NCube/papyrus huggingface dataset:
Le temps des Éboulements, suivi de, Virtuosité de l’émerveillement chez Christian Bobin

Le Temps des Éboulements is a poetic novel about the parallel stories of Marie-Hélène Cardinal, a young woman who, after difficult times abroad, decides to return to her native Charlevoix and of 'Antoine Cardinal, his gravely ill father who cherishes the hope of seeing his daughter again before dying. Two lives, therefore, linked by blood but separated by an ocean, who try to join but are subject to the disruptions of a difficult communication. Behind this story, the referendum fresco that tore Quebec during the last century, family love and youth looking for liberty. The essay entitled Virtuosité de l’émerveillement chez Christian Bobin is concerned with the poetic narratives of the author in their intermediate dimension. It will be more particularly about L'Homme-joie, a book in which the visual and sound medias coexist in the service of the writing of wonder and re-enchantment, in order to change the perception of reality of the reader.

Keyphrases: Christian Bobin, Émerveillement, Intermediality, Wonder, Poetic
Revisiter le mythe d'Alice : le personnage d'enfant-femme chez Raymond Queneau et Marie-Sissi Labrèche

Established in French literature since the 19th century, the child character presents itself under several figures, also called «typologies». Autonomous, imperturbable, some times even disturbing : its the «enfant du monde» (child of the world) that seems to represent best the young moderne or contemporary characters. Even more problematic when it is a little girl, this adaptive child is reminiscent of the English character of Alice, presented by Lewis Carroll : diving into a world of nonsense, the young girl seeks her landmarks and adapts in order to survive. In order to represent the legacy of this lineage, we chose the characters of Zazie (Zazie dans le métro by Raymond Queneau) and Sissi (Borderline by Marie-Sissi Labrèche). From a theoretical perspective which is the sémiologie du personnage («typology of the character») of Philippe Hamon, we have created the new figure of the «enfant-femme» (woman-child, not to confuse with child-like woman), which is a way of revisiting the myth of Alice. Pushed to empowerment by its context of existence, the enfant-femme adopts an ambiguous behaviour about her age : she is a child but sometimes acts as an adult. Since language is one of its most distinctive characteristics, linguistic theories by Roman Jakobson help to define how its use of language establishes a playful poetic. Thus, the child’s relation to the adult language can be analyzed in two stages : from the point of view of her understanding of the adult code, and through her subversive misuse of the same code.

Keyphrases: contemporary literature, childhood representation, woman-child figure, play-on-words, Raymond Queneau, Marie-Sissi Labrèche
L'homme qui buvait dans le noir ; suivi de, Le sentiment du réel chez Danielle Roger

This thesis focuses on the writing of the feeling of real, explored in the creative part of the text through a writing oriented on the suggestion and the implied rather than the explicit. The objective is to tell the first decades of the life of the narrator while offering to the reader only fragments of narrative events, memories associated to pictures. The different patterns on which this work’s reflection is based are secondary patterns that articulate within the main pattern of the unsaid of Danielle Roger’s writing. According to the theoretical and practical perspective guiding this essay, the real cannot be said, it is found under the text, and Danielle Roger plays abundantly with this idea of words unspoken that, in her texts, have a real, physical impact on the characters. The words of Danielle Roger are presented as elements of the real generating physical reactions. She describes the state of the body of her characters and not the interpretations of those states that the characters might make. The interpretations are made of unsaid, a series of significant omissions. The states of the body that she represents generate an empathy in the reader, the mirror neurons simulating those states as if they were reacting to real stimuli. The reader invests Danielle Roger’s work with its own experiences thanks to the opening of the text and the narrativity of the poems. In Éclats de verre en vase clos, the strong narrative continuity from one poem to another pushes the reader to establish connections between the different parts of the book, to fill the holes, the unsaid, to construct an overview of the childhood of the narrator. That overview is specific to the reader, because this interpretation of what is under the text, what is not said by it, will be different from one text to another and charged with a felling of real specific to the reader.

Keyphrases: Danielle Roger, Unsaid, Feeling of real, Empathy
Creuser des vallons, suivi de La signature de la voix et du corps dans La compagnie des spectres de Lydie Salvayre

The novel Creuser des vallons, is a fiction in the great history. The historical context is the month of June 1964 in Mississippi, during the "Freedom Summer". Thousands of young people have traveled to the southern United States to help blacks register on the voters list. In this context, the fiction is centered on the character of Rosa, a young woman who does not wish to be a mother despite the wish of her husband. Two other characters interact with Rosa: Fanny Lou, her sister and Augusta, an old white woman. Fanny Lou represents the opposite of what is expected of a woman and a mother. The voice is at the heart of the novel. The creative possibilities of the voice make it possible to embody different women, to explore different subjectivities and to express a relation to the body.  The essay "The Signature of Voice and Body in Lydie Salvayre's La compagnie des spectres" is an address to the author. The writing of this novel is about the difficulties faced by marginalized women and recounted by them. This critical reading focuses on the signature of the body and voice of female characters who resist all definitions. This signature is due to the transgression of the codes. Differences in language and body lead us to consider the characters differently, then to recognize them. This essay brings out the singularity of the voice and body of the female characters in La compagnie des spectres and shows how are embodied unique voices crossed by the words of others that women appropriate in their own way.

Keyphrases: Lydie Salvayre, Black history, French literature, Contemporary literature, Creative writing, Lydie Salvayre, Novel, Voice, Body, Agentivity
Contes et transfert de valeurs : analyse d'un choix de contes vietnamiens selon la morphologie de Vladimir Propp

Similarly to other fairy tales, Vietnamese folktales were transmitted orally by way of a performance. As tools for education and entertainment, their main goal was (and still is) to transfer a system of beliefs and values, a tradition and a culture to following generations. When writing came to be, there was a movement from the oral performance towards the written text. Many researchers attempted to establish a typology, but to no avail.  Starting with the idea that the transcription of oral language to the written one is a metaphorical translation, the following work will examine which elements of Propp’s morphology are recurrent in four Vietnamese folktales and, more importantly, concludes that the most salient values are transferred throughout the diaspora through the translation of folktales’ magical elements.

Keyphrases: transfert culturel, Vietnam, folktale, morphology, cultural transfer, values
El desarrollo de la interacción oral en clase de ELE mediante las actividades lúdicas

In the conception of language as way of communication, oral interaction is recognized as one of the most important aspects and, in the frame of the present work, special importance is placed on its development in the teaching and learning process of Spanish as foreign language (SFL). Nevertheless, SFL students in non-Spanish-speaking contexts do not have the same opportunities to practice their orals skills as those who learn Spanish in experiences of immersion within a Hispanic sociocultural context. This can result in undermining their motivation. Considering the above, one of the aims of the SFL teacher would be to achieve that pupils studying in non-Spanish-speaking contexts (as is the case of Montreal) develop effective oral interaction skills. To try to offer a partial solution to this problem, firstly, we locate oral interaction in the specialized bibliography and analyze the theory regarding its development and evolution over time. This allows us to identify the factor of motivation as one of the essential elements in learning foreign languages and to propose the use of recreational activities as a potential solution for motivation. Secondly, we analyze the currently used SFL manuals and the SFL course programs offered at Montreal universities, in order to interpret the current state of both oral interaction and the use of recreational activities in SFL classes within this geographical and educational context. The description and analysis of this information allow us to establish a first diagnostic, and certain basic criteria to assess the necessary activities for the abovementioned context. Finally, we propose a series of recreational activities adapted to every level (A1-B2), of which the principal aim is to promote oral interaction and to foster motivation in the pupil.

Keyphrases: Motivation, Oral interaction, Recreational activities, Spanish as a foreign language (SFL)
Le motif du naufrage dans Die Schule der Atheisten d’Arno Schmidt

Shipwrecks in literature combines the sense of adventure and danger, that brings existential questionning since the dawn of man kind. This duality makes this motif timeless and human. The social and philosophical interpretation of a simple literary event that has an infinite amount of possible reappropriations can lay in the comprehension of the characters affecting by a shipwreck. The motif reached is peak in the 19th century, but is still a relevant topic in movies or in literature today. The goal of this thesis is to analyse the shipwreck motif in Die Schule der Atheisten from Arno Schmidt. The use of a shipwreck and the isolation on a desert island is well anchored in intertextuality, which is used profusely in his late work. This novel takes its narrative base on the work of Jules Verne’s L’École des Robinsons, which is a satire of Daniel Defoe’s story of Robinson Crusoe. The novel of Arno Schmidt is split into two parts, a frame story and a framed story, in which the shipwreck takes place. The focus is first on the characters the frame story, who are related to the characters of the second part and live their own metaphorical isolation. Second, the elements of the motif show perspective on both works, through a combined analysis of the novels of Jules Verne and Arno Schmidt. Third, the analysis of the characters of the framed story, who are stuck on an island on which they struggle for survival. The analysis of the shipwreck motif can elucidate Arno Schmidt’s often opaque work.

Keyphrases: Literary motif, Shipwreck, Isolation, German literature, Robinsonade, Intertextuality
Otherwordly others : racial representation in fantasy literature

Despite nigh-limitless potential for worldbuilding and social representation, Fantasy literature has often been rightfully accused of being plagiaristic, unambitious, filled with racist narratives and themes. However, I would instead argue that the genre’s most defining generic characteristics and its history of pastiche are the best tools at Fantasy’s disposal to address concepts such as race or racism in a dignified way, or even with the intent of promoting social justice. Therefore, the goal of my thesis is both to legitimize Fantasy as an art form worthy of study and respect, all while proving how the elements and traditions that led the genre to earn its racist reputation can be used differently, in order to demolish discourses of racialization or institutionalized racism. The first half of the thesis will act as a critical examination of how Fantasy’s relationship to racial representation and racism has fluctuated over time, as well as explain why racism is so prevalent in this subset of popular literature. The second half consists of a creative writing project that will prove by example that Fantasy can be used to address race and racism without reinforcing discriminatory ideologies, nor appropriating pre-existing racial identity discourses. The theory portion of my thesis will illustrate how the genre’s racist lineage manifests itself within different narratives and historical periods, all while elaborating how Fantasy can involuntarily encourage racist ideologies, as an indirect result of the genre’s most defining elements. This part will then explain how these same generic trends can become the foundations of new narratives that reject or upend these same racist discourses. Finally, there will be a detailed summary of the intentions and strategies that informed the creative portion’s writing. The creative portion of the thesis aims to demonstrate how Fantasy literature can address race and racial representation, without over-simplifying the discussion, nor distancing it too much from real-world instances of racism. It is divided into four short stories set in the same imaginary “world”; each tale depicts the institutionalized racism that exists within this Fantasy world from the point of view of a character with unique racial identity challenges, both as an individual as member of a “Tribe”. Each chapter acts as a sort of “counter-narrative”, reconfiguring Fantasy literature’s unique generic characteristics that, normally, legitimize racisms from the real world, in order to examine, criticize and discredit these racisms instead.

Keyphrases: Fantasy, Literature, Science-Fiction, Racism, Racial Representation, Popular Culture, Tolkien
Le rire blanc face à l’humour noir dans la littérature de la Shoah : le rire traumatique chez Tillion, Wiesel et Gary

Comedy too closely associated to tragedy is a sensitive subject matter, as it can quickly veer towards the obscene or the scandalous. Nowhere is this more evident than with events surrounding the Shoah, one of the worst calamity known to modern mankind. Despite the monstrous atrocities of the slaughter, humour has somehow emerged in certain depictions of the Holocaust. Literature, for instance, offers up examples of what Michel Tournier terms “white laughter”, the sort of laughter arising from a clear-eyed awareness of the illusions which rule the absurd world one will henceforth inhabit. In the face of nothingness, white laughter rises up in protest against despair and thus begins laying the foundation for a new world. This thesis aims to revisit three works from the literature of the Shoah in terms of their representation of this deep, sacrilegious laughter in order to assess what good may have come from it, for its authors as well as for its readers. In the writings of Germaine Tillion, Elie Wiesel and Romain Gary, this type of gallows humour simultaneously allows a clear-eyed look at the reality of the Shoah and, ultimately, proves to be one of its saving graces by preserving the memory of its victims. These authors’ very divergent paths meet at the crossroads of remembrance and their writings become symbols of resiliency and bravery, as they facilitate a renewed consideration of the unresolved questions stemming from the human moral collapse which enabled the very existence of the prison camps.

Keyphrases: humour, Shoah, transmission, Laughter, White laughter, Humor, Shoah, Memory, Resiliency
Entre le jour et la nuit : la représentation du temps dans "Pedro Páramo", de Juan Rulfo, et "Relato de um certo Oriente", de Milton Hatoum

This research explains the power of literature in representing time. From the ideas of Aristotle and Henri Bergson, we think about the role of image as a mediator between the mind and the experience, and how it can create a reality in the mind. Bergson is also responsible for offering some categories of time, which help us to go deeper into the analysis of time figures in "Pedro Páramo", by Juan Rulfo, and "Relato de um certo Oriente", by Miton Hatoum. These two novels represent time plasticity in literature. This research also finds in Saint-Augustin and Jorge Luis Borges some crucial elements to think about the power of time figures in both novels.

Keyphrases: comparative literature, figures of time, image, Milton Hatoum, Juan Rulfo, Jorge Luis Borges, Henri Bergson, latin american literature
On n’entend que ce qu’on écoute : l’expérience sonore et musicale chez Henri Michaux, entre écriture et improvisation

Situated in the field of musico-literary studies, my research investigates sound and musical experience from a phenomenological perspective in Henry Michaux’s work. This phenomenological approach allows a second perspective of the world ; by removing preconceptions, we try to listen to the sensitive experience. A writer and a painter, Michaux was also an experimenter, improviser and a « musician-child ». Whether through his narratives of musical improvisation, under the influence of hallucinogens or meditation, the works of Michaux are filled with the presence of sound : noises, voices, music (heard or played), auditive hallucinations, resonances, vibrations and full silence all momentarily feature in his writing, and forge in its wake a « sound adventure » (1) that instils upon the reader a strong impression of sound. Music, this art of movement he disobediently visits without leaving any recordings, has the power « to make temporality sensible » (2). Music is a quest of the body where (along with painting) he reflects on lived time and on the shortcomings of writing, of which he feels the slowness in its problematic connection to the present, the immediate, and improvisation. He attempts to mobilize langage, which he perceives as an « immense prefabrication » (3) : writing then becomes a space for sound and rhythmic games, creating a verbal music, approaching a sound composition. This enables forms of exorcism, healing, affirmation and invention by sound.

Keyphrases: son, improvisation, hallucination, contemplation, literature and music, phenomenology, experience, listening, sound, temporality, writing
Gender Performativity in Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde and Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida

My thesis explores gender performativity in the story of Troilus and Criseyde as presented in Geoffrey Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde and William Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida. Using Judith Butler’s theory, I analyze the influence of courtly love on the social expectations depicted in both versions. Andreas Capellanus’ rules are used to understand the restrictions imposed by courtly love and their effect on Troilus and Criseyde’s love story. Then, the themes of war and love help define how Troilus and Diomede perform masculinity, while allowing a comparison between their relationship with Criseyde. Finally, the commodification of the female body is presented as an inevitable consequence of the performance of femininity as society encourages it. Throughout my analysis, I will switch between Chaucer and Shakespeare’s texts in order to show that gender performance evolves very slightly between the Middle Ages and Renaissance, and to suggest ultimately that some expectations are still the same in contemporary western society.

Keyphrases: Chaucer, Shakespeare, gender performativity, courtly love, body commodification
Évolution de la qualité des années vécues entre 45 et 70 ans : espérance de vie partielle sans incapacité au Canada, de 1994 à 2014

In response to the upward trend in life expectancy and financial pressures on the public pension system, some suggest to raise the normal retirement age. However, before recommending such an increase, it is important to consider the state of health of older adults. This paper proposes to examine recent trends in the health status of Canadians aged 45 and over. Using the Sullivan method, trends in partial disability-free life expectancy (PDFLE) between the ages of 45 and 70 years are computed from 1994 to 2014. Considering that caregiving responsibilities to a parent or spouse with a loss of autonomy may have an impact on the labor market participation of older adults, trends in disability-free life expectancy (DFLE) at 70 and 85 years and over are also documented. Disability among adults aged 45-69 is estimated from the attributes of the Health Utility Index (HUI) correlated to work ability. For seniors, it is defined according to the attributes of the HUI associated with the need for assistance. In both cases, disability is graded in severity levels to allow a finer analysis of morbidity. Data used to estimate the prevalence of disability was from the National Population Health Survey (NPHS) and the Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS). Trends examined in this study reveal an increase in the prevalence of disability among older adults. Accordingly, a decreasing PDFLE45-69 has been found since the mid-1990s. While it would be hasty to claim that there has been an expansion of morbidity among older adults, the findings do not confirm the compression scenario. Hence, this study brings no evidence in support of the postponement of the normal retirement age if this decision was based solely on gains in life expectancy.

Keyphrases: Canada, State of health, Partial disability-free life expectancy, Older adults, Health utility index, Sullivan method, Ability to work, Delaying retirement, Seniors, Need of assistance
Analyse de la distribution des décès aux grands âges selon le niveau de scolarité à partir d’un suivi de la mortalité sur 20 ans au Canada

Over the course of the last century, there has been a decline in mortality levels worldwide, especially in developed countries. In parallel, important changes in the age distribution of deaths have occurred, notably due to a progressive concentration of individual lifespans around the modal (i.e. most frequent) age at death. Our study focuses on disparities in the age-at-death distribution by sex in Canada according to one of the most important socioeconomic determinants, the level of education. In order to estimate the age distribution of deaths by sex and educational attainment in Canada, and to describe these distributions using relevant summary measures, we used a nonparametric P-spline smoothing approach developed by Ouellette (2011). It allows us to determine the modal age at death and the standard deviation above the mode with great precision, and to refine our monitoring of old-age lifespan inequalities by educational level. Our results show that individuals with shorter modal lifespans also have lower levels of education and the variability of their age-at-death distribution above the mode is higher. For both sexes, we observe an education-mortality gradient that persists at advanced ages. This research thus reiterates the beneficial effect of educational attainment on old-age survival.

Keyphrases: Canada, Modal age at death, Lifespan dispersion, Level of education, P-spline smoothing, Old-age mortality compression
Maternité précoce et réussite scolaire chez les femmes autochtones au Canada

This research exploits data from the 2012 Aboriginal Peoples Survey to examine the relationship between early motherhood and educational attainment among off-reserve First Nations, Metis and Inuit women in Canada. The study aims to assess the calendar of first births for each Aboriginal identity group and to determine the impact of the birth of a first child before age 18 on high school dropout; high school completion; and post-secondary educational attainment. The results indicate that early motherhood is significantly associated with a higher probability of dropping out of high school as well as a lower probability of graduating.

Keyphrases: Aboriginal peoples in Canada, Aboriginal peoples survey, Teen fertility, Education, High school dropout