The subject of my thesis is a study of the life and work of Jean Muno, a modern French-speaking Belgian author. From the 1950s to 1988, he wrote a variety of texts: novels, short stories, folktales, theatre and radio plays. In 1981, he was also elected a member of the "Academie Royale Belge de la Langue et de la Litteratrue Francaises" I have initially concentrated on capturing the perception the Belgian public had of Jean Muno through past and present literary and journalistic critical publications about him. Though he lived in the shadow of his famous father, Constant Burniaux, I have subsequently endeavoured to establish Jean Muno as one of the best representatives of Belgian Francophone literature since the Second World War. Basing my investigations on the work of C. Bally, L. Spitzer and M. Bakhtin, I have developed my own hermeneutic and circular stylistic methodology to approach Jean Muno's use of the language which is both innovative and imaginative. I have consequently demonstrated, through the analysis of concrete examples from his books, the extent t which his linguistic creativity is reflected in his themes. In a further chapter, I have concentrated on the <I>variables</I> in his oeuvre, discovering five tendencies. From a realist yet cynical prose, then through a surreal and fantastic style of narration, and finally to an inventive autobiography. Muno's linguistic specificity always filters through. In a second stage, I have described the recurrence of privileged arguments and linguistic patterns, unveiling the cinematographic attitude of Muno. I have examined his lucid vision of the world, his vivid imagination and his tendency to duplicate himself in his characters. Muno has depicted Belgium, education, literary circles, family, life and death in an ironic, quite pessimistic but humorous manner. Finally, I have defined a corpus of three autobiographical books to which to observe, describe and explain stylistic connotations. I have tried to define the reasons for their use, their consequences in Jean Muno's texts and their effects on the readers. I have also produced an exhaustive compendium of critical texts written abut Jean Muno emphasising in particular the ones which are of real interest to scholars.

The work of Assia Djebar, the most celebrated contemporary female novelist to emerge from North Africa, has been labelled "feminist" since the publication of her watershed collection of short stories, <i>Femmes d'Alger dans leur appartement</i> (1980), which marked her entry onto the international stage. Since then, whether rewriting the blooding history of colonialism, revisiting the thorny history of early Islam, or opening up the cloistered world of Algerian society, Djebar has placed woman at the centre of her enterprise. But what type of feminism does Djebar espouse? This thesis examines four works of Assia Djebar in relation to selected French and Arab feminist theorists, with the intention of analysing what Djebar refers to as her "<i>own</i> kind of feminism". It argues that Djebar's own feminism is in dialogue with a variety of feminisms, from the philosophical constructs of the French feminists, and the newly chartered area of Arab feminist historical scholarship, to the perspectives of mainstream feminist historical scholarship and the controversial works of Christian feminists. This dialogue provides a basis for confronting some of the wide-ranging questions raised by her work. How do French feminists' concerns with woman's relation to language, writing, and sexuality express themselves within Djebar's novels? How can the maternal world by affirmed in the context of a repressive Islamic patriarchal society? Can Djebar reclaim a patriarchal religion such as Islam for women? And can Algerian history be appropriated by and for women? The feminist readings of the four novels examined, which pay particular attention to the approaches of Julia Kristeva, Hélena Cixous, Luce Irigaray and Leila Ahmed expose the type of linguistic and political strategies which Dejbar employs in her affirmation of women's autonomy and in her challenge to patriarchal norms, as she rejects the preordinated positions which history, society and religion have allotted to Algerian womanhood.

The aim of this thesis is to continue the debate surrounding the <I>Prose Tristan. </I>Our contribution is a dialogic reading of the text, that is, a reading informed by the theories of Mikhail Bakhtin, especially those concerning novelistic discourse. Situating it in the romance tradition of the thirteen century, that of the <I>Lancelot-Graal</I> cycle, we look at features of the <I>Prose Tristan </I>which can be seen to correspond to what Bakhtin considers the essence of novelness, dialogism. There are many dialogic relationships in the text. We assess the tension, in the narrative technique, between the voice of the narrator in its organisational role (centripetal forces), and in its tendency to undermine audience expectation, which results in a decentralising effect, (centrifugal forces). The organisation of chronology is assessed, including at times, an apparent suppression of chronology. In the skilful use of repetition, through doubling of characters and recurring motifs, we can see important dialogic relationships between characters and themes emerging within the text. The recurring motif of <I>mise en abyme </I>provides frequent generic insertions in the text, thereby creating a variety of discourses within the romance, which can also be seen to interact dialogically. These generic insertions, along with the organisation of different voices, identified with both narrator and characters, are discussed in terms of heteroglossia and polyphony, key aspects of Bakhtin's definition of novelness. It is not a perfect fit, but, assessing to what extent the <I>Prose Tristan</I>, as a whole, corresponds to this Bakhtinian theoretical framework, enables us to appreciate just how rich, complex and radical its narrative technique is, and, subsequently, its ideology.

This thesis aims to pin down justice in <i>Les Rougon-Macquart</i>. Despite the relative infrequency of direct references to justice in the novels, we can nevertheless identify contradictory notions of justice, each associated with a group of characters. The first chapter establishes the apparent lack of justice in the Darwinian universe created in the novels. The primitive communities of Bonneville (<i>La Joie de vivre</i>) and Les Artaud (<i>La Faute de l'abbé Mouret</i>) are presented as examples of Darwinism in action, environments in which there is no resistance to the Darwinian order. The essentially ambiguous presentation of Darwinism in the novels is identified, one feature of which is an apparent opening for justice to operate as a moderating influence on the injustices of Darwinism. The second chapter examines the special case of <i>Germinal</i>, and the calls therein for justice made by the miners under Etienne Lantier's leadership. Unlike the primitives, these characters rail against the injustices of their Darwinian situation and demand justice. They aspire towards a general social justice, which they seem to view as an alternative religion - or as an alternative to religion. Starting from hints in <i>Germinal</i> that a legal solution to the injustices of Darwinism might be a possibility, the third chapter assesses the potential of the legal system to operate as a force for justice. The most important part of the chapter is the discussion of the presentation of the representatives of the legal system, a portrait of unrelieved negativity. These characters view justice as the protection of the rights and social position of their class, which explains the feelings of disenfranchisement experienced by characters from lower social classes, who are convinced that the law is on the side of the princes. The ideological function of the legal system seen in the repression of opposition and the censorship of views critical of the regime, confirms the way the legal system operates as an arm (in both senses) of the Establishment. We attribute the failure of 'la justice' to deal in justice to its intimate association with the Second Empire.

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