NCube/papyrus huggingface dataset:
De l'absolu littéraire au neutre : les fins de la littérature selon Maurice Blanchot et Samuel Beckett

This thesis examines the notion of "literature" via the works of Maurice Blanchot and Samuel Beckett. It aims to respond to the latest symptoms of a crisis - hearkening back to the birth of "Literatur" in Jena near the close of the eighteenth century - that pertains to its very "death" or "survival." Indeed, the 00's have marked the return of heated debates surrounding the status of literature, calling it back to its aporias. Already highlighted by deconstructive criticism, this issue also plays a vital role in Beckett and Blanchot's respective oeuvres, which I discuss here due to their willingness to adhere as closely as possible to the undecidable even as they repeatedly assert that such a task is impossible.  In the first chapter, I trace the birth of the concept of "Literatur" in early German romanticism by focusing on what Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe and Jean-Luc Nancy call "the literary absolute," which I revisit in light of Quentin Meillassoux's attempt at relegitimizing the absolute as such. Acknowledging the failure of this endeavour within the space of literature, I break it down into two poles: 1. literalism, which for Beckett and Blanchot signals the refusal to paraphrase, and 2. the spirit of criticism, which haunts each and every letter upon its inscription. I then briefly consider - prior to dismissing it - the possibility of resolving these contradictions by means of sociology or aesthetic subjectivism.  In the second chapter, I try to demonstrate how Blanchot's concept of "literary space" ties into Jacques Derrida's rereading of the Platonic khôra, foreshadowing the neuter. I then suggest that the latter term best accounts for literature's contradictions, as it unceasingly wavers between autonomy and heteronomy. Although I trace the neuter's "theorisation" in Blanchot's writings, I also discern its worklessness in Beckett's work, specifically in the libretto "neither." Foregrounding this movement of coming and going in their oeuvres, I analyse both writers' respective attempts at reaching the absolute point of the neuter: in Blanchot's "The Gaze of Orpheus" and Beckett's Ill Seen Ill Said.  In the third and final chapter, I explore that which seemingly resists the neutralisation of the neuter, starting with the fragments of form conjured up by Beckett's works, and specifically the mathematisation this operation implies in How It Is and What Where. I associate form's "restance," as Jacques Derrida calls it, to the thing, which I discuss in light of its contradictions so as to rethink the notion of "res literaria." Lastly, I take a closer look at what Blanchot calls "the solitude of the work" before reflecting on literature's paradoxical mode of communication, which speaks from the depths of its abyssal withdrawal, in the manner of a prosopopoeia.

Keyphrases: French literature, Irish literature, 20th century literature, Literary absolute, Neuter
« Laissez-moi entendre la parole d’acier » : enjeux d’énonciation du personnage féminin dans quelques romans africains contemporains

In the field of Francophone literatures, the interest and specific aspects of the female character is significant in the African novel, as it obtains more and more attention from critics and academics. Surrounded by social pressures, female protagonists acquire, through personal introspection and collective observation, the liberty to voice their opinions, concerns and recriminations. Growing stronger, these characters raise questionings about the woman’s place and part in the African society. In this doctoral dissertation, we study the modalities though which the female characters’ enunciations articulate themselves in a few contemporary African novels: Tanella Boni’s "Matins de couvre-feu", Hemley Boum’s "Si d’aimer…", Boubacar Boris Diop’s "Le Cavalier et son ombre", Emmanuel Dongala’s "Photo de groupe au bord du fleuve", Henri Lopes’ "Une enfant de Poto-Poto" and Angèle Rawiri’s "Fureurs et cris de femmes". Enunciation theories (Maingueneau, Kerbrat-Orecchioni, Benveniste) and rhetoric elements (Amossy, Cornilliat and Lockwood) provide the conceptual tools needed to study their enunciations, whether they are oral or written. While analysing the contexts, forms, contents and effects of their statements, we explore the various discourses (feminist, motherly, politic, polemic, loving, etc.) of the women characters through their writing, personal monologues, private or intimate dialogs and public or professional speaking. This literary mosaic illustrates that female characters in contemporary African novels differ from their anterior construction, redefining the parameters of their speaking, their conception of reality and of what exactly constitutes the “word of steel”.

Keyphrases: Francophone literature, African novel, Contemporary africain novel, Female character, Enunciation theories
Les représentations dystopiques de la société dans le nouveau roman d'anticipation francophone (Nelly Arcan, Michel Houellebecq, Antoine Volodine)

This work presents an immersion in the new francophone novel of anticipation, specifically analysing the dystopian representations of society in selected works of Nelly Arcan, Michel Houellebecq and Antoine Volodine. Based in the field of sociocriticism, our analysis rests on four main axes: the poetics of place and character, narration, intertextuality and interdiscursivity. At the center of these articulations is the key notion of totalitarianism from Hannah Arendt, which new theorists have considered differently and which our three authors rethink from different aspects: the representation of the mass in the novels of Houellebecq, the disappearance of private life in those of Arcan, the totalitarian violence of interrogations that converge towards the concentration horror in the post-exotic world of Volodine, the figure of the Fürher reinvented by all three authors. These are only a few examples which correspond in a surprising and disturbing way to Arendt’s notion of totalitarianism, at the price however of a sometimes complete inversion of its emblematic elements, according to Wolin (and in some ways Todorov) on the subject. Strongly influenced by the Anglo-Saxon dystopia, their novels do more than imagine the political nightmare of tomorrow – they reinvent the anticipatory mechanics, which for a long time consisted merely of magnifying in the future elements of the present. The future they describe, often furtively, offers a diagnosis of a crisis of present history, but also reveals the broken utopias of the past and the influence of the revolutionaries of the 1960s and 1970s on today’s world. Whether it is the Quiet Revolution for Arcan, May’68 for Houellebecq or the attempts at regime change in 1917 in Russia as in the 1970s in Europe for Volodine, each fiction explores the experience of failure directly or symbolically by showing that Utopia (whether it be modernity or secularism, progressivism or liberalism, communism or socialism) has, in some respects, failed, and that the end of the great narratives theorized by Lyotard has given way to all the narratives that make our individualistic presentism: sexual and religious misery, the reign of spectacle and money, recuperation and betrayal of idealistic discourses of the past, etc. Moreover, this new novel of anticipation reveals the neototalitarianistic tendencies of the capitalist and neo-liberal planet rising on the horizon of the future – and this, by the singular inventiveness of their prose, without falling into the trap of pale stylistic imitation (hence the idea of a new novel, which is obviously not a new Nouveau roman). While the Robbe-Grillets of the literary world deconstructed traditional forms of romance until illegibility, the Arcan, Houellebecq and Volodine of today do the same with the anticipatory temporality they reinvent in order to better interpret their society.

Keyphrases: Nelly Arcan, Michel Houellebecq, Antoine Volodine, Intertextuality, Sociocriticism, Totalitarianism, Utopia, Dystopia, Novel of anticipation
Mundus est fabula : l’imaginaire géographique dans la fiction utopique (XVIIe-XVIIIe siècles)

Why were utopian fictions in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries written in the form of a first person imaginary travel ? Most commentators study utopian literature as being a concept ; the form it adopts and the representations it deploys are considered, at best, incidental. Our hypothesis is quite different : these texts should interest the historian of representations precisely because they present themselves in the form of a narrative in which the subjectivity of the narrator is problematic. By their construction mixing factual and fictional elements, these texts can be read in the double perspective of the “world as fable” and the “fable as world”. We will study this duality through the notion of geographical imagination : the texts we analyze address the links between travel and language, territory and society, mobility and subjectivity. The geographical imagination that we will interpret is a process that informs the perception of the world and the possibility of its representation. This doctoral thesis is divided in two parts : we will investigate depictions of space and spatial practices which are both mediations between the utopian traveler and the places he crosses. This dissertation studies the geographical imagination in utopian fiction through five modes of semiotization of space. Firstly, we will question the fabric of the imaginary worlds by theorizing what we call the “utopian pact” (naming). Secondly, we will explore the practice of description in a rhetorical and poetic point of view : how can we describe something that isn’t real (describing) ? Thirdly, we will focus on the performative role of space and place, and how power shapes practices, behaviours and social structures (constructing). Fourthly, we will take a critic look at a number of emblematic spaces, in which culture, memory and power are materialized (territorialize). Finally, we will discuss how the utopian traveler apprehends space : the representation of the body, the practice of mobility and the use of literary memory are all ways of putting a distance between the world and its experience (imagining). It is this “geographical” moment in the history of utopian fiction that this dissertation wants to explore.

Keyphrases: Space, Geographical imagination, Utopian fictions in seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Imaginary voyages, History of representations
Le passage de l’esthétique de la réception au projet d’une herméneutique littéraire : une étude sur les aspects méthodologiques de l’application du structuralisme en études littéraires

This thesis traces the methodological and historical development of literary hermeneutics, a theory formulated in the works of Peter Szondi and Hans Robert Jauss. Along with Russian Formalism (1915-1930), Prague Structuralism (1930-1949), and philosophical hermeneutics (1960), the theory of literary hermeneutics has addressed major issues in the field of literary studies, for it provided valuable insights into the theory of interpretation. In fact, a closer look to the francophone reception of the founders of the Constance School of Reception Aesthetics (1967-1993) and of the Peter Szondi Institute for Comparative literature (since 1965) suggests that a comprehensive application of their contributions is insufficient. Their common interest in questions of modern philology enabled them to clarify many methodological problems in literary history, and to shape the profile of an interdisciplinary research in the humanities. The works of Peter Szondi and Hans Robert Jauss are of great importance as they have joined discussions that allowed both theoreticians to see their own discipline against the background of another critical tradition. In this sense, the idea – originating form Ferdinand de Saussure – of examining language as a system is regarded as being among the most influential ideas, for it has altered the traditional genetic theories and provided the basis of a new semiotic method of reception theory. This thesis aims to examine the continuity, as well as the specificity of the theories of reception and of literary hermeneutics in order to formulate comprehensive conclusions about the way they provided new insights into the methodology of literary studies. We wish to measure the scope and the results of the structural study of literature in the context of its didactic application, and to understand the significance of a method in which many disciplines of the humanities have largly participated.

Keyphrases: Peter Szondi, Modern philology, Literary history, Literary hermeneutics, Reception theory, Constance School, Interdisciplinary research
Communal Conflict and the Geopolitics of Land Tenure, Social Identity and Statehood in North Kivu (Democratic Republic of the Congo)

This thesis offers a geopolitical analysis of land tenure and land tenure conflict in North Kivu (DRC). From a close-up perspective based on interviews and survey questionnaires concerning land tenure conflicts in the rural areas of the province, the thesis proceeds to analyse links between land tenure, the existing land tenure systems and conflicts over land tenure, on one side, and the region’s more visible, and thus also more studied, communal, civil and interstate conflicts, on the other. On a first level of analysis, the thesis shows how the design and application of the Congo’s successive land tenure systems have affected longstanding inter-communal tensions and recurring conflicts over land tenure and social identities. On a second level, the thesis also shows how this has nurtured intense geopolitical tensions in the four southern territories of North Kivu that have erupted on several occasions in recent history into communal, civil and interstate wars.

Keyphrases: Land tenure regime, Land tenure conflict, Social identity, Inter-communal relations, Communal conflict, Statehood, North Kivu, Congo
Les relations ville-port selon une approche d’écologie territoriale : le cas de Montréal

Cities and ports share strong historical ties. Those ties have deeply evolved since the second half of the 20th century, especially since the 1990s. Their relationships have become more complex with increasing conflicts. The deep mutations of the city-port relationships have had a great impact on both empirical and theoretical issues of geography. A new approach and a new model are suggested. Our research objective is to develop a new city-port relationship model based on territorial ecology. It is a decision-making support tool for urban and port decision-makers. Successive studies of city, port and vulnerabilities of their relationships are integrated in a Socio-Ecological System. Our analysis focuses on the city-port of Montreal. The processes running at the port-city interface – governance, economic, socio-spatial and environmental processes – are used to validate a model reconciling theoretical and empirical issues, both city and port related. Results suggest important vulnerabilities in all processes, but most importantly in governance. Environmental and social issues are eclipsed by economic considerations. This phenomenon is reinforced by the fact that it is difficult for territories to challenge dominance of global issues. We believe that a territorial ecology approach is a means for ports and cities to co-exist and take advantage of global processes. The innovative point in our research lies in the renewal of the city-port relationship field of study, introducing a territorial and political ecology approach in transport geography. The use of Socio-Ecological Systems theory allows documenting empirical issues of city-port relations in Montreal since the 1990s and the conception of a new model capable of providing renewed theoretical issues.

Keyphrases: Transport geography, Port-city relationships, Socio-ecological system, Vulnerability, Territorial ecology, Montreal
L’elocutio en 1 Corinthiens : inventaire, stratégie et herméneutique

This dissertation analyzes 1Co as a work of Greek literature from the 1stcentury. The heuristic hypothesis is as follows: there is an epistoral style which Paul used to convey his message the best he could. As the letter was meant to be read, and is also a discourse, it played with the modalities of both writing style and orature, which is what makes its style distinctive. This research focuses on elocutio, an element that defines style in rhetorics, and which covers all processes, whether lexical, syntactic or poetic, that characterize the mode of expression. Our study proposes a thorough, in-depth reading of 1Co, allowing the text to reveal its aural dimension. The methodology includes a phase of identification of the most frequent processes that support the orality of Paul's writing. With this inventory, the main stylistic traits are identified. The poetic process illuminates the thematic development of the missive, whose dynamics is proper to dialogue and whose sound cartography suggests that the letter has to be voiced aloud. The conclusion reached by such a reading is that orality is an essential component of Paul's strategy in 1Co. There is a link between the style used by the author and the purpose of the letter. We can then speak of a hermeneutics of orality. Based on the criteria which Walter Ong suggested to distinguish orature, this thesis proposes a definition of the elocutio of 1Co, which shows to what extent Paul’s poetics was meant to serve his policy. This one is twofold: to rectify and to edify. Between a fighting style and a style of reconciliation, the letter deploys a discourse fully oriented towards the figure of the resurrected Christ. What had been so far unheard of in Paul’s kerygma gives rise to a stylistic creativity which subverts rhetorics in the broader sense of the term to change it into a rhetorics of conversion.

Keyphrases: style, elocutio, 1st century, New Testament, Paul of Tarsus, 1 Corinthians, Epistolary, Rhetoric, Orality, Walter Ong
Religious Peacebuilding in the Great Lakes Region of Africa : The Role of Three Christian Churches in Goma, DRC (1992-2012)

Since the nineties, violent conflicts in the Great Lakes region of Africa have continued to spread throughout the entire region. The consequences of these conflicts are felt mainly in the eastern provinces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and North Kivu in particular. To tackle these conflictual situations, several studies have focused on state-building approaches at the expense of non-state local participants, whose role has received scant attention and whose legitimacy has even been contested. The significance of this research lies in its greater depth of understanding, given the role of religious actors in the recent religious peacebuilding efforts in Goma. This derives from the fact that, to the best of my knowledge, no such ethnographic investigation related to religious peacebuilding had ever been undertaken in Goma up to 2013, because it was then a city that had recently (November 2012) been under the control of March 23 (M23) rebels. In addition, no other research included Revival churches or significant grassroots religious actors from any religious communities in Goma (DRC). The method was primarily guided by the central question of this research: How do members of the Catholic, 3ème Communauté Baptiste au Centre de l’Afrique (3ème CBCA), and Arche de l’Alliance/Goma (Arche) Churches perceive and describe their roles in the religious peacebuilding in the city of Goma? I therefore applied a qualitative case studies approach to explore the religious peacebuilding roles of the three Christian churches in the capital of the North Kivu province, Goma. Three primary sources of data collection were employed: 40 semi-structured interviews, direct observations in Goma, and a questionnaire with 39 questions (multiple choice and some with more in-depth perspectives). Not only do the findings of this study reveal the important role of religious participants, who in many instances filled the role of the post-colonial Congolese state in providing goods and services, but they also highlighted the nature of the relationships within and between the Catholic, 3ème CBCA and Arche Churches.

Keyphrases: Religion, Church, Revival, Small Christian Communities, Conflict, Peace, Theology of Peace, Religious Peacebuilding, Conflict Transformation, Local Ownership, Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo, Religion, appropriation locale, Goma
Perturbation de la membrane cellulaire par des composés cationiques : transport transmembranaire contrôlé et applications biologiques

Salts containing organic cations are an important class of clinically used compounds. They possess numerous biological applications resulting from their capacity to disrupt cellular membranes. In this thesis, we are particularly interested in the disruption of homeostasis disruption induced by the insertion of imidazolium salts in phospholipid membranes. The resulting membrane disruption has potential applications, such as the treatment of diseases arising from the dysfunction of ion transport, or in an emerging strategy to target effectively the membranes of unwanted microorganisms, such as multidrug resistant bacteria, a scourge of modern times.  We present the transmembrane transport of anions by a new class of organic mobile transporters: adamantyl-functionnalized imidazolium salts. The transport process can be controlled by the addition of cyclodextrins that form supramolecular entities that are unable to disrupt the phospholipid membrane. The transmembrane transport properties of the imidazolium salts can be completely restored by the addition of a competitive guest. This system had shown a potential application as a controllable drug delivery strategy, where the toxicity of imidazolium salts toward Bacillus thuringiensis bacteria has been demonstrated to be reversible, by modulating transmembrane ion transport. We also present a simple spectroscopic assay that we developed to quantify permeabilization of the bacterial envelope of Escherichia coli. The novel approach can be used to monitor the permeabilization of the bacterial membrane that is induced by benzalkonium chloride or other cationic compounds.

Keyphrases: Phospholipides, Imidazolium salts, Cyclodextrins, Supramolecular chemistry, Self-assembly, Transmembrane ion transport, Phospholipids