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No description available.

By studying the modes by which dialogue is inscribed in Le Cote de Guermantes, as well as the way it operates within the narrative discourse, we show that the sociolectal realism of this novel is derived mostly from the inscription and the circulation, within the fictional discourse, of pragmalinguistic and socio-ideological presuppositions obtaining in the "faubourg Saint-Germain" of the French III$ sp{ rm rd}$ Republic. Indeed, this novel absorbs and reproduces, in addition to a limited number of socially marked words or expressions, the role relationships, the power relationships, and, especially, the discursive strategies of the real world aristocratic ideology. Furthermore, this study demonstrates that if Proustian intratextual utterances undergo many systematisations, distortions and subjectivations promoting the insertion, within the dialogal component, of functional and structural characteristics of the description which modify the temporality of real dialogue and introduce pragmatico-structural modifications unthinkable in the real world, these systematisations, distortions and subjectivations partake of the text's aesthetic and ideological presuppositions, that is the anti-mimetism both of the characters' discourse in novels and of literature, the incapacity of language to reveal the truth directly.

Although Theodore Dreiser has gained a reputation for ,objective, scientific observation of life, he also showed a strong tendency to believe in superstition-charms, omens, premonitions, fortune-telling, astrology, prophetic dreams, and spiritualism. Such beliefs do not lend themselves to scientific observation and proof. This paper deals with the part of Dreiser's beliefs which was not disciplined by science. Three major aspects of superstition in Dreiser's life and works--luck, foreknowledge, and spirits--are covered in this dissertation. His investigation of religion is discussed only when it is relevant to the superstitious beliefs presented, and his pseudoscientific beliefs are not covered.The first chapter deals with Dreiser's observation of the lack of correlation between deserving and receiving good or bad luck. His biographical works show times when he felt that luck was a determining factor in his own life, and his fiction shows the operation of chance in the lives of his characters. The coincidences and ironies of his own life and those of his characters are included in this discussion because of the involvement of chance, an unpredictable aspect of life over which people can exercise no control. Along with this idea is Dreiser's inconsistent belief in the possibility of influencing luck by carrying lucky coins, knocking on wood, or hanging a horseshoe on the dashboard of a car.Chapter II deals with ways by which he thought a person might be able to learn about the future. For instance, he watched for cross-eyed women, hunchbacks, and broken or whole horseshoes. Eugene Witla, a character patterned after himself, believed that creaking doors, howling dogs, and black-bearded men were indicators of the future. Dreiser believed in predictions of fortune-tellers, and he experimented with Ouija boards. In The "Genius", astrology was a more accurate predictor than anything which science could provide. Dreams were important to Dreiser and can be found in most of his novels. They were used as both literary devices which allowed him to control the imagery and as predictors of the future. Also included in this chapter are the folk sayings and practices which were important both in his own life and in his works.The final section covers Dreiser's ideas concerning whether there is a continuance of the spirit after death. He himself went to seances and believed in the necessity for careful investigation of spiritualism as a means of gaining new knowledge about death and the operation of the universe. There is a discussion of spirit characters which indicates that, along with heredity and environment as determining factors in life, there is also the possibility of the intervention of spirits in the occurrences of this world.The significance of this study for readers of Dreiser is that he really should not be given so much credit for his scientific approach to philosophy and literature. There were inconsistencies in his thinking caused by his family background and by gaps in his education. His notions concerning such matters as faith healing, thought materialization, and the validity of predictions and signs kept him from being the cold-blooded, objective, scientific observer of life for which he has been credited. His work shows his constant search for answers to questions concerning the Creative Force and the operation of the universe, but his questions were beyond the power of science to answer. He arrived at a philosophy based upon his own observation of life, his reading, his intuition, and his desire to uncover some kind of proof of intelligent planning behind the universe.

In Proustian aesthetics, the act of reading constitutes a fundamental activity in the elaboration of Remembrance of Things Past. The representation of each art form which the novel proposes to synthesize (architecture, painting, and literature) is based on intertextual relationships that unite texts from non literary (Ruskin, Male), literary (Sand, Sevigne, Racine) and philosophical (Schopenhauer) sources, that contribute to a general conception of art that reintegrates the problem of the reception of art works in the context of an essentially literary experience. In accordance with Hans-Robert Jauss' theory, the presence of such texts enables the reconstitution of the reader's expectations, and provides the context for the multiple representations of the work of art. Consequently, the implicit and explicit interrelations between the Proustian text and its intertext, perceived as an indication of the readers liberty, introduce different strategies of reading into the novel. Not only does the narrative, through its characters, offers a series of examples that are didactic in nature, but the use of quotations creates dynamics that underscores the specificity of the Proustian act of reading and its interdependence on the act of writing. The reception of the text implied by the Proustian reading of the work of art therefore contributes in making Remembrance of Things Past, not a dogmatic exposition of a theory, but rather a long quest through literary creation for knowledge that transcends Plato's idea of the transmission of meaning through art and of communication through the act of reading.

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Certain critics claim that Paul Valery has, in his Cahiers (Notebooks), opened the way to a new study of man by approaching the subject with methods derived from the natural sciences. The present work investigates these claims by examining closely all the scientific analogies which Valery uses to clarify his analysis of the mental mechanism, in order to determine the relevance of these analogies, as well as their effectiveness. A comparison is drawn between the attempt of the poet and the general semantics of Alfred Korzybski, which also professes to ground its knowledge of man only on scientific and not philosophical foundations. / The search for bases taken from science yields few convincing results; thus, Valery's attempt appears to have failed. However, in a philosophical context this attempt is regained. The failure of a "science of man" is tempered by a "phenomenology of power"!

Zugl.: Potsdam, Univ., Diss., 2005

Diss.--Politische Wissenschaft--Freie Universität Berlin, 1993. / Notes bibliogr. Bibliogr. p. 246-284.

Inaug.-Diss.--Basel. / Curriculum vitae. "Literaturverzeichnis": p. 93-97.