NCube/papyrus huggingface dataset:
Regards croisés sur le corps féminin dans les dessins érotiques d’Egon Schiele (1910-1911)

In the present work, we argue that the artist Egon Schiele (1890-1918) was able to express the ambivalence and anxiety surrounding the topic of sexuality around 1900 through his erotic drawings of female nudes, especially those produced in 1910-1911. In the early twentieth century, in Vienna, essentialist and polarized concepts about women and female sexuality are developed, especially in the fields of psychoanalysis and continental philosophy. Young women are denied access to any kind of sexual knowledge or experimentation. Meanwhile, men are torn between austere discourses preaching abstention and their sexual urges and curiosity; many must secretly resort to prostitutes in order to satisfy their impulses. For most, an active sex life implies venereal diseases and social decay. While referring to psychoanalytical and feminist theories about the gaze and its encounter with the carnal body, we have studied the spectatorial relationships established between the models, the spectator and the artist across this corpus, in order to better understand the repudiation of the phallocentric traditions as proposed by Schiele. We believe that by representing the female body in disturbing and inconstant esthetic manners, as well as by reaching out to his contemporaries in ambiguous ways through hybrid visual devices, the young artist was able to undermine the traditional authority of the male viewer over the feminine object of desire. In so doing, Schiele managed to criticize the prevailing hypocrisy and discomfort regarding sexual identities and practices at the turn of the century.

Keyphrases: Egon Schiele, Erotic drawing, Female nude, Vienna 1900
Nationalisme, construction nationale et «action extérieure» : les entités nationales non souveraines espagnoles et l’Union européenne (1992-2008)

This tesis deals with the story of the relationship between the Spanish "historical nationalities" and the European Union in 1992-2008. The analysis is focusing on the birth of EU-centred nationalist paradiplomacy with the aim of achieving national identity recognition for these communities within the European Union. After having obtained some national recognition and a privileged status within Spain, the elites of these "nations without state" have noted that the process of building the European Union has a negative impact on their autonomy and, in this context, these nationalist elites are forced to conceive a genuine European policy in order to protect their national interests in Spain and within the European Union. Based on the research on the relationship between the Spanish "historical nationalities" and the European Union, we argue that the autonomic involution  (within Spain) and the EU lack of empathy for these national communities are the main causes of the birth of their European policy. Far from being simply associated with some kind of regionalism or neo-regionalism, this foreign policy ("external affairs") is a part of a process of national construction and could be defined as a nationalist paradiplomacy. Furthermore, based on an analysis of this EU-centred foreign policy between 1992 and 2008, our tesis claims that the limits of institutional design of the EU represent the main reason for the evolution of this nationalist paradiplomacy towards an apparently incoherent protodiplomacy. In such a situation, the EU institutional inability to accomodate the nationalist demands seems to be responsible for the failure of some Home Rule nationalist projects and stimulates the growth of a new wave of nationalists whose objective is a national State-building within the European Union.

Keyphrases: Nationalism, Nation without State, Autonomy, Regionalism, Spain, European Union, Nationalist Paradiplomacy, Foreign Affairs
Daughters of Lilith : transgressive femininity in Bram Stoker’s late gothic fiction

Daughters of Lilith: Transgressive Femininity in Bram Stoker’s Late Gothic Fiction explores the theme of feminine dissidence in four of Stoker’s Gothic novels. Using a combination of gender studies and feminist theory, this dissertation examines the various faces of female dissension across Dracula (1897), The Jewel of Seven Stars (1903), The Lady of the Shroud (1909), and The Lair of the White Worm (1911). In these texts, transgression is embodied by the figures of the female hysteric, the dead(ly) mother, the foreign female, and the New Woman. An examination of these feminine types displays Stoker’s capacity to understand and empathise with non-conformist women. Often labelled a conservative author, Stoker is revealed in this dissertation to be more progressive than is commonly thought, as evidenced by the strong and wilful female characters in his fiction, as well as his relations with several feminists and proto-feminists in his private life. Stoker’s more liberal and open-minded attitude towards women not only progresses over the course of his fiction, but also evolves alongside the late nineteenth and early twentieth-century suffrage movement in England.

Keyphrases: Bram Stoker, Transgression feminine, New Woman, Gothic literature, Transgressive femininity, Female hysteric, Deadly mother, Foreign female
«The Soviet cannot be trusted» : les relations diplomatiques entre l’URSS et la Grande-Bretagne dans les années 1920

This memoir presents the diplomatic relations between Soviet Russia, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics after 1922, and Great Britain between 1920 and 1927 through the documents of the British Foreign Office. For this purpose, it shows the progressive return of official relations between the two countries under the leadership of the british Prime Minister Lloyd George, from 1916 to 1922, and the establishment of a british policy toward the soviet government. It then attempts to establish the policies of the various governments following that of Lloyd George, and to see if these policies represent a break with Lloyd George’s government’s policies or if, on the contrary, these policies represent a continuity, despite the change of governments. Our main assumption is that, despite the changes of governments between 1920 and 1927, the policy of the different british governments will stay the same during all the period in spite of the changes of british governments that will succeed : a union government, two conservator governments and the first labour government. We believe that the alleged «  soviet propaganda » will be one of the guidelines of the relations between the two countries, guidelines established by Lloyd George and his government at the beginning of 1920. We also believe that this « propaganda » will be the pivot of the relations between the two countries, and that it will be the main brake to the establishment of normal relations with Soviet Russia. We believe that this propaganda will result in a « paranoïa » of the British government who, throughout the period that we studied, will complain ceaselessly to the Soviet government of « his » propaganda, and which will finally lead to the breaking of relations in 1927.

Keyphrases: USSR, Great-Britain, International relations
Estimation de la variance en présence de données imputées pour des plans de sondage à grande entropie

Variance estimation in the case of item nonresponse treated by imputation is the main topic of this work. Treating the imputed values as if they were observed may lead to substantial under-estimation of the variance of point estimators. Classical variance estimators rely on the availability of the second-order inclusion probabilities, which may be difficult (even impossible) to calculate. We propose to study the properties of variance estimators obtained by approximating the second-order inclusion probabilities. These approximations are expressed in terms of first-order inclusion probabilities and are usually valid for high entropy sampling designs. The results of a simulation study evaluating the properties of the proposed variance estimators in terms of bias and mean squared error will be presented.

Keyphrases: Imputation, Imputation, Nonresponse, Variance estimation, Entropy of a sampling design, Second-order inclusion probabilities
L’image numérique entre modélisation et captation : une étude sémiopragmatique de la réception des images depuis la reproduction technique

The means of producing an image have always been influenced by the inscription of a tangible physical reality. The digital image, which is a distinct method of visual rendering, should therefore change our relationship to visual representations. However, in reality, is the viewer’s experience of digital images in any way different from those issued by the recording techniques?    To answer this question, this thesis mainly analyzes, using the semio-pragmatic approach, how the viewer's perception is conditioned through the recording techniques (photography, film and video). Then, this study compares the habits and visual expectations generated by these techniques with digital images. Finally, this study attempts to expand the problem of digital rupture into a broader perspective, and establish the question in the global tradition of artistic representation.

Keyphrases: recording, representation tradition, horizons of expectation, habit-taking, digital rupture, Semio-pragmatics
Trois films de Robert Morin : pour une exploration des mécanismes de l’autofiction cinématographique

As part of the return of the debates around autofiction, after the roaring 60’s and 70’s, this  thesis proves to be an exploration of the potential of this "genre" in cinema. The author seeks, through a specific case study devoted to Robert Morin, to identify possibilities and modalities of actualisation of filmic autofiction. To do this, it shows the ins and outs of this literary concept to subsequently deal with it using the theoretical tools of cinema: the film narratology and the conduct of narrative, subjectivity, intradiegetic camera and generic hybridity of the movies. Inspired by the work done and the theory around "classic" narrative cinema, the author seeks to complement it to reflect the specificities of the autofictive practice.

Keyphrases: Robert Morin, caméra subjective, filmic autofiction, character narration, filmic subjectivity, subjective camera, generic hybridity
Structures linéaires dans les ensembles à faible densité

We present three results in additive combinatorics, a recent field at the interface of combinatorics, harmonic analysis and analytic number theory. The unifying theme in our thesis is the detection of additive structure in arithmetic sets of low density, with an emphasis on quantitative aspects. Our first contribution is an improved density estimate for the problem, initiated by Bourgain and others,  of finding a long arithmetic progression in a triple sumset. Our second result is a generalization of Sanders' bounds for Roth's theorem from the dense setting,  to the setting of small doubling in an arbitrary abelian group. Finally, we extend the best known quantitative results  for Roth's theorem in the primes, to all translation-invariant systems  of equations of complexity one.

Keyphrases: additive combinatorics, arithmetic progressions in sumsets, Freiman-Ruzsa theorem, Roth's theorem, Green-Tao theorem, linear equations in primes
Territoires émergents de citoyenneté pour des jeunes des Premières Nations du Québec : contraintes et ouvertures de dialogues aux voix/es multiples

The territories and the socio-spatial relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples in Québec are changing. Those changes take place in meeting sites connected to processes of becoming political and becoming citizens. The involvement of young Indigenous peoples with the Wapikoni mobile project is part of these processes. The Wapikoni mobile is an indigenous video training project that addresses the First Nations communities of Québec. Through this project, which offers workshops to people between the ages of 15 and 30, certain young people are taught to produce and direct films. In addition, some are invited to show their creations in public events and venues in Québec and abroad. Since 2004, the Wapikoni mobile has reached over 2400 participants, produced 500 videos and has won over sixty prizes. Through the concept of citizenship, this investigation has sought to examine the spaces of dialogue opened for and by indigenous youth of Québec through the Wapikoni mobile. The research attempted to understand the sites, practices and relationships developed through their speech acts, and to reveal the changes of which they are part. It shows that the trajectories of these young people are limited by political and economical contexts at multiple scales, but that nevertheless serves to appropriate sites and relations that reterritorialize spaces of representation(s) and visibility. Those modifications come, in part, from multi-vocal and multi-directional relationships of dialogue and by the creation of emergent territories of citizenship.

Keyphrases: Citizenship, First Nations, Indigenous Video, Territory, Youth
Redefining U.S. borders : a reading of Sandra Cisneros’s Caramelo, Cristina Garcia’s The Agüero Sisters, and David Plante’s The Family and The Native

This thesis suggests a redefinition of the concept of the border in the context of the United States starting from the novels of three minority American writers, namely Sandra Cisneros’s Caramelo, Cristina Garcia’s The Agüero Sisters, and David Plante’s The Family and The Native. I read the border in terms of movement between stasis and movement, between porousness and impermeability. In the first chapter of the dissertation, I situate border theory and analyse the progression of the field from borderland theories to immigration narratives. I introduce what I call “writing the border from the perspective of the border” as a conceptual frame from which to read border narratives and to redefine the border. Border perspective is a living dynamic that resists final resolutions. Border narratives represent a plethora of experiences that are moment-related and perspective bound. In the second chapter, I analyse the crossability of borders in the contemporary geopolitical scene. I highlight colonization, economic globalization, and immigration as instances of border crossing dynamics that function along transnational, denational, and postnational lines. In the third chapter, I analyse the movement of borders back into the life of immigrants in the United States. I identify capital insecurity and the commodification of space and ethnicity as reasons behind the tightening of the borders of the ghetto, the barrio, and the enclave. The clear-cut boundaries of the ethnic neighborhood become a technology of seclusion, stereotyping, and social injustice. The last chapter of this dissertation is a reading of border aesthetics and their contribution to writing the border from the perspective of the border. I analyse most prominently the novels’ problematization of the concept of representation and their focus on the multiplicity of perspectives and the inaccessibility of the real and the partiality of mediation.  Key words: border theory and literatures, ethnic minorities in the U.S., multiculturalism, culture, immigration, globalization, space, place, territory, nation-state, nationalism, history, language, representation, community, social justice, citizenship

Keyphrases: Border theory and literatures, Multiculturalism, Globalization, Space and place, History, Representation, Community, Immigration and citizenship, Social justice, Nation-state and territory
Vers la fin du modèle suédois? : une étude des réformes des politiques d'éducation et de santé

The goal of this Master’s thesis is to identify the nature of the social policy reforms in Sweden between 1988 and 1998, in order to understand the current Swedish model better. Using three criteria inferred from Peter Hall’s typology of policy change, the author analyzes policy reforms in the compulsory education and healthcare sectors in order to whether a paradigm shift has occurred or not. The conclusion is negative: the social equality and universalism paradigm was indeed contested during the 1990s, but was still actively promoted by the social-democratic government at the end of the decade. The reforms were thus identified as only changes to policy instruments, characterized as second order changes in the typology. However, the cumulative effect of these changes undermined the Sweden model during the next decades. The consequences of the instrument changes thus became anomalies that now threaten the paradigm.

Keyphrases: Sweden, Swedish model, Public policy, Social policy, Welfare State, 1990s
Résistances des Innu.es de Pessamit face aux violences systémiques

Colonization of aboriginal lands had considerable effects on the political and social organizations, lifestyle and culture of the Innu people, notably as they were dispossessed of their territories and forced to adopt a political-economic system based on capitalism and statehood. This thesis explores the different strategies of resistance that are adopted by the Innu of the Pessamit community to face the never ceasing colonial impositions and examines the capacity of these struggles to locate themselves out of the dominant ideology. On one hand, opened and declared resistances confront publicly the dominant structures, although they may seem to be inscribed in the guidelines imposed by the dominant ideology, that’s to say unable to extract themselves from it. On the other hand, some struggles are more discrete, hidden, internal to the community and its daily life: infrapolitics. We refer to political and social community spaces that promote the protection of Innu culture (including language), the valorization of spiritual renewal, the healing of the population and the daily occupation of lands. Thus, the field survey revealed that the forms of struggles in Pessamit are multiple, heterogeneous and sometimes interdependent as they complement each other.

Keyphrases: Pessamit, Aboriginal resistance, Innu people, Pessamit, Systemic violence, Capitalism, Colonialism, Statehood, Infrapolitics
Simulation de la nage anguilliforme

This paper first discusses various attempts at modeling and simulating anguilliform swimming, then we develop a new technique, based on a method of generalized immersed boundary and the beam theory of Reissner-Simo. Subsequent to the derivation of the equations of polar fluids, the beam theory is derived from continuum mechanics and the resulting equations are then discretized, allowing a numerical solution. For the first time, the theory of additive Runge-Kutta schemes are combined with the Runge-Kutta-Munthe-Kaas method to generate schemes of arbitrarily high formal order of convergence. Moreover, the interpolation and spreading operations are handled from a new point of view that suggests the use of interpolatory nodal splines instead of spreading traditional functions. Finally, many numerical verifications are done before considering simulations of swimming.

Keyphrases: Simulation, Interaction fluide-structure, Swim, Simulation, Numerical analysis, Partial differential equations, Navier-Stokes equations, Fluid-structure interaction, Immersed boundary method, Runge-Kutta method, Non-linear beam theory
Le théâtre amérindien au Québec : l’émergence d’un espace d’autodétermination identitaire, culturel et politique par la création dramatique

The Aboriginal Theater either in French and/or Native American Aboriginal tongue is part of the Quebec landscape since the late 1970s. Often referred to as "theater of minorities" because of its history and its current context, this kind of theater is closely related to the identity and memory. The goal of this research is to make out what characterizes the theatrical space generated by production from the French Native Theater in Quebec through the artistic work of six artists met for the purposes of this paper. For a better understanding of this kind of drama, an historical overview will be made. This contextualisation will focus on the transition from a colonial theater appropriating the Native American experience towards an Aboriginal theater where the Native American reclaims his image and his identity, which led and motivated the emergence of an indigenous theater in North America during the 20th century. Following this demonstration, a literature review will outline the different avenues of research used to address the Indian theatrical space, wich will permit a better comprehension of the composition, the functionnings and the roles of this zone of expression and to observe the diverse definitions of the Aboriginal Theater that is already established. Will follow a summary of the interviews and an analysis of the data, whose purpose is to observe and determine what constitutes an autonomous Indian theatrical space. We see from the results how this space contributes to the identity and to the cultural and political development.

Keyphrases: Anthropology, Anthropology of theatre, Native american theatre, Identity, Minority theatre
Étude des propriétés atmosphériques et magnétiques des étoiles naines blanches froides riches en hydrogène

This paper presents a photometric and spectroscopic analysis of 16 cool hydrogen-rich magnetic white dwarfs. The main objective of this study is to characterize their atmospheric and magnetic properties in order to obtain a representative overview of this stellar population. To reach this goal, photometric data and high signal-to-noise ratio spectra have been gathered for all the candidates. The models presented by Bergeron et al. (1992) were also updated using the work of Tremblay & Bergeron (2009). Afterward, the atmospheric parameters of each star were obtained from fits to the observed photometric energy distribution, while the topology and strength of the magnetic field are determined using spectroscopic fits to the observed Zeeman absorption features at H-alpha. Moreover, a deconvolution procedure combining these two approaches has also been developed in order to reproduce correctly the binary systems in the sample. The results of these analyses are then presented, including a discussion on the possible correlation between the atmospheric parameters and the magnetic properties of these white dwarfs. Finally, the results of this study suggest that most stars in this sample can only be accounted for if they are unresolved double white dwarfs systems. In addition, the results also demonstrate that the magnetic field in these cool white dwarfs cannot have a fossil origin, and must be somehow generated by a physical mechanism yet to be identified.

Keyphrases: Stars: white dwarfs, Stars: fundamental parameters, Stars: magnetism, Models: atmosphere, Models: hydrogen, Techniques: photometric and spectroscopic