As an artform, tragedy is deeply perplexing. On the one hand, it depicts events that are painful, depressing, and difficult to watch. On the other hand, it is a genre that has been continually replicated, revered, and enjoyed throughout history. I examine Nietzsche’s response to this problem. Nietzsche, I argue, develops a clear response to the paradox of tragedy: Tragedy is valuable because, even though (or precisely because) it is painful to watch, it allows us to affirm life. Interestingly, Nietzsche’s discussion of tragedy is filled with numerous mentions of Shakespeare. I argue that Nietzsche’s comments on Shakespeare emphasize the historically sensitive nature of Nietzsche’s theory of life affirmation. While Nietzsche might seem to be delivering a universal, trans-historical account of life affirmation, his comments on Shakespeare make it clear that life affirmation functions differently in different times and cultures. / Philosophy

L’écriture de Maurice Blanchot est-elle dirigée par sa pensée philosophique ou par sa pensée littéraire ? Du fait de son double rôle, le critique et le romancier, son écriture nous paraît pouvoir présenter ces deux genres de pensées, philosophique et littéraire. La pensée philosophique vise le but de dévoiler la vérité et, avec elle, l’écriture devient la représentation qui met en œuvre la pensée dialectique ; à ce titre, chaque mot doit correspondre au propos d’un penseur afin que le lecteur puisse le suivre. La pensée littéraire repose sur la transformation de ce qui était et, avec elle, ce qui est écrit n’est pas encore écrit mais à écrire ; un romancier demande au lecteur de chercher le deuxième sens dans son écriture, autrement dit, ce qu’il dit peut ne pas être ce qu’il veut dire. C’est de là que viennent deux sortes d’écritures : l’une dit le vrai, l’autre ment. Comment le lecteur distingue-t-il la réalité de la littérature de Blanchot ? En lisant la critique de Blanchot, le lecteur parvient-il à croire en son auteur qui est aussi un romancier ayant une écriture détournée ? Nous nous demandons si, en écrivant, Blanchot ne se trompe jamais entre ses deux rôles. En ce sens, notre thèse interroge sur l’indétermination de l’écriture de Maurice Blanchot. / Is the writing of Maurice Blanchot determined by its philosophical thought or literary thought? Because of his dual roles, critic and novelist, Blanchot’s writing seems to display two possible thoughts: philosophical and literary thoughts. Philosophical thought is the aim on uncovering the truth. As a result, the writing becomes an implement to represent the dialectical thinking. Every chosen word must correspond to what the thinker stated so that the reader can follow it. Literary thought bases on transforming the original fact. A novelist asks the reader to look for the second meaning in his writing, in other words, what he wrote is not equal to what he meant. Thus what is written (by the author) is not yet written, but is waiting for written (by readers). There are two kinds of writing: one tells the truth, the other tells the lie. How can readers distinguish the reality from the writing of Blanchot? Can readers believe Blanchot’s literary criticism while he is also a novelist along with those rhetorical writing skills? One questing would Blanchot never confuse between his double roles. Accordingly, this thesis will discuss the indeterminacy within the writing of Maurice Blanchot.

In this study we explored some of the factors associated with biased processing of attitude-relevant information. We were particularly interested in the possibility that a self-affirmation, by reducing self-evaluative concerns, might increase participants' willingness to impartially evaluate information that conflicts with their current views. We examined students' reactions to arguments about increasing tuition as a function of four factors: attitude importance, argument strength, the congruence of arguments with existing attitudes, and our experimental manipulation of affirmation. We found that affirmation reduced biased evaluation only for participants who rated the issue as important. We also found that affirmation dramatically impacted the perception of argument strength. Stronger counterattitudinal arguments were rejected by non-affirmed participants, who did not distinguish them from weak arguments, presumably because of the esteem threat posed by a strong ideological challenge. Affirmed participants, though, evaluated strong counterattitudinal arguments more positively.

Thèse numérisée par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.

Notre thèse consiste à étudier la réception de la Négritude en Afrique lusophone. Pour y arriver, nous aborderons la genèse de la Négritude à travers les poètes et écrivains de la Négro renaissance américaine ainsi que Batouala de René Maran. Cela permettra de mieux discuter l’éclosion du concept de Négritude chez Aimé Césaire, Léon Gontran Damas et Léopold Sedar Senghor. Nous analyserons l’idéologie de la Négritude et le combat de ces poètes pour l’émancipation des peuples noirs et des opprimés du colonialisme. Enfin, voir l’impact de cette réception de la Négritude sur les littératures luso-africaines, avec Agostinho Neto, José Craveirinha et Noémia de Sousa. A-t-elle contribué à libérer les colonies d’Afrique lusophone du joug colonial et à renforcer la quête de soi. Nous chercherons à montrer que l’humanisme de la Négritude renvoie à l’éloge de la condition humaine et à la promesse du possible. / This thesis studies how Négritude was received in Portuguese-speaking Africa. In order to achieve this, the study addresses the origins of Négritude through the poets and writers of the Harlem Renaissance as well as René Maran’s Batouala. This permits a better discussion of the emergence of the concept of Négritude through Aimé Césaire, Léon Gontran Damas and Léopold Sedar Senghor. The study analyses the ideology of Négritude and the poets’ struggle for the freedom of black peoples and those oppressed by colonialism. Finally, this research examines the impact of the reception of Négritude on the African Lusophone literature of Agostinho Neto, José Craveirinha and Noémia de Sousa. Did it contribute to freeing the colonies of Portuguese-speaking Africa from colonial oppression and to strengthening the quest for identity? This study seeks to show that the humanism of Négritude returns us to a tribute to the human condition and the promise of possibility.

The current study explored the impact of intellectual versus physical affirmations received over Instagram, either directly or indirectly, on females’ physical acceptance, intellectual pursuits during leisure and financial decision making. A total of 256 female students of the Claremont Colleges were recruited through advertisement of the study on the colleges’ designated Facebook page, and flyers posted around the campuses. The longitudinal, quasi- experimental study used a 2 (Type of Affirmation: Physical or Intellectual) x 2 (Mode of Exposure: Feed or Direct Message) x 3 (Phase: 1, 2, 3) fully crossed factorial design. Participants who voluntarily agreed to participate were randomly assigned to one of the four conditions. Participants exposed to physical affirmations, via Instagram’s direct messaging feature, reported significantly lower levels of physical acceptance, were less likely to engage in intellectual activities during leisure, and made financial decisions that reflected a greater desire to attend to their appearance than to their intellect, compared to participants exposed to physical affirmations, via feed. The opposite pattern of interaction was found for participants exposed to intellectual affirmations. The results support previous psychological literature on social role theory, stereotype threat, self-objectification theory, social comparison theory, and affirmation theory. The implications of this study concern female leadership development, specifically how exposure to intellectual affirmations over social media has the potential to attenuate the negative effects living in a patriarchal society has on females.

In this study we explored some of the factors associated with biased processing of attitude-relevant information. We were particularly interested in the possibility that a self-affirmation, by reducing self-evaluative concerns, might increase participants' willingness to impartially evaluate information that conflicts with their current views. We examined students' reactions to arguments about increasing tuition as a function of four factors: attitude importance, argument strength, the congruence of arguments with existing attitudes, and our experimental manipulation of affirmation. We found that affirmation reduced biased evaluation only for participants who rated the issue as important. We also found that affirmation dramatically impacted the perception of argument strength. Stronger counterattitudinal arguments were rejected by non-affirmed participants, who did not distinguish them from weak arguments, presumably because of the esteem threat posed by a strong ideological challenge. Affirmed participants, though, evaluated strong counterattitudinal arguments more positively.

The aim of this thesis is to analyse David Lodge&rsquo / s campus novels Changing Places: A Tale of Two Campuses (1975) and Small World: An Academic Romance (1984) to see how nihilism is dealt with in the modern academic world by the main characters in the novels. The characters will be examined in the light of Friedrich Nietzsche&rsquo / s Thus Spoke Zarathustra: A Book for All and None (1883-85). As the prophet Zarathustra in Thus Spoke Zarathustra is the mouthpiece of Nietzsche himself, this thesis aims at studying Lodge&rsquo / s novels in the light of Nietzsche&rsquo / s ideas. In this respect, this thesis provides a closer look into Zarathustrian (Nietzschean) concepts of &ldquo / will to power&rdquo / , &ldquo / eternal recurrence&rdquo / and &ldquo / overman&rdquo / , and it reveals to what extent Lodge&rsquo / s main characters can achieve a full &ldquo / will to power&rdquo / , attain a joyful acceptance of &ldquo / eternal recurrence&rdquo / , and overcome themselves on the way to becoming &ldquo / overman&rdquo / . With the elaboration of these three concepts, this thesis aims to uncover the ways in which Lodge&rsquo / s main characters recover from the negative effects of futility and depression caused by nihilism in the modern world.

The purpose of the present study is to assess the role of the concepts of health and sickness in Nietzsche&rsquo / s philosophy. While doing this, our basic presupposition will be that these concepts owe their special place to their being the new criteria for Nietzsche&rsquo / s project of revaluation of all existing values. Nietzsche was philosophizing in the face of the crisis of 19th century Europe, that is, nihilism. According to him, Western traditional thought is based on an otherworldly oriented conception of life the values of which are nothing but a negation of life. Although these values had served man&rsquo / s justification of living for a long time, they reached their expiration by the &lsquo / death of god&rsquo / resulting from the materialistic tendency of the flourishing natural sciences of the 19th century. The &lsquo / death of god&rsquo / paved the way for a devaluation of once most valuable values, of which the most notable are &lsquo / good&rsquo / and &lsquo / bad&rsquo / . Thus, Nietzsche&rsquo / s project of revaluation needs new evaluative criteria as well, which is &lsquo / health&rsquo / and &lsquo / sickness&rsquo / . In this study, I will argue that, Nietzsche situates a physiological understanding of these concepts at the very heart of his revaluation and their somehow metaphorical application to culture and modern society is based on a physiological conception of them as well.

Diss.--München--Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, 2002. / Bibliogr. p. 353-404.