NCube/papyrus huggingface dataset:
Shoah à travers l’œuvre de Samuel Beckett

The Shoah leaves an imprint on Samuel Beckett's writing, it shapes it, affects it, contaminates it, even though it is never explicitly named in the work. In his post-war texts, from the trilogy to Soubresauts, we see an evolution of form: saturated texts and interminable phrases, repetitions and, finally, texts that become more and more empty. By observing these phenomena, this thesis questions an unnamed and unspeakable relationship between the Shoah and Beckett's writing. This study observes this form that the Shoah gives to writing by exhausting it, saturating it, sacking it and finally make it bear the marks of disappearance. In a necessary preamble, we will contextualize and explain the concept of the concentrationary body, a key concept of this thesis, by trying to define it to justify the connection between the image of this body and the figure that arises in the Beckettian universe even down to the text’s form. In a first part, we will analyze the phenomenon of the body’s exhaustion in the Beckettian universe by drawing a parallel with the world of concentration. At the same time, we will raise the question of the inability of all action, its incompletion, and its Sisyphean, endless renewal. This same phenomenon of exhaustion will be analyzed in Beckettian writing, which, like the body, signifies both physical and material depletion, a using-up that empties. In the second part, we will see a certain form of continuity of this exhaustion in the phenomenon of disfigurement which follows from the body’s reduction to its use-value as animal or machine, to its anonymity, to the total withering away of its individuality fueled by the mind-numbing repetitiveness of certain tasks, gestures and movements. The body of the Beckettian character whose potential has been demolished can ultimately only turn into a degraded, unrecognizable, destroyed figure. In the same way, the writing that continues to fail breaks down, becomes distorted even as it continually strives to give itself a form. It is this relentlessness that ruins it. Finally, in a third moment, we will raise the question of the disappearance that is part of this degradation. The disappearance of body and form, the disappeared image, the absence and the fading text haunt Becketian writing. But these absences still leave an imprint, a way of reflecting or addressing the Shoah and “what remains” of it. This phenomenon of disappearance undeniably marks the form through scraps, fragments, nothingness, a text that presents itself as fading away. Traces of emptinesss, of missing images and words, remain. Beckett's writing can only be incomplete, unwhole, in order to say or suggest the Shoah without ever naming or showing it.

Keyphrases: Beckett, Shoah, Holocaust, concentration camp, exhaustion, disfigurement, disappearance
Le parfait exemple du Reclus de Molliens : poétique de la réception du texte édifiant en strophe d’Hélinand (XIIIe-XVe siècles)

The Reclus de Molliens, an early 13th century French poet, is the author of two moralizing, religious and didactic texts known as Miserere and Carité. Despite its wide circulation, as well as its significant influence over subsequent generations of authors and readers, this work has been largely neglected by modern critics: the most recent monograph on Miserere and Carité was indeed published over one hundred thirty years ago (Van Hamel, 1885). The following dissertation aims at filling this gap in research by updating the basic data regarding the circulation and literary legacy of this medieval best-seller. Moreover, it provides a reflection surrounding the poetics of this work, which draws on its status as a part of a forgotten literary canon. The fact that Miserere and Carité were so widely read, and therefore constituted models and poetic benchmarks for a wide audience, makes them ideal case studies to rethink the vitality and the codes of moralizing poetry, based on the actual criteria and reading practices of the medieval audience. The historical documentation pertaining to the Reclus de Molliens reveals that the versification system adopted in Miserere and Carité, known as the Helinandian stanza (8aabaabbbabba), plays a vital role in the reception of his works. As will be demonstrated, works that are composed using this type of verse follow a consistent set of poetic rules (part 1). This means that they constitute a legitimate poetic system, with its own “horizon of expectations” and reading conventions (part 2). These implicit rules, which seem to have impacted the reception of Miserere and Carité, also contribute to the construction of meaning by adding a dramatic impact to their moralizing content (part 3). Once the analysis of Miserere and Carité is thus imbricated in the analysis its “formal family”, it will then be possible to define a poetics of the moralizing text written in Helinandian stanza, guided and framed by this successful poet.

Keyphrases: manuscrit, Reclus de Molliens, versification, didacticism, form, manuscript, Miserere and Carité, poetics, reading, reception, Helinand’s stanza, literary best-seller, moralizing literature, theme of death, versification
Frank O'Hara & the city : situationist psychogeography, postwar poetics, & capitalist culture.

This dissertation adopts a fresh interdisciplinary perspective on reading the postwar urban poems of New York School poet Frank O’Hara. Through French Situationist philosophy, and particularly the writings of Guy Debord, the study explores the spatial and textual relations of O’Hara’s urban and cultural representations in postwar poetry. With the help of psychogeography and its “anti-techniques” of détournement and dérive, the research focuses on O’Hara’s uses of appropriation in constructing his urban assemblages.   The dissertation considers postwar poems from The Collected Poems of Frank O’Hara and offers Situationist readings and understandings of O’Hara’s modernist (urban and cultural) space. The choice of specific poems highlights O’Hara’s unequivocal inspiration by French poetry and focuses on their urbane, experimental and erotic aspects. The first two chapters propose ways in decoding psychogeographical approaches in poetic (de)composition for reading O’Hara’s poems, while the third delves into O’Hara’s uses of camp in dialogue with Situationist politics that highlight not only the capitalist and the cultural, but also the erotic and the queer.

Keyphrases: American postwar poetics, New York School poets, Situationism, Guy Debord, Frank O'Hara, Alienation, Camp, Urbanism, Walking, Ambience, Psychogeography, Surface culture, Dandy, Cognitive mapping, Readership, Experimental, Queer poetry, Gay language, Ambiance
Hostile hospitalité : le topos de la rencontre en autochtonie américaine

The objective of this thesis is to undertake a genetic reading of what hostile hospitality in America consists of and its prisms at the heart of indigenous literature. I will analyze that the history of hospitality, whose root means both hospes as host and hostis as enemy, is a complex dialectic at work in the topos of the encounter and testifies to an economy of exchange that, as it changes, will affect the tensions at the heart of indigenous literature. I will study how in this exchange based on hospitality, the etymological basis of hostility illustrates that under its guise, muted laws of equivalence and compensation elaborated exclusion into strategies that will run through hermeneutics, the mythology of its cultures and insidious religious logocentric laws. Various works such as The Odyssey and the Hebrew Bible laid the foundations for these traces in the texts of Mexican colonization and North American indigenous literature, patriarchal and hostile traces trace that still inhabits and transcends current literature. Chapters one to three are to be seen as the foundations of this transhistorical trace. The first chapter will outline a line of fundamental exclusion between the logos and the muthos from archaic Greece, the convolutions of the myth of Thanksgiving, and its historical deviations will consider the hegemonic constructions of this history of survival in America. Chapter two will focus on the economy of transcendence at the heart of hospitality, a presence often inhabited by religious diktats and stemming from an insidious economy of exclusion. I will show from the fundamental scenes of hospitality in The Odyssey and the Hebrew Bible that these stories shape an increasingly limited hospitality that must take on the same and equivalent features and differs from the potlatch tradition whose economy is disruptive. Chapter three will focus mainly on the bodies of women in the rites of hospitality: from the Hebrew Bible to the figure of La Malinche, an Aztec native who was the translator of Cortes, women were discriminated against in the rituals of hospitality, tools of exchange and expropriation. The last chapter, illuminated by the three previous chapters, will jump into the present. Based on texts by Leslie Marmon Silko, Thomas King, and the archives of the windigo psychosis, I will focus on the question of language and epistemological exclusion. These extensive traces of hostility at the heart of hospitality will show the muted laws regulating the exchange and will therefore show that even if the text and the letter institute this first violence, they also have the possibility, through their dialectics, to propose a way of saving hospitality by subverting the hostile part of its dialectic, the text being therefore elaborated as a reflection of the same paradoxes as the phenomenon of hospitality.

Keyphrases: La Malinche, Leslie Marmon Silko, Thomas King, Hospitality, hostility, indigenousness, hermeneutics, writing, Homer, Hebrew Bible, Hospitality, Hostility, Indigenousness, Hermeneutics, Writing, Homer, Hebrew Bible
Relation entre l’éducation des parents et la mortalité des enfants au Bénin

The possible impact of parental education (especially that of the mother) on child mortality remains an important issue for researchers and a priority for international organizations and policy makers in developing countries, which face relatively higher mortality and lower levels of education. However, despite the theoretical arguments that justify the importance of mother's education for child mortality, many studies in developing countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, have revealed an ambiguous relationship, indicating sometimes an attenuation or lack of relationship. The lack of conclusive evidence is generally related to different contexts in which the studies were conducted and to methodological and conceptual problems resulting from the data used.   Using DHS data from Benin, the main objective of this thesis is to contribute to a better understanding of the association between parental education and the under-five mortality. Specifically, this study examines: 1) the levels of child mortality by mother's education, focusing on differences between children born to women with no versus incomplete primary schooling (1-5 years of schooling) and changes in the estimated effects of mothers’ schooling across two time periods (1991-1996 and 2001-2006); 2) the extent to which education of women in the community influences the under-five mortality, and finally, 3) the impact of fathers’ schooling on under-five mortality. Using multilevel discrete-time logit models, we show in the first article that mothers with more than 5 years of schooling experience lower under-five mortality risk than mothers with no education. However, no significant difference in the under-five mortality risk between mothers with no education and those with incomplete primary education (1-5 years of schooling) is found for either of the two surveys. Furthermore, estimated effect of mothers’ schooling on under-five mortality did not change significantly between 1991-1996 to 2001-2006. In the second article, our results confirm that residing in a community where more women aged 15-49 have over 5 years of schooling is independently associated with lower under-five mortality. Interestingly, the impact of women's education in the community was more pronounced in areas with higher average child immunization rates. This suggests that the availability and accessibility of health services in the community is a possible mechanism through which the women's community-level education influences child survival. In the third article, we found that father's education is positively associated with the child survival, an effect that is attenuated when after controlling for the supply of health care services accessible in the community.

Keyphrases: Under-five mortality, Mother’s education, Father’s education, Survival analysis, Multilevel analysis, Benin
L'emprisonnement avec sursis : des politiques aux pratiques

This thesis aims at understand how penalty is built, from policies to practices, through the example of conditional sentence in Canada. It proposes a transversal reading of the penalty through each level of the penal system (policies, organizations, practices). The penal system is conceptualized as a social system governed by a rationality and composed of different spaces. The spaces are autonomous but communicate with each other; practices take place inside them. Our dataset was built from a qualitative study based on political speeches analysis and a field survey conducted in 8 community-based organizations from Quebec. Results show that: 1) the normative frame of the conditional sentence has been built according to a logic of risk management; 2) organizations develop criminal and local cultures that shape representations and professional identities; 3) individual practices are the result of a combination of interactions, local culture and the normative framework.

Keyphrases: criminal policies, criminal practices, community supervision, systems theory, risk management, professional practices, local criminal cultures
Étude du polymère élastomère à base d’acrylonitrile, HNBR, pour son application dans les batteries Li-ion

In this thesis, we have investigated an acrylonitrile-based polymer, HNBR (Hydrogenated Nitrile Butadiene Rubber), for its application in lithium ion batteries. This work relies on a partnership with the company Hutchinson (specialized in polymers) who was interested in developing a new process for the fabrication of electrodes. This melt-based process revealed problems regarding the polymer that is used as a binder for the electrodes as it needs to be compatible with the process as well as with the application in batteries.  The aim of the thesis was therefore to find and validate a polymer meeting these requirements. Hence, HNBR was investigated. At first, we focused on the thermal treatment of HNBR, a key step of the melt-process. It was concluded that the thermal treatment leads to the cross-linking of HNBR, which is an asset because it increases the chemical stability of HNBR in the presence of the organic electrolyte. The following step was to introduce HNBR into the electrode formulation and investigate the performances of electrodes, made with the classical process and then with the melt process. It was found that HNBR is a good candidate to be introduced in an electrochemical system because it is stable over wide potential ranges and it allows interesting cycling and power performance.  Faced with these findings, the last part of the study was to focus on analyzing the system more deeply by investigating the interactions between the HNBR polar functions, nitriles, and the lithium ions from the electrolyte. The ternary system polymer-salt-solvent was analyzed to understand the impact of each of these parameters on electrochemical properties, especially the conductivity. We noticed a high acrylonitrile content was beneficial to have a higher conductivity and that the solvent, regarding its affinity with HNBR, needs also to be considered.

Keyphrases: Batterie lithium-ion, Hnbr, nitriles, Polymer, binder for electrodes, Lithium-ion battery, elastomer, crosslinking
Développement d'une réaction d'amidation utilisant le diphénylsilane en tant qu'agent de couplage et d'une réaction de borocyclopropanation photochimique

This manuscript describes the work carried out in Pr. Charette’s laboratory between 2015 and 2019. It can be divided into two different topics: the development of new amidation strategies and the development of new cyclopropanation methodologies. Amide synthesis is still a challenge for the scientific community nowadays. Indeed, the development of simple, robust, atom economical and environmental friendly procedures remain one of the research priority in organic chemistry. To contribute to this field, an amide synthesis methodology has been developed by using diphenylsilane as a coupling reagent. The latter is commercially available, stable and cheap. Moreover, only a siloxane and dihydrogen are generated during the reaction. The developed methodology has also been applied to the synthesis of a series of di- and tripeptides. The cyclopropane moiety has been increasingly used in pharmaceuticals. Indeed, this moiety can influence different crucial parameters in the development of bioactive molecules. The development of new cyclopropanation methodologies is therefore a relevant field. Borocyclopropane synthesis is of particular interest: as a matter of fact, these compounds can create structural diversity via boronate functionalization. In order to obtain a user-friendly, robust and greener chemical process, a photochemical approach using continuous flow technology has been favored. A photoredox borocyclopropanation of styrenes has been developed; the latter is carried out under UV-A irradiation with xanthone as a photosensitizer. Mechanistic studies have supported that this transformation proceeds according to two concurrent photoredox catalytic cycles. Finally, a new diiodo reagent bearing a pinacol boronate group and a trimethylsilyl group has been developed to access gem-disubstituted cyclopropanes. The bases of a UV-visible photochemical process using this new reagent have then been established. Thereby, the first example of a gem-borocyclopropyl silane derived from styrene has been synthesized.

Keyphrases: peptides, gem-borocyclopropyl silanes, diphenylsilane, photochemistry, continuous flow, gem-borocyclopropyl silanes
Poly(éthylène-co-acrylate d’éthyle-co-anydride maléique), un élastomère thermoplastique comme liant d’électrodes pour batteries aux ions lithium de puissance

Li-ion batteries are one of the driving forces of everyday mobility since they were introduced on the market in 1991 by Sony to power portable cameras. Today, electrification is ubiquitous. We are always connected to the Internet with our phones and we can travel in vehicles that do not emit greenhouse gases. The ever-growing research in the field is certainly powering this revolution, with improvements towards the maximum energy in a device, as well as increasing their safety or mitigating the carbon footprint related to their manufacture. Indeed, electrodes are usually tape-casted, a process that requires huge quantities of solvents. These solvents are often organic and hence very toxic. They are also necessary to create the porosity in the composite membranes and to provide a continuous medium to homogeneously disperse the electrode’s components. This manuscript details the work that was conducted in collaboration with a private industrial partner who developed a new and solvent-free process to manufacture electrodes based on powder extrusions and melted polymers. The main constraint to this process is the need to employ elastomers, a class of materials seldom used in the Li-ion battery community. Here, the use of a commercial thermoplastic elastomer in the new dry process was thus validated through chemical and electrochemical stability studies. Designs of Experiments were first formalized to optimize the Li-ion battery electrodes’ formulations before applying it to two systems. It was found that it is necessary to maximize the active material weight content and keep a very small fraction of carbon additives to maximize the capacity retention. Finally, by extruding these optimal formulations, it was discovered that the dry process has a significant impact on the electronic network’s quality, and changes to both formulation and mixing protocol ought to be carried out. This project certainly opens the way to a more systematic use of predictive and statistical methods to optimize and study new materials and composites.

Keyphrases: batterie, battery, formulation, design of experiment, solvent, Li-ion
Évaluation des propriétés biologiques de sels de biguanidium : perturbation membranaire et applications dans le traitement du cancer du pancréas

Metformin, a common drug used for the treatment of type II diabetes, has recently been linked to interesting anticancer properties, notably on pancreatic cancer. Although there have been many experiments in vitro and on murine models that have confirmed this effect, human clinical trials featuring metformin have been unsuccessful. One of the reasons brought forward to explain these results is the high hydrophilicity of metformin, which limits its bioavailability and transport through cellular membranes. For this reason, we have been interested in the synthesis of amphiphilic biguanidium salts inspired from metformin that can partition more easily in phospholipid membranes and thus have better anticancer properties. We first studied the membrane perturbation properties of simple alkylbiguanidium salts and showed that these compounds can transport H+/OH- ions and depolarize bacterial membranes, which in turn gives them antibacterial and antifungal properties. To limit the hemolytic activity associated with these compounds, biguanidium salts substituted by the phenylethynylbenzyl moiety were then synthesised. Their structure allows them to partition more easily in membranes and accumulate in mitochondria, while lowering the toxicity associated with high membrane perturbation. For those reasons, their activity on pancreatic cancer cells is much higher than metformin, as is their inhibition of xenograft growth in mice. These results encouraged us to synthesise a small library of biguanidium salts and study their anticancer activity. The structural modifications and counter-anion variations brought to this library have improved the efficiency of these compounds as well as their selectivity towards healthy cells, thus opening the door to a new class of anticancer drugs based on biguanidium salts.

Keyphrases: Biguanidium salt, Membrane perturbation, Anticancer, Antibacterial, Pancreatic cancer, Cellular membrane, Metformin