NCube/papyrus huggingface dataset:
Identité, culture et conversion à l'Islam : compréhension et perception des musulman.e.s pratiquant.e.s du Québec

Conversions to Islam fascinate, positively or negatively, many people. By the same token, academics in Quebec and elsewhere in the world are studying this phenomenon. But according to some people, such as experts in the field, a lack of knowledge and skills exists in the field. As for people converted to Islam who live in Quebec, many feel the need to express themselves about their experiences in a safe way while feeling understood in their words. Although studies speak of conversions to Islam in Quebec, many of them come from Europe. Some make comparisons with the situation in America, including Quebec. But the Quebec reality differs from that of Europe. Several factors, such as immigration, mark this difference. In addition, very few studies on the subject are carried out by people who have lived the experience of conversion to Islam.  This research attempts to balance these flaws by giving the floor to the people concerned, through semi-structured interviews combined with an intercultural approach. Additionally, a person who has been through the process of converting to Islam is leading this research. This allows for an insider’s understanding of the perception of practicing Muslims in Quebec regarding conversion to Islam. Its impact on identity, culture and religion remains very present. This means that this research revolves around four themes: identity, culture, religion and conversion. Although the interviews were individual, a co-construction of data was done through the information collected.  According to the first results, I see that prejudices against people who convert to Islam do exist, both in the Muslim community and in Quebec society. However, the people met during this research perceive people converted to Islam in a similar way to those born in this religion and who were educated in it. From these preliminary results and the resulting analysis, questions related to this subject will breathe new life into current knowledge through an internal view of the Muslim community.

Keyphrases: Conversion, Islam, Culture, Dialogue, Identity, intercultural approach
I <3 Sorel ; suivi de Monologue et échec de la communication dans Billy [les jours de hurlement] de Fabien Cloutier

The new modalities of enunciation explored by contemporary theater challenge the traditional notion of dialogue. A more extensive use of the monologue, often mistakenly considered to be the opposite of dialogue and used sparingly in classical theater, is conquering the stage both in Quebec and internationally, establishing a new relationship between the stage and the audience. The creation, I   Sorel, explores how, through a shared space and by the way their lonely voices intertwine, three solitudes meet without speaking. Inspired by the Japanese art of kintsugi, the play aims to reveal the beauty in the cracks and imperfections of language, places and people. The essay examines the singular use of monologues in Billy [les jours de hurlement] and questions their modalities and effects on the elaboration of the dramatic action and on the relationship the play establishes with its spectator.

Keyphrases: Monologue, Dialogue, Quebec theatre, Enunciation, Dramaturgy
Lecture de la poésie de Kabīr à la lumière de la tripartie soufisme, bhakti et doctrine des Nāths yogīs

The pre-modern period in India sees the development of bhakti as a new and distinct religiosity and almost completely dominates the religious scene in India. Although we have not reached a critical mass of studies that establish an impact of Muslim mysticism on Kabīr's devotional poetry, this research paper will aim to demonstrate the existence of a link between bhakti and Indo-Persian Sufism implanted from the Delhi Sultanate to the end of the Mughal period by focusing on one question: To what extent did the ascetic practices of the poet Kabīr develop under the influence of Sufi ideology and mysticism?  It examines how a bhakti figure like Kabīr embraced the Sufi conception of spirituality in a relationship of borrowing and intimate association without altering the Hindu genealogy of this devotional sensibility. The bhakti and Sufi movements of the subcontinent did not merely demonstrate the quest of an individual or group of individuals to attain knowledge, grace, or oneness with the Supreme Being, they instilled in the mass of Hindu and Muslim devotees a unique path to reach the Ultimate Reality by transcending the phenomenon of religious identities that were little or not defined in that era of religious hybridity and that were amply forged by the idea of salvation through the mystical path independently of the concept of religion as understood by modern scholarship.

Keyphrases: Bhakti, Kabīr, Doctrine des Nāth yogīs, Bhakti, Kabīr, Sufism, Mysticism, Yogīs doctrine of Nāth, Religious identities
Du désir dans l’écriture (ailleurs, une rencontre) ; suivi de Peut-être que dehors

The essay Du désir dans l'écriture (ailleurs, une rencontre) proposes a quest for decompartmentalization – carried out in a pandemic context of confinement – for textual forms that require a rethinking of the categories defining (and limiting) the modes of existence and circulation of cultural objects. This reflection is articulated, among other things, through a reading of La nuit juste avant les forêts, a work by Bernard-Marie Koltès that is irreducible to what is called “theater” and that nevertheless invites the sharing of an experience: despite the endless flow of words drawn in one direction, the word overflows its medium (the page, the stage) and a true communion catches whoever is there, outside the diegesis, to welcome it. By approaching the text beyond its mediation, this thesis proposes an intuitive contribution, based on research-creation, to the thought of communication (and its impossibility). As an extension of the theory, Peut-être que dehors embodies this quest for a living word in practice. The artistic and meditative proposal takes the form of a series of fragments that render in a fragmented way a narrative of traumatic memory, made of holes and blanks. The textual configuration reflects on the one hand the stammering of saying what is usually kept silent, and on the other hand the space that is missing to breathe and heal. In conditions of solitude, of isolation, the voice of writing questions what it takes to create trust and encounter, community perhaps, with whoever receives the words.

Keyphrases: interpellation, Bernard-Marie Koltès, La nuit juste avant les forêts, word, between, text, experience, calling, creative writing, utopia
Cultiver le doute : les contradictions polyphoniques de narrateurs non fiables dans «Asiles de fous» de Régis Jauffret, suivi de «Fractures multiples»

To cast doubt is the main idea around which revolve all the elements of this research-creation project. My intent was to deepen and experiment with literary principles likely to produce a narrative filled with uncertainty that gives free rein to a variety of interpretations. The theorical part of this project, Les contradictions polyphoniques de narrateurs non fiables dans “Asiles de fous” de Régis Jauffret, is an essay focusing on the novel Asiles de fous by Régis Jauffret, which can be seen as emblematic of a type of modern French literature dubbed “disconcerting”. Asiles de fous constitutes a particularly interesting object of study to approach the problem of an interpretative space in tension. The dissonance of the voices inherent in its polyphonic form, as well as the “unreliability” of each of its four narrators, complicate the reading process to the point where it is impossible to find an anchor in this hypothetical story where everything seems orchestrated to confuse the reader. Fractures multiples, the creative part of this project, is a novel steered by seven voices that explore the unbearable complexity of being. It recollects various phases in the life of Jean-Philippe Dumoulin by dissecting his troubled and ambiguous emotional ties with his family, his lovers, and his friends. Formerly a model child aspiring to a career as a concert violinist, Jean-Philippe grew up to become a promiscuous freeloader of sorts, infamous for his mood swings and dramatic bouts of depression. Now in his forties, he lives almost secluded, entirely devoted to his doctoral studies in philosophical psychopathology. A chance encounter will be the catalyst for a chain reaction that will spur him to rebuild once significant bonds he had chosen to sever in the hope of extricating himself from the enclosure of his psychic conflicts. In the same way that a quilt is made of fabrics carefully chosen to represent different periods of one’s life, the storyline of Fractures multiples is a collection of 37 short stories which give each character its own poetic imagery and undertone. Much of the action is conveyed through dialogues informed by notions of linguistic polyphony, where divergent voices express themselves, confront or echo each other, and interlock. The result is a game of perceptions driven by an ever-fleeting quest for truth, showing how everybody tends to adjust one’s focus to reflect a reality that comforts one’s views.

Keyphrases: narrateur non fiable, Régis Jauffret, Asiles de fous, polyphony, unreliable narrator, narrative voice, fragmentary writing, philosophical psychopathology
Forsythe ; suivi de Résistance et aveu dans Les fous de Bassan d’Anne Hébert : le chemin vers la révolution

The act of writing invariably implies a desire to say without necessarily resulting in a confession. However, when the desire to confess constitutes the main motivation for writing, or even an obsession, the act of saying or hushing transcends the text, materialising the confession itself. This master’s thesis in Research-Creation looks at this gesture of scriptural revelation following a traumatic event, basing itself on ideas put forward by Michel Foucault in The History of Sexuality, a work published in four tomes between 1976 and 2018 . In the creation part, the guilt associated with the accidental death of the narrator’s father acts as the primary motive of confession but a contradictory desire of silencing and sealing the truth puts a halt to this impulse. The text is composed of fragments, a heterogeneous collage hesitating not only to reveal itself, but in its way to do it. The essay on the other hand, focuses on Anne Hébert’s Les fous de Bassan in which confession is motivated by a feeling of responsibility towards the double murder of the Atkins cousins, shared between the different members of Griffin Creek’s small imagined community, located somewhere on the Gaspesian Coast. Beside confession, the two parts of this thesis will intersect through many themes – notably haunting memories, faith and madness –, ultimately ending in different destinations.

Keyphrases: Michel Foucault, Anne Hébert, Confession, Writing, Madness, Faith, Haunting, Guilt
Une délicate maison de bêtises ; suivi de Une fête urbaine : l’impact des lieux dans Là où fuit le monde en lumière de Rose Eliceiry

une délicate maison de bêtises is a book of poetry that explores the tension between staying and going. The lyrical subject evoked in the poems is torn between its desire for connection, for relationship, and its need for freedom. Written in free verses, separated into three parts according to the affects of the subject, the book explores places, physical and emotional, that we avoid and then constantly reinvest.  This dissertation focuses on the book of poetry Là où fuit le monde en lumière of the Quebecoise poet Rose Eliceiry. It analyses how the places of the city interact with the lyrical subject. It explores the inscription of pain on bodies, whether they are human or urban. Based on the concept of Thirdspace developed by the geographer Edward W. Soja, it invites us to rethink places beyond their physical and mental inscription, in what they can produce as othering spaces. The understanding of these spaces is also built around the work of Michel Foucault, from what he calls heterotopias and heterochronies. Entering and leaving these other areas, the lyrical subject of Eliceiry is vulnerable to the boundaries of the places that welcome or reject her. Despite the importance of otherness at the heart of the poems, this essay also studies the presence and significance of multiple commonplaces inserted in the poetic speech. These literary topoi anchor the work and experience of the lyrical subject in our contemporaneity by evoking both certain issues of the time and different social realities.

Keyphrases: Rose Eliceiry, Thirdspace, Extreme contemporary, Quebec poetry, Heterotopia, Other spaces, Otherness, Commonplaces
Je suis une voiture ; suivi de L'écriture du fleuve dans la poésie de Mahigan Lepage et de Pierre Nepveu

Je suis une voiture is a collection of short stories that take place in different places of Québec. The relation between the narrator —she is the same in every text— and these places is thought with Montreal as a starting point. The objective of the short stories is not so much to describe the places as it is to give a measure of their ambiance. Because they exist in the sensitive world, to mention them anchors the texts in reality. The work of realism also transpires in the character of the narrator, who allows the representation of different motifs of human life: mostly love, but also friendship, loss, anger, sadness... Je suis une voiture is also a collection of memories that intersect and sometimes connect. As it is not chronological, the order of the texts presents itself as an itinerary where each stop is an episode of the same life. The essay, « L’écriture du fleuve dans la poésie de Mahigan Lepage et de Pierre Nepveu » examines three collections of poems to answer the question: “how to write a river?” From Lepage was chosen le fleuve colère and from Nepveu La dureté des matières et de l’eau and Romans-fleuves. The texts have the advantage of being written in three different genres: the fable, verses, and prose. Each poem can then become a possible answer to the question. The essay tends to present that to write a river, one must reform its main characteristics and transpose them in the text. Two of them are the main focus of this essay: water and motion and the analysis takes a dual thematic and formal point of view.

Keyphrases: Mahigan Lepage, Pierre Nepveu, Fleuve, Quebec poetry, Creative writing, River
Les démons de la tradition : Book of Mercy ou les psaumes de Leonard Cohen

Through a reading of Book of Mercy, Leonard Cohen’s collection of psalms, this study examines the poet’s relationship with the Hebrew tradition. Anchoring its poetic production in the history of the psalm, which dates back to the Hebrew Bible, or, for Christians, to the Old Testament, Book of Mercy constitutes indeed a framework within which unfolds a confrontation unequaled in Cohen’s work. Drawing the portrait of the scriptural tradition inherited by the poet, we will therefore delve into the psalm that tradition bequeathed to him, in order ultimately to study Cohen’s singular literary project. Against the backdrop of this evolving relationship to the Hebrew tradition, the poet reveals in his modernity the literary underpinnings of poetry moved by the prosaic expression of the human.

Keyphrases: Leonard Cohen, Hebrew tradition, psalms, literature, otherness
Paz Encina y la memoria colectiva : una aproximación desde el uso de los archivos, la temporalidad y el paisaje natural

This research analyzes how Paraguayan filmmaker Paz Encina addresses collective memory. Driven by a strong archival impulse (Foster), Encina builds memory by saturating her work with affects, emphasizing a retrospective view to rewrite history through the ordinary lives of ordinary people. In her cinematographic work, which includes documentaries, experimental short films, installations and a feature-length fiction film, she projects a collective memory (Halbwacks) as she revisits Paraguay’s decisive historical moments: the Chaco War (1932-1935) and the dictatorship of Alfredo Stroessner (1954-1989). The research considers the consequences of the territorial dispossession suffered by the country’s indigenous and peasant population, and through representations of the desaparecidos, the victims of forced disappearance, addresses questions concerning postmemory (Hirsch). We use three approaches to study the work of Paz Encina. In the first chapter, the installations in Notas de memoria (2012) and the short films Arribo (2014) and Familiar (2014) help us study how she combines the official archives of Stroessner dictatorship, known as Archivos del Terror, to personal and family archives. Chapter two focuses on the length-feature fiction film Hamaca paraguaya (2006) to study historical trauma and its anachronical and disjunctive temporality, and the country’s peasant population. The final chapter focuses on the representation of landscape, conceived as a reservoir of memory, through the short films Viento Sur (2011), Tristezas (2016) and the documentary Ejercicios de memoria (2016).

Keyphrases: Stroessner, Archivos del Terror, Hamaca paraguaya, Paz Encina, archives, archivos, collective memory, landscape, Paraguay
Hörbar und unhörbar : le multilinguisme et la musique, une expérience polyphonique chez Ingeborg Bachmann

Franz Schubert (1797-1828), Gustav Mahler (1860-1911), Arnold Schönberg (1874-1951), to name a few of the greatest Austrian composers, have left an important musical legacy to the culture of their country. In this thesis, I argue that the work of the Austrian writer Ingeborg Bachmann (1926-1973), although literary, carries on this musical legacy. In her novel Malina (1971), the author borrows from the system of musical notation, e.g. fragments of a score (Pierrot lunaire [1912], Schönberg), tempo and dynamics indications traditionally used for musical interpretation (presto, legato, forte). What is particularly interesting about Bachmann is that, in addition to – and in dialogue with – these musical influences, her novel contains a plurality of languages, including words in Italian, a sentence written in English, the lyrics of a French song.  The following master thesis is composed of two sections (research and translation), both of which will discuss music and multilingualism in Bachmann’s work. In the first chapter, we present works and collaborations that have prompted reflection on the relationship between languages and between music and language in Bachmann's eventful career. In the second chapter, we examine three letters from the multilingual correspondence Briefe einer Freundschaft (2004) between Bachmann and the German composer Hans Werner Henze (1926-2012). This selection, which we have translated into French, will serve as a window into their collaboration and their aesthetics. In the third chapter, our analysis will focus on the “polyphonic” experience of those who read the novel Malina. Our position is that this experience is produced both by the use of foreign languages and musical language in the novel Malina.  Overall, we show how foreign languages and musical language are key elements of the author's poetics, using a comparative approach, and to what extent these languages, by means of the many voices they embody – the audible (hörbar) and the inaudible (unhörbar) – will trace a new geography of life.

Keyphrases: Ingeborg Bachmann, Hans Werner Henze, son, multilingualism, music, sound, polyphony, translation, Mehrsprachigkeit, Musik, Klang, Übersetzung
Consanguinity, epidemics and early life survival in colonial Quebec, 1720-1830

Consanguinity, the productive union of spouses sharing identical alleles from a common ancestor, accumulated over time in Colonial Quebec. Concurrently, Quebec was the victim of several epidemics. The aim of this study is to evaluate the relationship between child mortality and consanguinity in epidemic periods of Colonial Quebec between 1720 and 1830. On the one hand, it is hypothesized that children with homologous genes on many loci would have a significantly higher mortality rate compared to non consanguineous children, due to homozygote disadvantage. On the other hand, consanguineous individuals may have a more favourable survival because of the effect of settlement, how many generations a family has been in the colony, present in the measure of consanguinity. Further, the social benefit of a closely bound family may favour child survival by providing more social support to the parents and child supervision. Kaplan-Meier survival curves are graphed, and Cox regression models are run to explore and partially disentangle the roles of genetic and environmental factors. Immigrants, multiple births and individuals lacking a genealogy from the Registre de population du Québec ancien (RPQA) and Infrastructure intégrée des microdonnées historiques de la Population du Québec (IMPQ) are excluded. Altogether, 610,412 individuals are analysed in the Cox models. Hazard ratios for epidemics increase with age and distant consanguinity hazard ratios often resemble the no consanguinity reference group. Further, the effects differ by sex and age group. Generally, if closely consanguineous children, those identified as consanguineous with only three ascending generations, do not undergo excess mortality in a previous age group, the Cox models signal an unfavourable survival of these individuals during epidemics. Underlying effects such as selection processes and unrobust control variables for settlement guide the results of the interaction between epidemics and consanguinity, so the premise, though convincing, remains to be validated.

Keyphrases: Québec ancien, consanguinity, epidemics, infant mortality, child mortality, Colonial Quebec, survival analysis
Étude des facteurs d’attraction des migrants familiaux et individuels en Chine

Traditionally, Chinese internal migrants migrate alone and leave behind their spouse and children. Over the past twenty years, more migrants have migrated with members of their nuclear family (Fan et al., 2011, Fan et Li, 2019, Duan et al., 2008). Few studies have been devoted to this type of migrants. According to Mincer’s migration theory (1977), family migrants do not choose a place of destination in the same way as individual migrants. They also are not attracted by the same pull factors as individual migrants. The purpose of our research is to address the following question: Do the economic factors have a greater impact on the destination choice of families when compared to individuals, the former being more motivated by environmental, social and health factors?  Our analyzes are performed with data from the 2014 China Migrants Dynamic Survey, which contains information on 200,937 migrants residing in 346 cities, and the Statistical Yearbook of Chinese Cities. The statistical analyses are performed with a conditional logit model. The results indicate that family migrants are less motivated than individual migrants by favourable economic factors such as high average incomes, high proportion of private businesses and self-employed workers, high amount of spending on real estate, high proportion of high employment in the secondary sector and low unemployment rate. Our results also allow us to conclude that family migrants are motivated by certain social and health characteristics such as the quantity of hospital beds and the amount of expenditure on education, science, and technology. We note that these effects are more important among migrants who had children before migrating and living with them at the time of the survey. However, we observe that some of these results are due to an age effect.

Keyphrases: Migration, Chine, Pull factors, Destination choice, Migration, Push factors, Family migration, Individual migration, China, Life cycle, Age effect, Conditional logit model