, first Paul Ricœur, by means of a philosophical discourse, and then Claude Simon, in terms of a fictional discourse, have explored the notion of narrative identity in both practical and theoretical terms. Some may say that the narrative identity is …

Zachary Richard's "Faire Récolte": A Translation From The French, Michael D. Bierschenk

LSU Master's Theses

In the second half of the twentieth century, the Cajun language, which had been entirely oral for most of its history, began to emerge as a productive literary language. One of the prominent new authors of the period was Zachary Richard, also an important Cajun musician. One of his collections of poetry, Faire récolte (Les Éditions Perce-Neige, 1997), is translated here. This thesis also includes a translator's note that briefly explores the broad themes of the poems and the methods used in translating them.

The Education Of Girls In Nineteenth-Century French Literature: Mother-Daughter Relations And Portrayals Of Identity In George Sand And Marceline Desbordes-Valmore, Christina Grace Thomas

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis examines the relationships between mothers and daughters against the background of education in early nineteenth-century France. This era was the first time that a large population of French girls was separated from their mothers. Because of their attendance at school, girls created an identity separate from that of the one that their mothers had helped them to create. By using George Sand’s autobiography Histoire de ma vie and Marceline Desbordes-Valmore’s poem “Ondine à l’ecole,” the process of distinguishing the daughter from the mother has been analyzed from both the mother’s perspective and the daughter’s perspective. For Sand, who …

Marie Darrieussecq Et Ses Truismes, Carla Bota

LSU Master's Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to analyze the relationship between language and themes in Marie Darrieussecq's novel Truismes. Having as its core the theme of metamorphosis, Truismes tells the story of a young woman who after passing through a multitude of experiences transforms into a pig. The character's journey through the metamorphosis is marked by excesses. The excess manifests itself at all levels: in the physical and mental transformation of the female character, in the description of the secondary characters, in the composition of the environment that sustains the narration, and ultimately in the language. By using Julia Kristeva's …

"Ya Know Frenchy, You Talk A Broken Language": An Analysis Of Syllable-Coda Phonetic Realizations In Creole African American Vernacular English, Rachel Rose Mentz

LSU Master's Theses

Creole African American Vernacular English or CAAVE is a variety of English spoken by African Americans of French ancestry who live primarily in the French Triangle of Louisiana. Dubois and Horvath (2003b) have previously published on glide absence in CAAVE and have suggested that CAAVE is a unique dialect of English. They attribute CAAVE’s glide absence to the contact of Creole African Americans with diverse groups of English speakers and not to language interference from French. This research further pursues these hypotheses by studying the phonological realization of word final syllable-codas for six old male speakers of CAAVE. The reduction …

Vie Et Mort De La Rhetorique Dans Le Conte Du Graal Ou Le Roman De Perceval, Oana Carmina Cimpean

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis illustrates the distinction established by Maurice Blanchot in Le Livre à venir, between novel and narration, as it appears in Chrétien de Troyes' Le conte du Graal ou le roman de Perceval. The novel accompanies the hero to the meeting with the Sirens, while the narration constitutes the meeting itself. Once the hero had his meeting with the Sirens, in Perceval's case he has the privilege of hearing God's names, he disappears from the novel, entering the realm of silence, which dominates the narration. In leaving the novel, Perceval gains access to a superior meaning, hidden to the …