The purpose of this dissertation is to show how certain female characters in Zola question the received notion about the human-animal border and the related distinction between the male and the female. The novels I examine are Madeleine Férat, La Faute de labbé Mouret, La Curée, Nana, and Travail. The renewal of interest in contemporary French philosophy on human-animal relations serves as a framework for a reevaluation of the naturalist author, and my analysis of animal metaphors proposes a refinement of the status of the human in Zola. I show how female characters constantly move between the human and the animal to the point of ending either in an ambiguous human-animal in-between or in a transcendence of such a limit. In order to establish a context for Zolas work, I analyze different aspects of the human-animal discourse in 19th century culture, from the legendary theory of impregnation to androgyny and from sexual inversion to the myth of the femme fatale in both literature and in the arts. Gilles Deleuzes and Félix Guattaris notion of becoming-animal, which inscribes animal instincts within a positive discourse, is my main critical reference. I also refer to Alain Badious ethics of truth, which describes the relation of ethics to subjectivity, in my discussion of the subjective status of humans seen as animals. This dissertation underscores oppositions inherent in the human animal, such as Nature versus society. As the title suggests, I posit an oxymoron in viewing woman as an unnatural animal, as an animal in conflict with its human nature or as a human in conflict with its animal side. The human-animal border is not only more frequently subverted but also more complex in female characters than in their male counterpart in Zolas novels, thus illustrating that the human-animal status of women characters poses a real problem while its male counterpart is less puzzling. Maybe unwittingly, Zolas women profoundly upset 19th century definitions of both humanity and femininity, to a degree that almost contradicts Zolas own avowed positions in this matter.

This dissertation examines the largely dismissed nineteenth-century tradition of Romantic poetry in Haiti from the 1830s to the 1890s. I synthesize the conclusions of various studies prompted by the 2004 Haitian bicentennial in order to challenge the claims that nineteenth-century Haitian poems are banal parodies of French texts and simple preludes to twentieth-century Haiti literature. I argue that imitation becomes an impossible label with which to understand the complexities of Haitian poetry and national sentiment. Considering Haitis ambiguous relationship to modernity and the clairvoyance with which Haitian poets expressed national concerns, Haitian poetry constitutes a deliberate practice in the construction, legitimization and expression of national identity. In each of the three chapters I rely on historical context in order to situate the poetry and examine it through textual analysis. I explore in an initial chapter how political changes in Haiti in the 1820s, along with recognition of independence from France, coincided with the subsequent birth of Haitian Romanticism in the 1830s. The poetry of Coriolan Ardouin and Ignace Nau documents the development of poetic subjectivity and the inaugurating of national history which make this a pivotal period in Haitian poetry. A second chapter focuses on Haitis most prolific nineteenth-century poet, Oswald Durand, whose collection Rires et Pleurs includes poetry from the 1860s through the 1880s. Haitian theories of racial equality are expressed in Durands corpus and set within the thematic and aesthetic norms of French Romanticism, but the effort to inscribe a national and racial specificity enriches as much as it complicates his poetic project. In the final chapter, I document the shift that occurs for the last Haitian Romantic poet, Massillon Coicou. In his 1892 collection Poésies Nationales, the confident project of asserting national identity gives way to the sense of national failure due to an increasingly triumphant imperialism and internal corruption. On the eve of the Haitian centennial, Coicous verse demonstrates the ways in which political crisis in Haiti are inherently tied to the notion of poetry. He ultimately turns to political activism, and his assassination in 1908 symbolizes the demise of poetry as a viable, national project.

This dissertation provides a framework in which to consider how collective memory, national identity, and literature insist on a political vision of the nation. The works in question are examples of the enduring impact of pivotal events on the French literary tradition. This study takes a diachronic approach to studying literature written during moments of crisis in France. It examines works dealing with the Revolutionary Terror (1793-1794), the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871), and World War IIs drôle de guerre (1940). The writers chosen for this dissertation all use the rhetoric of literature as a way to think through the crisis and imagine ways to respond to it. In particular, this study explores how fear, power, and indoctrination are used to represent ideals of French national identity and the chaos surrounding earth-shattering events. Theories of historical representation, nationalism, and event fidelity provide the framework to reveal underlying political perspectives in the works studied. The chapters of this dissertation are organized chronologically, beginning with the Terror. Within the first chapter, the focus is on the Marquis de Sades La Philosophie dans le boudoir, particularly its fabricated political pamphlet, Français, encore un effort si vous voulez être républicains. Sades work is juxtaposed with that of a virtually unknown émigré writer, Louis de Brunos Lioncel, ou lÉmigré, nouvelle historique. The next event studied is the Franco-Prussian War, and the resulting Paris Commune. Victor Hugos Quatrevingt-Treize and Jules Vernes Le Chemin de France are both set during the Revolutionary War, but address events taking place in nineteenth-century France. The last chapter deals with the initial period of defeat and occupation in World War II. Both Jean-Paul Sartres Nativity play, Bariona ou le fils du tonnerre and Marc Blochs wartime testimonial LÉtrange défaite encourage Frenchmen to continue the fight against foreign aggressors. The authors in question attempted to give the nation cultural roots, or shared lieux de mémoire, in the aftermath of traumatic events. This study shows how writers use texts to mediate chronological and ideological distance between events and to recreate what no longer exists, in hopes of defining a new way forward for the nation.

The feedback linearization approach is a control method which employs feedback to stabilize systems containing nonlinearities. In order to accomplish this, it assumes perfect knowledge of the system model to linearize the input-output relationship. In the absence of perfect system knowledge, modelling errors inevitably affect the performance of the feedback controller. This thesis introduces a design and analysis approach for robust feedback linearizing controllers for nonlinear systems. This approach takes into account these model errors and provides robustness margins to guarantee the stability of feedback linearized systems. Based on robust stability theory, two important tools, namely the small gain theorem and the gap metric, are used to derive and validate robustness and performance margins for the feedback linearized systems. It is shown that the small gain theorem can provide unsatisfactory results, since the stability conditions found using this approach require the nonlinear plant to be stable. However, the gap metric approach is shown to yield general stability conditions which can be applied to both stable and unstable plants. These conditions show that the stability of the linearized systems depends on how exact the inversion of the plant nonlinearity is, within the nonlinear part of the controller. Furthermore, this thesis introduces an improved robust feedback linearizing controller which can classify the system nonlinearity into stable and unstable components and preserve the stabilizing action of the inherently stabilizing nonlinearities in the plant, cancelling only the unstable nonlinear part of the plant. Using this controller, it is shown that system stability depends on the bound on the input nonlinear component of the plant and how exact the inversion of the unstable nonlinear of the plant is, within the nonlinear part of the controller.

In this thesis we consider the development of a general nonlinear input-output theory which encompasses systems with initial conditions. Appropriate signal spaces (i.e., interval spaces, extended spaces and ambient spaces) are introduced with some fundamental assumptions to constitute a framework for the study of input-output systems with abstract initial conditions. Both systems and closed-loop systems are defined in a set theoretic manner from input-output pairs on a doubly infinite time axis, and a general construction of the initial conditions (i.e., a state at time zero) is given in terms of an equivalence class of trajectories on the negative time axis. Fundamental properties (such as existence, uniqueness, well-posedness and causality) of both systems and closed-loop systems are defined and discussed from a very natural point of view. Input-output operators are then defined for given initial conditions, and a suitable notion of input-output stability on the positive time axis with initial conditions is given. This notion of stability is closely related to the ISS/IOS concepts of Sontag. A fundamental robust stability theorem is derived which represents a generalisation of the input-output operator robust stability theorem of Georgiou and Smith to include the case of initial conditions; and can also be viewed as a generalisation of the ISS approach to enable a realistic treatment of robust stability in the context of perturbations which fundamentally change the structure of the state space. This includes a suitable generalisation of the nonlinear gap metric. Generalisations of this robust stability result are also extended to finite-time reachable systems and to systems with potential for finite-time escape by extending signals on extended spaces to a wider space (ambient space). Some linear and nonlinear applications are given to show the effects of the robust stability results. We also present a generalised nonlinear ISS-type small-gain result in this input-output structure set up in this thesis, which is established without extra observability conditions and with complete disconnection between the stability property and the existence, uniqueness properties of systems. Connections between Georgiou and Smith's robust stability type theorems and the nonlinear small-gain theorems are also discussed. An equivalence between a small-gain theorem and a slight variation on the fundamental robust stability result of Georgiou and Smith is shown.

Thesis--University of Texas at Austin. / Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 146-147).

Este estudo versou sobre os caminhos da formação do Direito Comercial brasileiro a partir das reformas pombalinas no século XVIII até a promulgação do Código Comercial brasileiro de 1850, procurando expor em quais pontos em se diferenciou do Direito Civil. Para tanto, no primeiro capítulo, expôs-se de que forma se deu a penetração das ideias Iluministas em Portugal, especialmente por meio da obra de LUÍS ANTÓNIO VERNEY. Em seguida, procurou-se demonstrar como essas ideias informaram as reformas levadas a efeito pelo Marquês de Pombal no século XVIII. No segundo capítulo, objetivou-se evidenciar as alterações na sociedade e na estrutra do império luso-brasileiro a partir da abertura dos portos em 1808 e de que forma estas alterações tiveram impacto na História do Direito Comercial nacional. O terceiro capítulo destinou-se a provar o influxo de ideias jusracionalistas no Direito Comercial brasileiro por meio da adoção da teoria subjetiva da causa, consagrada legislativamente no Código Civil francês de 1804. O trabalho, portanto, destinou-se a por em relevo um aspecto da História do Direito privado brasileiro que não se coaduna com a tradição jurídica luso-brasileira / This study refers to the formation of Brazilian Commercial Law from the pombalinas reforms until the promulgation of the Brazilian Code of Commerce in 1850. Throughout the work we tried to demonstrate how the Commercial Law followed a different tradition comparing with the Civil Law in Brazil. Thus, the first chapter demonstrates the Enlightenment influx in Portugal, specially through the work of LUÍS ANTÓNIO VERNEY. Then, the influence of VERNEYS ideas and the reforms that took place by the hands of the Marquês de Pombal in Portugal was showed. The second chapter demonstrates the social and political modifications that happened in the Portuguese Empire after the opening of the Brazilian ports to the trade of the world. At this point, there was also a study on the impact of the these developments in the History of the Brazilian Commercial Law. The third and last chapter attempts to prove the influx of Enlightenment demonstrating that the Code of Commerce of 1850 adopts the subjective theory of cause which is the same as in the French Code Civil of 1804. Therefore, this work demonstrated how the Brazilian Commercial Law followed different juridical tradition in comparison with the Brazilian Civil Law.

Este estudo versou sobre os caminhos da formação do Direito Comercial brasileiro a partir das reformas pombalinas no século XVIII até a promulgação do Código Comercial brasileiro de 1850, procurando expor em quais pontos em se diferenciou do Direito Civil. Para tanto, no primeiro capítulo, expôs-se de que forma se deu a penetração das ideias Iluministas em Portugal, especialmente por meio da obra de LUÍS ANTÓNIO VERNEY. Em seguida, procurou-se demonstrar como essas ideias informaram as reformas levadas a efeito pelo Marquês de Pombal no século XVIII. No segundo capítulo, objetivou-se evidenciar as alterações na sociedade e na estrutra do império luso-brasileiro a partir da abertura dos portos em 1808 e de que forma estas alterações tiveram impacto na História do Direito Comercial nacional. O terceiro capítulo destinou-se a provar o influxo de ideias jusracionalistas no Direito Comercial brasileiro por meio da adoção da teoria subjetiva da causa, consagrada legislativamente no Código Civil francês de 1804. O trabalho, portanto, destinou-se a por em relevo um aspecto da História do Direito privado brasileiro que não se coaduna com a tradição jurídica luso-brasileira / This study refers to the formation of Brazilian Commercial Law from the pombalinas reforms until the promulgation of the Brazilian Code of Commerce in 1850. Throughout the work we tried to demonstrate how the Commercial Law followed a different tradition comparing with the Civil Law in Brazil. Thus, the first chapter demonstrates the Enlightenment influx in Portugal, specially through the work of LUÍS ANTÓNIO VERNEY. Then, the influence of VERNEYS ideas and the reforms that took place by the hands of the Marquês de Pombal in Portugal was showed. The second chapter demonstrates the social and political modifications that happened in the Portuguese Empire after the opening of the Brazilian ports to the trade of the world. At this point, there was also a study on the impact of the these developments in the History of the Brazilian Commercial Law. The third and last chapter attempts to prove the influx of Enlightenment demonstrating that the Code of Commerce of 1850 adopts the subjective theory of cause which is the same as in the French Code Civil of 1804. Therefore, this work demonstrated how the Brazilian Commercial Law followed different juridical tradition in comparison with the Brazilian Civil Law.

Made available in DSpace on 2017-06-01T18:24:36Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Maria de Fatima Ferreira.pdf: 829099 bytes, checksum: 49d15e7239e085d4190f1a94fa0989d3 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006-05-08 / The vicissitudes on the use of language codes of aphasic subjects oblige the discourse analyst to understand the meanings of their speech. The objective of this study was to interpretate, according to French theory for discourse analysis, the reformulations that three aphasic subjects made on their oral narratives, emphasizing the meanings of hesitations, pauses and silences that these subjects attributed. Within this research, the author presented the study of aphasiology, neurolinguistics, narratives and their interpretations on the discourse of aphasic subjects, according to the French theory for discourse analysis. The first emphasis was the study of central nervous system and its language specific areas, which, once injured, oblige the subject to rediscover the ways to express and to understand whatever is said to him. Another aspect was the linguistic studies on language structure as well as on the performance of language flow. By joining the first and the second points of view, it was possible to elucidate a little more the language performance of aphasic subjects / As vicissitudes no uso do código da língua de indivíduos afásicos requerem do analista de discurso a apreensão dos sentidos de seus dizeres. O objetivo desta dissertação foi interpretar, à luz da análise de discurso de linha francesa, as reformulações que três sujeitos afásicos realizaram na narrativa oral, enfatizando os sentidos das hesitações, pausas e silêncios que esses sujeitos conferiram. O presente trabalho abordou o estudo da afasiologia, da neurolingüística, das narrativas e a interpretação destas no discurso dos sujeitos afásicos à luz da teoria de análise do discurso de linha francesa. A primeira ênfase foi dada ao estudo sobre o sistema nervoso central e suas áreas específicas para a linguagem, pois uma vez lesionadas, levam o sujeito a redescobrir uma maneira de se expressar e compreender o que lhe é dito. Uma outra questão foram os estudos da lingüística em relação à estruturação da língua e o funcionamento do curso da linguagem. Considerando conjuntamente o primeiro e segundo aspectos, foi possível elucidar-se um pouco mais, a respeito do funcionamento de linguagem em sujeitos afásicos

French military intervention in sub-Saharan Africa since 1960 has operated according to a bilateral dynamic independent of - although often influenced by and justified in terms of - global ideological or bloc alignments. It has been characterised by mechanical responses to perceived intervention stimuli. It has frequently disregarded international law and contradicted France's self-image as homeland and promoter of human rights. It reached its nadir as a result of French support for the genocidal regime in Rwanda. Accordingly, this study advances two principal arguments: French military intervention in sub-Saharan Africa has been driven by a unique French or Franco-African dynamic which has operated largely independently of global bloc politics and geostrategy; and the first failure of French intervention - in Rwanda from 1990 up to and including 1994 - marked a watershed in the practice, and the beginning of a military retreat from the continent more forced than voluntary. International Relations intervention theory has typically disregarded the Franco-African interventionary system, although France acts in defence of its allies and interests as Realism tells us it will, in an interventionary sphere of influence comparable to that of the US in Latin America. This study considers France's legitimisation for its interventions through claimed derogations from the non-intervention norm, and identifies France's unique interventionary dynamic which arose from its regular activation of mechanical responses to perceived intervention stimuli. The context for these responses may be found in France's unique role in Africa since decolonisation. Throughout the Cold War, France was given carte blanche by the West to intervene in its exclusive African sphere, often in breach of those states' sovereignty. This derogation from international norms was made possible by the French-controlled creation of the new states to emerge from decolonisation, the sovereignty of which was deliberately circumscribed by military accords so that intervention frequently became an automatic feature of interstate relations along the Franco-African axis. This study's empirical focus - the uniqueness of this axis in the international system - was demonstrated by the continuity of French interventionary behaviour in the early 1990s, with no immediate change correspondent to the global shift in the balance of power and in the use and justification of military intervention. A perceived need to rework the legitimisation of French intervention only came about in 1994, during preparation for Operation Turquoise in Rwanda, following the first failure of intervention (and the collapse of a French-backed army and regime) in France's African sphere. Although the justificatory discourse of French military intervention was changed at this time to embrace a humanitarian agenda under a UN mandate, its practice changed - to a reluctant observance of the nonintervention norm - against France's will, and only as a result of the transformation since 1994 of the political and military environment in central Africa.