NCube/papyrus huggingface dataset:
Women, sources, and rhetoric in George Pettie’s A petite pallace of Pettie his pleasure

This thesis, Women, Sources, and Rhetoric in George Pettie’s A Petite Pallace of Pettie his Pleasure, studies the early modern English collection of novellas A Petite Pallace of Pettie his Pleasure (1576) and indentifies it as a collection for women and a forerunner of the euphuistic style.   The thesis consists of three chapters. In the first chapter I consider women’s position in early modern England, as A Petite Pallace is dedicated to ladies. The second chapter deals with structural elements of each story included in the collection. I also trace modifications made by the author to his source stories in order to adapt them for his readers and to attract more attention. The last chapter focuses on linguistic devices used by Pettie to dazzle his audience and to demonstrate the possibilities of the English language.

Keyphrases: George Pettie, Lectorat, Dedications, Women, Readership, Classical narratives, Euphuism, Rhetoric
Le pouvoir du mot : le performatif, l'événement et la traduction dans quelques textes de Jacques Derrida

In order to express or define a new idea, Derrida often alters the meaning of a word in order to make it his own. Derrida’s relationship with ideas mostly expresses itself through a specific vocabulary which finds its roots in an etymological analysis (whether true or false). How does Derrida conceive the word? What are its implications and consequences? In order to answer these questions, one ought to follow closely Derrida’s approach of language through grammar in its broader sense (meaning anything which produces an event in language). It is by the examination of biblical episodes such as Genesis or Babel’s myth that the relationship between a word and the idea it represents is better conceived. The inaugural sentence in the gospel of John, “In the beginning was the Word…”, is often present in Derrida’s work, where its numerous occurrences undergo various transformations: this requires a closer inspection, especially in retrospect of logos’s deconstruction and the origin of language. This analysis will be based upon, amongst other texts, Shibboleth: for Paul Celan, The Gift of Death and “Des Tours de Babel” since they allow the possibility of a “divine intention” within language. Our objective, through a preferential study of those biblical “examples” in Derrida’s work, is to study his creation process pertaining to language. This aspect has always been intertwined with the elaboration of his philosophy and he has given it the utmost attention. In the end, this analysis presents itself as a contribution to the philosopher’s thinking, addressing a paramount aspect of his work while disproving the idea that his writing is “unreachable”, whereas it is, in fact, a question of how Derrida conceives language.

Keyphrases: speech act, Bible, event, performative, Genesis, speech act, Philosophy, literature
Robert Choquette à la lettre. Poésie et réseaux épistolaires au Québec

This thesis takes as its object the study of the correspondence between Robert Choquette and Louis Dantin, Alfred DesRochers and, to a lesser extent, Claude-Henri Grignon, Émile Coderre and Albert Pelletier. The letters in question were never published and are kept in the Robert-Choquette archival group, itself only made available to academics in 2006. The purpose of this study is to measure Robert Choquette's scope and influence as well as the role he played in literary circles during the 20s and 30s. The first part of the first chapter is essentially theoretical, and concerns itself with defining the importance of epistolary writing within the purview of a writer’s work, the constitution of a literary network by way of correspondence, and the relationship between sender and addressee. Then, the various letter exchanges between Choquette and his correspondents are examined so as to shed light on the interplay of influences within the network. The study, based on a corpus of letters written between 1927 and 1943, also displays the evolution of the author’s poetic ambitions. Aiming to highlight the impact Choquette’s correspondents had on his literary project, the second and third chapters of this thesis are dedicated to analyzing his collections of poems Metropolitan Museum and Suite marine. The study of specific exchanges bearing on these two books exhibits a transformation in the imagery Choquette employs to depict himself, as well as an evolution of the author’s expectations from his correspondents.

Keyphrases: Robert Choquette, Correspondance, Poetry, Quebec poetry, Robert Choquette, Correspondence, Letters, Literary network
L’impact de la rémunération variable sur l’intention de rester via l’engagement organisationnel : étude longitudinale dans le secteur des TIC

The objective of our thesis is to understand the differentiated impact of individual and collective incentives on workers’ intent to stay. We also questioned whether organizational commitment mediates the relationship between variable pay and intent to stay. We formulated four hypotheses based on empirical studies and theories. Our first hypothesis stipulates that individual incentives increase intent to stay. Our second hypothesis suggests that collective incentives increase intent to stay. Our third hypothesis stipulates that individual incentives have a greater impact on intent to stay than collective incentives. Lastly, our fourth hypothesis states that organizational commitment mediates the relationship between variable pay and intent to stay. Our thesis is based on data collected as part of a survey performed on newly hired workers within an international IT organization in Montreal. The survey was about « the links between compensation, training and skills development with attracting and retaining key employees ». The data were collected on three periods between April 1st, 2009 and September 30th, 2010. Our results support that individual and collective incentives increase intent to stay. Furthermore, we find that individual incentives and collective incentive have an equivalent impact on intent to stay. Finally, although organizational commitment is an important predictor of intent to stay, it does not mediate the relationship between variable pay and intent to stay. Lastly, our thesis will help develop solutions to increase workers’ retention.

Keyphrases: Variable pay, Individual incentive, Collective incentive, Organizational commitment, Intent to stay, Employee turnover
Sign, meaning and violence in Laurell K. Hamilton’s novels : a postmodernist approach

The iconoclastic nature of the postmodern era manifested itself in a revolution against the pre-established literary norms. And this iconoclasm is all the more blatant in urban fantasy fiction. In a disorderly, fragmented and highly stereotypical environment, urban fantasy came as an event that defies value judgment, and social stratification. Although it was well received by readers and achieved high bestseller records, it is only since two decades that these genres started to gain academic attention. This work is a step into understanding the urban fantasy genre through the series of one of its most prominent writers, Laurell K. Hamilton. Accordingly, I chose three of her Anita Blake series: Guilty Pleasures (1993), Circus of the Damned (1995), and Blue Moon (1998). The stylistic and thematic parameters in her novels create a postmodern philosophy of its own, validating and invalidating discussions about sign-structure, violence, and reader-response. The first chapter investigates the construction of meaning through the structure of the urban fantasy language. It deals with meaning as the outcome of the interaction between different linguistic signs. It also tracks the evolution of what Derrida refers to as “inflated signs,” which are at the heart of the regeneration of meaning through the novels. The saturation in these signs implies an ‘absence’ that is displayed through the disintegration of the language system and the recurrent ruptures of its overall structure. The second chapter focuses on the patterns of violence in urban fantasy novels that make the characters’ power games and their truculent reactions appear unconscionable. It iv scrutinizes violence in relation to its causes and its logic. Through Derrida’s concepts of arché-violence, decision, and sacrifice, I demonstrate that violence is inevitable in Hamilton’s created world and in the world it simulates. The third chapter examines the reader’s response to the exotic events and paranormal characterization of Hamilton’s novels. It reveals how urban fantasy challenges Wolfgang Iser’s conception of reader-response and Jean Baudrillard’s concept of ‘appearance.’ I stress the fact that urban fantasy readers are more than interpreters or passive receptive of paranormal images. Indeed, the reader/author interaction, that these novels enact, defies these reductive conceptions of reader-response.

Keyphrases: Vampire, Paranormal, Violence, Urban fantasy, Postmodernism, Characterization, Meaning, Response, Philosophy
La résistance à venir : exploration théorique autour du mouvement Occupy

This research takes a Deleuzian approach, also drawing on the work of Guattari, Foucault, Bergson, and Massumi. Its aim is to deepen the concept of resistance. The notions of neoliberalism, democracy and control society are addressed toward developing a renewed concept of power, not as biopower – the power over life – but rather as ontopower – the power of life. Through the micro-political study of the social movement Occupy (2011), the concepts of affect, structure, event, prefiguration, becoming, and consensus are explored, and potentials of resistance are mapped and theorized.  The conceptual synthesis arrived at conceptualizes a form of resistance radically different to those advocated by representative (neo)liberal democracy or identity politics: a intrinsically creative resistance turned toward what does not yet exist.

Keyphrases: Occupy, Deleuze, post-structuralisme, multitude, neoliberalism, democracy, Occupy movement, ontopower, biopower, post-structuralism
Xénophon et la divination

This thesis aims to provide a complete overview of the beliefs of Xenophon about divination. Using a rigorous analysis of all the works of this ancient author who has long been depreciated, it seems clear that the problem of the consultation of the gods, far from being addressed incidentally and spontaneously like a traditional legacy that critical thinking has not reached, is on the contrary an essential element in the formation of a deep thinking on piety, and more generally of the relationships between men and gods. On the other hand, due to Xenophon’s zeal to have reported stories or thoughts about divination, this analysis provides an opportunity to a better understanding of the intricacies of this ritual lying at the core of Greek religion and that can not be reduced to a form of superstition.

Keyphrases: divination, Socrate, Cyrus, sacrifices, Xenophon, divination, Socrates, Cyrus, ancient Greece, greek religion, sacrifices
Créer ou produire un jeu vidéo? Étude ethnographique d’un milieu de production vidéoludique montréalais

The video game is increasing in popularity as the ludic experience is diversi-fying. Within the last few years, it became the research field of many academics trying to understand the new media either by studying the game itself or its recep-tion. However, they put aside its creation or production which is an important part of the cultural product. Montreal is an ideal place to study the video game since it rapidly became one of the most valued sectors in Quebec’s industry, and because most of the studios are in Montreal. This research focus on Montreal’s game developers and their vision of the product and the industry by using a phenomenological approach. Data were collected through an ethnographical fieldwork where many developers were ob-served and interviewed.  This study inserts in an anthropology of work and focus on the complexity that emerges when creative work encounters productive work. We elaborate a paradigm opposing creativity and productivity in a workplace that is seen to be essentially creative for a youth wanting to be creative. The video game’s nature can explain this situation since it is directly influenced, as Kline, Dyer-Witheford et De Peuter (2003) argued, by culture, technology and marketing.  Developers occupy a space that is primarily influenced, on the one hand, by their culture, practices, and the developers’ community but, on the other hand, they need to subscribe to the industry’s constraints and way to do a game that dimin-ishes their creative potential.

Keyphrases: Production, Structuration, Culture, Anthropology of work, Ethnography, Creation, Production, Video game industry, Creative cities, Structuration, Culture
Ethnic Identity and School Ambition : the Case of Second Generation Youth from a Latin-American Background in Montreal

This thesis proposes to study the articulation between ethnic identity and school ambition – here defined as the motivations, the means to persevere and the level of academia –  namely through the concept of cultural assimilation or resistance (McAndrew 2008). We focus our research on youth from Latin-American immigration background in Montreal This qualitative research, more precisely analysis of discourse, has allowed us to understand how their experiences and their representations of Latinos and Quebeckers influence their ethnic identification as well as their perceptions and decisions concerning school.   The results of this study demonstrate that ethnic identification, in correlation with socio-economic status and gender, seems to be related to school ambition. Although our findings have somewhat confirmed the association between socio-economic status and years of schooling, the discourses of our participants have underlined an ethnic particularity that offers a possible explanation for continuing into the highest levels of education. This impact is more significant amongst the young women in our sample; those with the lower level of education and the least socio-economic status, identified more to the Latin culture, as opposed to those with the highest level of education as well as highest socio-economic status, identified more to the Quebecker culture.

Keyphrases: education, ethnic identity, ethnicity, Latin-American
La mise en scène de l’activité religieuse : parcours ethnographique dans un centre de détention pour femmes du Québec

In this research I explore the pastoral activities offered at a women’s detention center in the province of Quebec. Based on participant observations conducted in the Catholic chapel of the establishment, I examine the interactions that are part of religious activities : gestures, words, and behaviors that take place before, during, and after the performances. Drawing on Erving Goffman’s dramaturgical approach I first reconstruct the various situations that compose the prison’s pastoral activities in order to describe what the actors say and do during these activities. By reconstructing religious activities, I discover the presence of “incidents”. What I call “incident” are words or gestures that keep manifesting themselves and slowing down the pace of the religious activities. Secondly, I try to understand and explain the recurrence of these « incidents ». This allowing me to reflect on 1) the “total” character of the institution in which they emerge, 2) the culture of participants by which they are incurred, and 3) the structure of religious activities in which they take shape. Through the portraying of situations, the analysis of interactions, and the description of their specificity, this research provides a better understanding of the religious activities as they are performed in prison without neglecting to look at its contents and manifestation in situ.

Keyphrases: Prison, Erving Goffman, Religious activity, Pastoral Care, Erving Goffman, Dramaturgical approach
Jeunes et syndicalisme : une intégration réussie? Analyse comparative de deux organisations syndicales du Québec

This research addresses the situation of Québec’s trade unions’ youth and the trade unions’ attempts to stimulate the participation of those under 30 years old. It also helps to describe social habits, values and characteristics at work of young workers. Then it qualifies and reframes the youth issue in terms of their shared identity and the socialization mechanisms shaping their participation. This research brings into question the actual recruitment window when young members could start participating into their unions. Finally, it describes some trade unions’ strategies to stimulate youth’s participation and clarifies one of the, the youth committees, who not only have the mandate to act as the unions’ spokesperson, but also as the youth’s voice from the inside and as a school for the trade unions’ next generation of members. The chosen qualitative methodology comes from twenty focus groups and eight semi-structured interviews (n=228) held in two notorious trade unions in Québec which had youth committees and organized by the researchers of a larger research project on youth’s participation. Our results show a collective identity built around precariousness and perceived unfair treatments by the newest workers. We found that age was not a significant factor in building collective identity and young members were still battling to express their own collective identity. Besides, it shows how the rigid frame of many socialization mechanisms had inhibiting effects on participation, positionned members in an instrumental relationship with their trade union and did not take into account this generation’s sensitivity for reciprocal interactions with their union representatives. We also observed weak engagement coming from trade unions towards new technologies, which seemed a great opportunity for knowledge transfer regarding the new generations of workers. In addition, our results about the observed collective identity and the actual duration of the socialization process bring into question the relevance of youth structures within their actual parameters. The journey of a young member towards union activism seemed to take more time than estimated. Moreover, the youth issue highlights inherent tensions to the labour movement’s social negotiation of the defended interests and the consensus needed for their legitimacy.

Keyphrases: youth, union renewal, identity, socialization, youth committee
La sous-traitance « boomerang » : l’influence des relations industrielles sur
l’internalisation d’activités manufacturières confiées en sous-traitance

In the last decade, the Quebec manufacturing sector has undergone major transformations. Since globalization has led companies to restructure their operations, 96% of Quebec's manufacturing plants have chosen to use outsourcing as a strategy (Jalette, 2004). However, we are now aware that subcontracting is sometimes a disappointing process for businesses. Due to the evolution of some internal or external organizational factors, that contribute to change the context in which the subcontracting decisions were initially taken (eg. increased costs of labor and transportation, technological changes), businesses sometimes choose to overturn outsourcing decisions by opting for internalization (OECD, 2013). The concept of internalization refers to the action of a company to bring back to a plant an activity that had previously been transferred outside of it whether due to outsourcing activities in an independent company or due to relocation to another facility within the same company (Jalette & Chevance, 2008).  This study aims to explain the managerial decision to internalize through social dynamics inherent to industrial relations, going beyond purely economic factors. The effect on internalization of four independent variables related to industrial relations is studied, namely the strategic capacity of the local union, the internal solidarity of the local union and its external solidarity, as well as the climate of labor-management relations. The theoretical framework of this research is made of Jalette’s typology of union positions (2005), Levesque and Murray’s union power resources model (2003), and the Dastmalchian (2008) work dealing with industrial relations climate.   This study uses data collected through a questionnaire survey conducted in 2005 among presidents of local unions within the Quebec’s manufacturing sector and affiliated with the CSD and the FTQ. The study reveals that 24% of respondents experienced internalization of previously subcontracted activities in the two years preceding the survey. In addition, the results show that chances of internalizing activities increase when multiple strategies and actions aiming towards internalization are adopted by the local union, when the union life of a local union improves, and when union leave time increases. However, chances of internalizing activities decrease when the local union’s power level increases. Internalization also decreases when the climate of labor relations deteriorates.  In short, the results of this research show that unions do not have to undergo globalization and, by their actions, they are able to influence its course, notably by promoting internalization of previously outsourced activities.

Keyphrases: Subcontracting, Industrial relations, Internalization, Union power resources, Work climate, Union, Manufacturing sector, Quebec
Transhumanisme et Cellules Souches : travail à la frontière de la gériatrie biomédicale

Biomedical research in the field of stem cells and regenerative medicine promise a wide array of revolutionary therapeutic applications for many diseases. Yet for some those advances could serve other purposes, particularly in regards to the biological improvement of humans, means of control and even the reversing of aging process. Many of those who share these ideas belong to a movement called transhumanism. Some of these actors are actively involved in scientific research and steer it in accord with their personal values. Up to a point were they reach the outer limits of science into what we can only describe as pseudoscience. Based on the concepts of confined research / research in the wild, hybrid forum and boundary work, this master thesis explores the role of transhumanist researchers involved in institutional scientific research by questioning their ways and means. For this analysis, we produced a transhumanist documentary corpus on stem cells and studied the relations of transhumanist researchers as a network. This study provides a new perspective on the transhumanist movement. We agrue that transhumanist researchers are not confined to the representations of their ideas and values through discourse, but actively partake in the achievement of transhumanist’s objectives by conducting research within institutional scientific research structures.

Keyphrases: Transhumanism, Boundary-work, Stem cells, Regenerative medicine