Une Ethnologie mondaine : l’Égypte vue par Cocteau a pour ambition de comprendre comment le célèbre poète et dramaturge français a perçu le pays des Pharaons au début des années 1950. Jean Cocteau le parcourt à l’occasion d’une tournée théâtrale de la Comédie Française. Il écrit ses impressions et ses états d’âme dans un récit intitulé Maalesh, expression empruntée au langage égyptien du quotidien. Ce carnet de voyage rompt avec le style et la vision de l’Orientalisme romantique dont d’autres écrivains voyageurs comme Gérard de Nerval ou Pierre Loti étaient imprégnés. Maalesh est une oeuvre méconnue, pourtant particulièrement intéressante à étudier parce qu’elle représente pour Cocteau une sorte d’aboutissement dans sa quête incessante d’une compréhension de la mort, qui l’obsède depuis son enfance. L’Égypte ancienne, notamment l’énigmatique Sphinx qu’il considère comme un « dieu », vont lui apporter des réponses. Bien qu’emporté par les soirées mondaines du Caire et d’Alexandrie, Jean Cocteau livre aussi un témoignage fort sur une société égyptienne en pleine transformation qui commence à s’affranchir de la colonisation. En décrivant la misère apparente qui ronge le pays, il va s’attirer les foudres du roi Farouk. Cela empêchera Maalesh d’être suffisamment lu par les Égyptiens. Cette thèse tente aussi de combler un peu ce manque en proposant une traduction d’une bonne partie de l’ouvrage, qui sera ainsi accessible aux étudiants et universitaires arabophones. / A Worldly Ethnology: Cocteau's vision of Egypt is to understand how the famous French poet and playwright perceived the land of the Pharaohs in the early 1950s. Jean Cocteau travels it during a theater tour of the Comédie French. He writes his impressions and moods in a narrative entitled Maalesh, an expression borrowed from the Egyptian language of everyday life. This travelogue breaks with the style and vision of Romantic Orientalism which other travel writers like Gérard de Nerval or Pierre Loti were impregnated with. Maalesh is an unknown work, yet particularly interesting to study because it represents for Cocteau a sort of culmination in his incessant quest for an understanding of death, which has obsessed him since his childhood. Ancient Egypt, especially the enigmatic Sphinx he considers a "god", will provide answers. Although carried away by the mundane evenings of Cairo and Alexandria, Jean Cocteau also gives a strong testimony on an Egyptian society in full transformation which begins to free itself from the colonization. In describing the apparent misery that is eating away at the country, it will attract the wrath of King Farouk. This will prevent Maalesh from being read enough by the Egyptians. This thesis also tries to fill this gap by proposing a translation of a good part of the book, which will be accessible to Arabic-speaking students and scholars.

The purpose of this thesis is to apply the adventure formulas laid out by John G. Cawelti and the dramatis personae written by Vladimir Propp to the traditional adventure books Le Tour du monde en quatre-vingts jour (1874) and Treasure Island (1883) and the interactive fictions The Secret of Monkey Island (1990) and 80 Days (2014), both in the adventure genre. After they have been applied, I will compare Le Tour du monde en quatre-vingts jour with 80 Days and Treasure Island with The Secret of Monkey Island by how the formulas and dramatis personae work and evolve in the fictions. To start things off, I will present the four works and then go through the relevant parts of Cawelti’s formula and Propp’s dramatis personae. Thereafter, I will explain what interactive fiction might be by using Espen J. Aarseth’s Cybertext. Important concepts will be clarified as well.    The analysis in this thesis starts afterwards. Le Tour du monde en quatre-vingts jour and 80 Days will be the first two works to be analysed after Cawelti and thereafter Propp. When that is done, I will conclude what I have found. The same process will be done with Treasure Island and The Secret of Monkey Island. After that, I will make a concluding comparison between 80 Days and The Secret of Monkey Island and finally conclude whether Cawelti and Propp can be applied to interactive fiction.