French and Francophone Literature Commons^™

La Circassienne: A Study Of The Female Circus Artist In French Literature, Crystal Menninga

Masters Theses

This study examines how the female circus artist is represented in twelve pieces of French literature ranging from the late nineteenth century to the modern day. The books are divided into three categories by author type: first, authors without a circus background; second, male authors involved in the circus world; and third, women involved in the circus world. Although predicted that the first section would reveal the largest use of stereotypes and misogyny, the second would show the sexist expectations of the circassienne onstage and off, and the third would call out these stereotypes and suggest improvements, there was less …

Les Corps Démoniaques Dans La Démonomanie Des Sorciers : Un Examen Ontologique Et Épistémologique, Steven Davis

Masters Theses

The numerous ontological and epistemological paradoxes found within La Démonomanie des sorciers, a demonological treaty of the 16^th century, are studied within the context of demonic corporality: exploiting a rich philosophical and theological intertextuality as well as, more generally, a confessional model of logic, La Démonomanie (1580) constructs a linguistic world of demonic bodies capable of copulation, transformation, and imbuing humans with the power to practice magic. Following in the footsteps of the demonologists who precede him, Bodin constructs a system of the real and of knowledge which is as much dependent upon the authoritative ethos of his …

Les Auteures Surréalistes : French And Francophone Women Surrealist Writers -- Joyce Mansour, Valentine Penrose And Gisèle Prassinos, Maitland Sierra Dunwoody

Masters Theses

The notion of the “author” and the purpose of its existence have been the subject of many contemporary debates, with Roland Barthes and Michel Foucault as key. For Barthes, language defines a literary work and the author is relegated to a minor place. And he believes that certain movements, surrealism as an example, effectively aided in the “death” of the author. Though that may sometimes be the case, within the movement of surrealism the author and their language are of almost equal importance – which differs entirely from Barthes’ view considering his notions on the surrealist movement and authorship. In …

Rewriting The Twentieth-Century French Literary Right: Translation, Ideology, And Literary History, Marcus Khoury

Masters Theses

For English-language audiences, twentieth-century French literature is often identified with a variety of literary movements tied to the political left. In spite of its lesser visibility, the French literary right enjoyed considerable prestige during the first half of the twentieth century. This thesis employs methodologies from translation studies in order to study how the French literary right has been translated, or not translated, into English. Case studies devoted to three seminal writers of the right, including Charles Maurras (1868-1952), Pierre Drieu la Rochelle (1893-1945), and Roger Nimier (1925-62), demonstrate that right-wing committed literature was a central mode of literary production …

Precarious Provenance: Legitimacy, Surrogacy And Betrayal In The Value Of Art And Family In Honoré De Balzac's Le Cousin Pons And Donna Tartt's The Goldfinch, Ryan Coburn

Masters Theses

This thesis focuses on the problematic nature of art valuation, more specifically concerning the ideas of use-value and exchange-value in Honoré de Balzac’s Le Cousin Pons and Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch. Written in nineteenth-century France, Balzac’s novel paints a bleak portrait of what he believes to be a morally corrupt society obsessed with the lesser things in life such as money and status rather than what is truly important: culture and art. In her novel, which bears a striking resemblance to Balzac’s, Tartt presents her perception of present-day United States, also plagued with moral corruption and disregard for the …

Vielleicht Hier, Um Zu Sagen: Bildung And Elegy In The Duineser Elegien, Du Côté De Chez Swann, And Misérable Miracle, Emily Heilker

Masters Theses

In the wake of the industrialization, urbanization, and global conflicts of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Europe was forced to call into question its Enlightenment faith. In particular, Bildung—as the cultural education of the individual that emerged out of the Enlightenment—lost its footing amidst experience’s new texture of trauma. This thesis will examine Rilke’s Duineser Elegien, Proust’s Du côté de chez Swann, and Michaux’s Misérable miracle as each work pertains to and reconceives of the intertwining of Bildung and elegy, as a literary form both underpinned by and unconvinced of Bildung. For them, I will …

The Deeds Of William Of Villehardouin: An Annotated Translation Of A Part Of The Medieval Work, La Chronique De Morée, Houston Franklin Mcclure

Masters Theses

In this thesis, titled The Deeds of William of Villehardouin: An Annotated Translation of a Part of the Old French La Chronique de Morée, I have translated a portion of one of the remaining French texts from a period just following the Fourth Crusade (1202-1204). The portion I used of the text is taken from Jean Longnon's critical edition in Middle French based on the sole 14^th century manuscript now at the Royal Library in Brussels 15702. However, the events related in the Chronique span an earlier period of 1095-1304[1]. The stanzas that I will translate, …

Proto-Féminisme Dans L'Epistre Othéa De Christine De Pizan: Appropriation Et Réinterprétation De Deux Figures Mythologiques, Minerve Et Médée., Nathalie D. Lacarriere

Masters Theses

This thesis focuses on Christine de Pizan’s mythological allegoric work entitled Epistre Othéa, written around 1400. True to the beliefs she portrays in many of her later seminal works, such as The Book of the City of Ladies, or The Treasure of the City of Ladies, Christine displays in this piece a strong didactic vision. The crucial pairing of text and image in the two manuscripts that I chose to focus on prove the power she exerted as a woman and as an artist but also mark her intention to strengthen her moral and political message through …

« Notre Petite Ferme Me Sera Un Paradis » : Nature, Magie Et Violence Illustrées Dans Les Nouveaux Contes De Fées De La Comtesse De Ségur, Benjamin A. Fancy

Masters Theses

This paper examines the interconnections of nature, magic, and violence in the Nouveaux contes de fées (New Fairy Tales) of the Countess of Ségur and their illustrations. It focuses on the ways in which the Countess reappropriates the framework of the literary fairy tale and subtly breaks with the traditions established by past fairy-tale authors, encouraging a return to nature and a movement away from the perceived corruption of the nineteenth-century city within the context of a timeless magical world. Close study of the Countess’s multiple perspectives on violence as either a motivating form of punishment or as a display …

We Are French. Et Anglais Nous Restons., Alison Jane Bowie

Masters Theses

French Canadian playwright Joseph Armand Leclaire (1888-1931) was very well known and respected in his time. Although he wrote over thirty plays, lyrics to several songs and an abundance of political poems, most of his work has been lost and Leclaire himself seems to have been forgotten. Several of his plays were produced at the time they were written, including his 1916 play La petite maîtresse de l'école (later published in 1929 as Le petit maître d'école), but none have been presented postumously nor have any been translated. This M. F. A. thesis presents the first ever translation and …

L’Imaginaire D’Albert Cossery – Une Modalité De Transcender Le Temps Et L’Espace, Lavinia Adina Horner

Masters Theses

This thesis offers an analysis of the works of Albert Cossery, an Egyptian writer who wrote novels in French, even though all of them – with the exception of a single book – describe only the country he left behind – Egypt. In order to continue to live mentally in « Egypt » while in Exile, and to cope with the malady of nostalgia, he recreated his own Egypt in his books with the help of the five senses, which made this imaginary Egypt plausible. He also played the role of his characters, thus defying time and space. Although he …

An Omen Of Things To Come: Translated From The Original Text "L'Ombre Des Choses À Venir" By Kossi Efoui, Amber Vandivort

Masters Theses

An Omen of Things to Come follows the story of a young man, recently entered into adulthood while he recounts the horrible histories, his own and those of his comrades and acquaintances, that have followed him through childhood, war, and the rediscovery of his father. He draws you into the story through first person narrative and allows you to walk alongside him and relive his past. His personal experiences open the readers eyes to the violence, disappearances and uncertainty that surround people in a time of war: in particular how these atrocities affect the lives of abandoned children and those …

Litterature Quebecoise Et Problematique Identitaire: Poetique De L'Exil, Veronique Lamothe Bell

Masters Theses

This thesis is an analysis of problematic identity in French Canadian literature ("Quebecois literature"). I propose to study this issue through two works, the first written by a French-Canadian writer, Jacques Poulin, and the second, created by an Arab author who immigrated to Quebec, Wajdi Mouawad. My investigation demonstrates how the unique context of Quebec's writing explores identity while highlighting a status that is reminiscent of exile. The metaphor of identity, adjoined to the literature from Quebec, as represented by Poulin’s "Volkswagen Blues" (1984) manifests itself in the works of Mouawad, particularly in the play "Incendies" (2003) and the novel …

Fluidity In Marguerite Duras' Le Vice-Consul : An Architectural Reflection On Culture And Consciousness, Holly Ann Macdonald

Masters Theses

This thesis explores Marguerite Duras’ Le Vice-consul (1966) through an interdisciplinary approach to architecture and literature. Five architectural elements found within the novel – path, park, grille, octagon, and study—are explored through the concept of the “fluid” mise en abyme outlined in Lucy Stone McNeece’s Art and Politics in Duras’ “India Cycle” (1966). The contrasting theme of fluid versus rigid assumed a physical and symbolic meaning in both architectural and literary realms.

The analysis reveals a connection between the fluid framework of this nouveau roman and the structure of the built environment, which impacts our surroundings and psyche. Exploring …

A Study Of Baudelaire's Symbols Of The Feminine In Les Fleurs Du Mal, M. Allison Harris

Masters Theses

Using French and American feminist theory, I analyze Charles Baudelaire's symbols in Les Fleurs du Mal in an attempt to come to terms with symbolic representations of the female that are at once traditional and transgressive.

By examining the images of solids (statues, jewels, metals), lesbians and woman's hair which appear frequently in Baudelaire's text, I reveal Baudelaire's desire to eliminate a woman's generative power and her association with the procreative cycle of nature. His desire for a preoedipal union with the maternal female becomes evident in his early poems and his poems on the subject of a woman's hair. …

La Renaissance En France: Quelques Contributions De Ronsard Et De Du Bellay A La PoeśIe Franc̨Aise, Leyla Audi Peck Waddell

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

Trois Classes Sociales Dans La Terre, L'Assommoir Et Germinal D'Emile Zola, Janet Adair Evans

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

Le Role De L'Amour Dans Certains Romans De Balzac, Le Lien

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

L'Assommoir Et Une Page D'Amour, Une Étude De Contraste Chez Emile Zola, Maxime V. Parienti

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

Le Dualisme Paradoxal D'Albert Camus: Les Essais Philosophiques Et Les Romans, Gene Lee Evans

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.