Le genre du super-héros s’impose de plus en plus dans l’imaginaire populaire. Les fictions de ce type suscitent l’intérêt des savants en raison de leur façon de véhiculer l’idéologie à travers des situations fantastiques. Les diverses manifestations du genre abordent implicitement ou explicitement des thèmes dont il est également question dans les discours religieux contemporains : autonomie et théonomie en éthique ; sacralité des hiérarchies, de l’environnement, des relations, de l’âme et du corps ; cosmogonie et eschatologie ; etc. Pour ne pas traiter à tort et à travers de l’enchevêtrement des univers religieux et fantastiques, il importe d’aborder cette convergence sous plusieurs angles susceptibles d’en faire ressortir les sens sans lui imposer de cohérence réductrice. Dans cet optique, une herméneutique pluraliste basée sur les perspectives interprétatives de Marshall et Eric McLuhan est tout indiquée. La méthode McLuhan propose trois angles d’approche, trois rapports d’altération entre culture de l’imaginaire et religieux contemporain : le super-héros critique, récupère et déconstruit les récits, discours et autres réalités du religieux. Puisque le temps et l’espace consacré à l’étude sont restreints par des considérations pratiques, son échantillon est limité aux « comic books » de super-héros des trente dernières années, à leurs produits dérivés et à la littérature savante qui s’y réfère.

This thesis is an investigation of literary institutions and print culture in France during the two decades following the Second World War. It demonstrates how the changing metropolitan literary marketplace, driven by new methods of book production and bookselling; the rise of internationalism and tiers-mondisme; and a nascent notion of francophonie, accommodated writing of and on sub-Saharan Africa. The first half of the thesis focuses on three institutions of particular significance: the publishing houses of Le Seuil and Présence Africaine, and the Association nationale des écrivains de la mer et de l’outre-mer, known for the literary prizes it administered. Diverse strategies for evaluating representations of sub-Saharan Africa are explored through new research in the archives of these institutions. The tensions between specialist and more commercially orientated publishing, between anti-colonial and exotic representations of sub-Saharan Africa do not map cleanly onto separate institutional contexts in this period. These tensions are underpinned by shared political and aesthetic debates, technological resources, and social contexts. The second half of the thesis analyses in greater detail the publishing process of selection, production and distribution in seven individual case-studies of novels by Christine Garnier, Abdoulaye Sadji, Cheikh Hamidou Kane, Malick Fall, Amos Tutuola, Chinua Achebe and Peter Abrahams. Aspects considered include: readers’ reports and editorial revision; the use of pseudonyms; the development of named collections; the role of literary translators. My methodological approach works with, and at times against, a Bourdieusian framework, to describe the literary field in this period. More specifically, Pascale Casanova’s depiction of Paris as capital of the “World Republic of Letters” is tested and nuanced through the historical focus on the period 1945 – 67. Rather than a passive annexation to the colonial centre, African literary production is shown to be intrinsic to and constitutive of the restless political and aesthetic landscape of post-war reconstruction and decolonisation in the French-speaking world.

This is a study of the Parisian Latin book industry in the first four decades of the sixteenth century. It challenges the assumption that the Reformation brought about a profound change in the European print world. Luther's engagement with a mass audience is believed to have led to an increase in the number of vernacular publications produced by printers throughout Europe. This was not the case in Paris. Parisian booksellers traded on their established expertise with certain genres, such as theological texts, educational books, and works by classical authors, to maximise their readership both in Paris and farther afield. Working in close proximity inspired the Parisian bookmen to unity and collaboration rather than enmity and direct competition. When printers, booksellers and publishers collaborated they were able to undertake bigger and riskier projects. Such projects might have involved testing new markets or technologies (such as Greek or music printing), or simply producing a book which required a high capital investment. The familial unity extended to the widows of printers, some of whom were able to capitalise on this and build substantial businesses of their own. This high level of collaboration and the continued focus on the established Latin market give the Parisian book world its very specific character. It also helped Paris build an international reputation for high-quality books.

No description available.

This study investigates the determinants and effects of voluntary book-tax difference (BTD) disclosures in earnings releases. Unlike prior studies, I find no evidence that managers are more likely to voluntarily disclose BTD information when firms have low earnings quality. I also find that managers are more likely to disclose BTD information when firms have large negative but not large positive BTDs. Because BTDs are particularly informative when earnings quality is low and when book income significantly exceeds taxable income (i.e., large positive BTDs), these results suggest that managers selectively disclose BTD information in earnings releases. Interestingly, I also find that managers are more willing to disclose BTD information when tax avoidance activities are high. This result suggests that managers are willing to bear some taxrelated disclosure costs to reassure investors that BTDs are not due to aggressive financial reporting. Prior research provides evidence of a systematic association between BTDs computed using required 10-K tax disclosures and future forecast errors and stock returns. I provide evidence that voluntary BTD disclosures attenuate the association between BTDs and future forecast errors. I also provide limited evidence that voluntary BTD disclosures attenuate the association between BTDs and future stock returns. These results suggest that voluntary BTD disclosures help analysts and investors impound BTD information into earnings forecasts and stock prices. / text

Book and paper conservation integrates several disciplines, including traditional handcrafts, hard sciences, and art and book history, each with distinct methodologies and epistemic cultures. In order to examine how book and paper conservators straddle these varied fields and methodologies, a large-scale survey was conducted to investigate information sharing within the field. This examination of both formal publication and informal, lateral communication was inspired by the work of sociologists of science such as Derek J. de Solla Price and Diana Crane, including their concept of invisible colleges. A sample of one hundred book and paper conservators was questioned on methods of information sharing and attitudes towards topics such as publication and peer review. The result shows a field with great respect for formal methods of publication but still largely centered around informal methods of information sharing. Based on the survey results, potential methods of information sharing that may be well suited to the singularities of the field are discussed. / text

No description available.

This study investigates the destruction of books carried out by artists during the second half of the twentieth century and the early years of the twenty-first century. It proposes the term 'artistic biblioclasm' as a general category that groups these processes together, and distinguishes this category from works of art that also deal with the theme of the book but make use of other media (rather than real books). In my own practice, various biblioclastic processes are applied, documented and then discussed in the thesis. I analyse the aesthetic, political, religious and other implications of artistic biblioclasm in my work, with particular emphasis on the cultural (and Catholic) context in which the work was shown: the Mediterranean islands of Malta and Gozo. 'Part One' opens with a review of the literature related to the theoretical perspectives that inform the thesis. This is followed by the 'Practice Methodology', which identifies the methods used in my work and offers some preliminary reflections about the theoretical dimensions of these methods. 'Part Two' explores the historical background of artistic erasure in the twentieth century and develops a descriptive and contextual typology of biblioclastic practices, classifying them into four groups: book alterations, biblioclastic book-objects, formless books and dematerialised books. 'Part Three' advances Jean-François Lyotard's work about the sublime in aesthetics as a viable theoretical framework that firmly defines artistic biblioclasm as a postmodern (rather than modem) artistic phenomenon. This connection with Lyotard's work is made possible by comparing the formlessness of the sublime to the loss of the book's 'form' in biblioclastic processes and also by linking some relatively little-known essays by Lyotard that focus on biblioclasm or the book to other, better-known areas such as the sublime and postmodernism. 'Part Four' focuses on the political and religious dimensions of biblioclasm and the problem of representation. It distinguishes between politically repressive or fundamentalist forms of biblioclasm and artistic biblioclasm. Lyotard's notion of the 'unpresentable' - influenced by his reflections on Judaism and the Holocaust - is examined and linked to earlier discussions about the sublime and to the work of some artists described in 'Part Two'. Analogously, in my practice the Catholic idea of the book as an authoritative figure ('Magisterium') is elaborated and 'deconstructed' in the actual processes that make use of doctrinal texts. The research concludes by interpreting artistic biblioclasm as an attack on the closure of the book (with Jewish undertones) and a form of resistance to totalising political or religious forces. In my work, dogmatic interpretations of books and their 'truth' are related to the threatening possibility of violence in contemporary societies, and are ultimately shown to be self-destructive.

This thesis critiques contemporary Latter-day Saint scholarly efforts to validate the historicity of the Book of Mormon through textual criticism by presupposing its historic authenticity, then combing the text for evidence of literary elements that may suggest ancient Hebrew authorship. Chapter 2 surveys current Latter-day Saint scholarship and arguments for internal evidence in support of the historicity of the Book of Mormon. Chapter 3 assesses the importance of King David’s influence over the biblical and non-biblical Hebrew cultural and religious identity to determine the likelihood and anticipated portrayal of the king’s appearance in the Book of Mormon. Given the Book of Mormon’s scant and peculiar nature of references to the fabled king, this chapter also argues that a competing testimony against the book’s historicity is produced. Chapter 4 offers concluding remarks.

Title: Volatility bursts and order book dynamics Author: Jana Plačková Department: Department of Probability and Mathematical Statistics Supervisor: Dr. Jan M. Swart Supervisor's e-mail address: swart@utia.cas.cz Abstract: The presented paper studies the dynamics of supply and demand through the electronic order book. We describe and define the basic rules of the order book and its dynamics. We also define limit and market orders and describe the differences between them and how they influenced the evolution of ask, bid price and spread. Next part of the paper is dedicated to the de- scription and definition of volatility and its basic models. The brief overview about volatility clustering and its modeling by economists and physicists can be found in the following part. In the last part we introduce a simple model of order book in which we observe ask, bid price and spread. Then we study the empirical distribution of spread and try to find its probability distribu- tion. The volatility clustering is then observed through the relative returns of spread. In the last part we introduce some possible improvement of the model. Keywords: volatility clustering, order book, limit orders, market orders 1