Sammanfattning   Syftet med denna uppsats har varit att studera maskulinitetsnormer i En finir avec Eddy Bellegueule, den franska författaren Édouard Louis debutroman, med utgångspunkt i R. W. Connells maskulina hierarkisystem och maskulinitetsforskning av bland andra Michael Kimmel och Sonya Rose. Romanen, som är självbiografisk, skildrar en homosexuell pojkes uppväxt i en liten by i den franska arbetarklassen. I min uppsats analyserar jag hur hans omgivning förhåller sig till de maskulinitetsnormer som råder i byn, samt vilka överträdelser från normerna som sker. Genom överträdelserna tydliggörs vilka normer som är rådande. Uppenbart blir att det maskulina hyllas och det feminina förtrycks. Romanen bekräftar i stort sett Connells hierarkiuppdelning, den är full av maskulinitetsnormer och män som hyllar det hegemoniska idealet. Resultatet av min analys visar att alla män i romanen är offer för maskulinitetsnormerna, oavsett var i hierarkin de befinner sig, eftersom normerna är destruktiva och begränsar deras livsmöjligheter.

This study investigates the impact of masculinity norms on the male and female characters in the novel En finir avec Eddy Bellegueule (2014) by Édouard Louis and seeks to understand how these norms affect their relations. The study is using the theories of Raewyn Connell and Simone de Beauvoir to answer the main research question. The findings show that the masculinity norms have an effect on men’s options regarding education and employment, and by extension, their quality of life because of their reluctance towards medicine. Moreover, the masculinity norms keep homosexual men in a subordinate position. The same norms affect women’s liberation and reduce their opportunities to work outside the household, the norms also affect their relations to other women. In conclusion, the findings show that the prevailing masculinity norms have a negative impact on life of both men and women in the book, and their relations. The findings also shows that the masculinity norms maintain women in a subordinate position.

This diploma thesis deals with two literary debuts, the novel by the French writer Édouard Louis Ending with Eddy B. and the novel by the Czech author Lucie Faulerová Lapači prachu (The Dust Catchers). First, it deals with the phenomenon of art criticism as such and tries to describe various theoretical approaches to it, which can then be used in the practical analysis of critical texts. It then analyzes and attempts to interpret each of the works and analyzes their critical acceptance. In the case of Édouard Louis, these are both reviews published in Czech cultural and news periodicals and selected (most important) English-language critics published in the American, British and Irish media. In the case of Lucie Faulerová, the work deals only with Czech criticism, offering an almost complete overview of major texts evaluating Dust Catchers. The work tries to capture the different approaches of critics to both novels and to the role of the art critic as such. At the end of the work there is a comparison of works and their critical acceptance.

Thèse en recherche-création Cotutelle avec l'Université de Lorraine, Nancy, France / Cette thèse porte sur le récit de retour aux origines dans la littérature contemporaine française et se concentre sur des auteurs transclasses, c’est-à-dire qui ont quitté leur milieu d’origine et changé de statut social. Elle s’intéresse spécifiquement à un corpus d’auteurs originaires de régions non attractives de l’Hexagone. Elle concentre son analyse sur des textes de Nicolas Mathieu, Annie Ernaux, Didier Eribon, Édouard Louis et Raymond Depardon. Ce travail détermine d’abord ce qui est entendu par « récit de retour » en littérature, notamment lorsqu’il s’agit de représenter les campagnes qui intéressent ces auteurs. Il dégage des poétiques du retour chez chacun de ces auteurs, en observant l’hybridité générique qui les traverse : la photobiographie et le documentaire avec Depardon, le roman avec Ernaux et Mathieu, l’autobiographie avec Louis, l’essai avec Eribon. Dans un second temps, la thèse examine la temporalité et la géographie du retour, en particulier les motifs de la nostalgie et du déplacement. La thèse explore ensuite le point de vue de l’auteur, narrateur ou personnage transclasse sur son milieu d’origine, point de vue tantôt décalé, renouvelé ou surplombant. À cette recherche succède un texte de création, Je t’envoie des photos des primevères dans le sable, qui allie, en deux temps, fiction et enquête photolittéraire et qui questionne lui aussi le geste de retour aux origines en milieu rural. / This thesis focuses on the return to origins in contemporary French narratives. It examines the works of authors who left their hometown or their village and experienced social mobility. It specifically investigates the works of authors who come from post-industrial and non-touristy areas in France: Nicolas Mathieu, Annie Ernaux, Didier Eribon, Édouard Louis and Raymond Depardon. First, this work analyzes what the notion of return in literature implies, especially when French rural life is represented. The study aims to define a poetics of return for each of these texts, focusing on how these books are multi-genre or genre-bending: photobiography and documentary with Depardon, fiction with Ernaux and Mathieu, autobiography with Louis, essay with Eribon. In a second part, we examine the temporality and the geography of return, in particular nostalgia and displacement. This thesis also explores the author, narrator or character’s point of view on their background, as someone who left and changed their social status: the final chapter analyzes how this point of view has shifted, how it is renewed, but also how it can present itself as distant and apart. A creative text follows this research: titled I am sending you pictures of the primroses in the sand, it brings fiction and documentary (which includes photographs) together and reflects on the return gesture within rural areas.