Mémoire numérisé par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.

A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of A rts, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Johannesburg, January 1973 / The purpose of th is thesis is to correct the widespread misconception th a t children and adolescents are of small Importance in the world of Balzac's Comedie humaine. My method of procedure was not the traditional one. Instead of making'individual characters the focal point of my study, I culled relevant information from the Com&die humaine and then proceeded to group related concepts. Afterwards I consulted Balzac's private correspondence, the Oeuvres de Jeunesse, the Oeuvres diverses and various editions of his works,as well as lite ra ry and social criticism . The present thesis consists o f an Introduction, eight Chapters and a Conclusion. I t is divided into two parts. Part I is concerned with the child and the adolescent per s e . Part II outlines Balzac's view of th e ir growth and development. Chapter I aims to show that Balzac was not only a pioneer in the history of the French novel, but also a pioneer of the treatment of the child therein. Chapter II studies those characteristics which he considered typical of the child personality. They tend to be clinical rath er than lite ra ry , although there is inevitably some overlap and even co n flic t. Chapter III examines types of children mentioned in the Comddie humaine. Personal considerations motivated Balzac to place most emphasis on the only child, the s p o ilt child and, obliquely, the adopted child who then had minimal Importance in French Law. Nevertheless an appearance is made by all types known a t the time to lite ra tu re , society and the law, although not a ll are dissected.

Tableau d’honneur de la Faculté des études supérieures et postdoctorales, 2019-2020 / À la lumière de l’anthropologie historique de Marcel Gauchet, nous examinons dans ce mémoire le rapport de Balzac à la religion à partir de ses trois romans les plus religieux : Le médecin de campagne (1833), Le curé de village (1841) et L’envers de l’histoire contemporaine (1848). Publiés à des moments différents de la carrière de Balzac, ces romans ont en commun d’illustrer l’autonomisation de la sphère humaine vis-à-vis de celle de Dieu en rendant la religion tributaire de la volonté humaine. Coupant court à tout providentialisme, réinterprétant le dogme du péché originel lorsqu’ils ne l’omettent pas tout simplement, ces romans à thèse présentent un monde plus désenchanté qu’il n’y parait de prime abord. Désormais le mal s’explique par une « pathologie » et la vie bonne consiste à panser activement les plaies du monde social. Investissant radicalement l’ici-bas humain, les bienfaiteurs balzaciens, qui ont tout de saints laïcs, semblent s’émanciper de toute métaphysique contraignante. Dans cette comédie du monde qui n’a plus rien de divin, la religion s’impose comme moyen, jamais comme fin. / In light of Marcel Gauchet’s works on disenchantment, we intent in this dissertation to analyze Honoré de Balzac’s views about religion and Christianity, especially in three of his most apologetics novels: Le Médecin de Campagne (The Country Doctor, 1833), Le Curé de Village (The Village Priest, 1841) et L’Envers de l’Histoire Contemporaine (The Seamy Side of History, 1848). Published at different points of Balzac’s career, those novels have in common to illustrate the move toward autonomy of human condition by making religion dependent on human will. Withdrawing Providence, reinterpreting original sin dogma, those thesis novels depict a disenchanted world. From now on, evil can be explained by pathology and religion can be reduced to the treatment of social wounds. Investing all their energy in life here below, Balzac’s characters appear to be freed from any metaphysical ties. In this human comedy that is no longer divine, religion is a mean, never an end.

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In his literary work, Honore de Balzac sporadically denounces economic crimes, which, cleverly committed, may wind easily round the law. But it is mainly in his enigma novels that this denunciation becomes more forceful. From the narrators' perspective, fraud and assassination have enriched the Camps (Madame Firmiani) and Lanty (Sarrasine ) families, as well as the bankers---Taillefer (L'Auberge rouge) and Nucingen (La Maison Nucingen). Legal criminality, an eminently serious theme of Balzac's critical realism, is narrated by way of enigma games and their everlasting companion, mystification. / A better grasp of the plot's central role leads the reader to discover legal criminality, since the narrative structure restores order between fable (intricacy of the crime story) and discourse (invention of crime as an enigma). To relate circumstances leading to the solution of wealth enigmas, Balzac exploits enigma games as an essence of orality, thus giving his fiction the style of a conversational game. Furthermore, he uses a diversity of characters and narrative processes to create uncertainties, suggest clues, denounce inconsistencies. / The balzacian literary universe exploits the classical poetics of enigma, developing the enigma from a well-known fact: enrichment by criminal means is an open secret. The point of distinction between Balzac's enigmas and other novels is that they do not really aim at elucidating a mystifying crime, such as in Edgar Allan Poe's novels, but rather at revealing the subtle art of deception. Balzacian "intellectuals", criminals of a new kind, know how to evade the law and take advantage of its loopholes. The narrators, wishing to satisfy the readers' wish to know "the chemical process for oil burning in Aladdin's lamp", must not only specialize their narrative structure to achieve this goal, but also trick the readers into keeping interested in stories which must seem ever more captivating as they become more meaningless. / Set between Vidocq's loitering and Dupin's readings, between a spy's memory tracking and a detective's syllogistic intelligence, the dramaturgy of "Faits divers", in the world of Balzac, does not condone nor condemn any of these manifestations of enigma, as it is first and foremost a narrative adventure.

In this thesis, we are examining the structural poetics of the short story in The Comedie humaine. We first of all analyze three internal elements of the story: narration, description and dialogue. We then study the composition of the collections which form The Comedie humaine. / Without challenging the principles of concision and concentration, accepted since the XIXth century in regard to the short narrative, this dissertation focuses on strategies pertaining to narration, description and dialogue, which embrace these principles, and which enable the short narrative to distinguish itself from the novel. Within our study of internal components, we analyze how texts are grouped together into a collection. This is one aspect which is an integral part of any study of the short story. / Everything indicates that the short narrative favours concentration, while the novel tends to digress. We will establish the truth of this assertion by studying the proliferation of this narrative and narrative strategies, by examining the functions of description and the components of the portrait, and by analyzing discursive transgressions and the functions of dialogue. What follows will be a study of the composition which will begin by focusing on the "Catalogue des oeuvres de 1845", representing a state of intermediate assembling. What concerns us here is the structure of the collection in The Comedie humaine and of the various ways Balzac explored grouping his works together. / In Balzac's work, the structural differences which exist between the short story and the novel contribute to the actual development of the short narrative's poetics. This dissertation therefore forms an invaluable part of Balzacian criticism and certainly finds a place for itself in genre theory.

Four themes dominate Balzae's Pere Goriot: Paris, ambition, money, superman. Paris is described physically, socially and morally all strata of society are cruel and corrupt. The contrast between poverty and luxury arouses the ambition of young provincial Rastignae. While his ambition is mainly social, most of the characters of the novel have financial ambitions; money is their only valued Vautrin would kill and Goriot's daughters would reduce their father to pauperism for profit. Beth Vautrin and Goriot are presented as supermen, but while the former is a strong-willed ruthless ex-convict, the latter is a monomaniac, utterly blinded by paternal love. The four themes reflect contemporary society as well as Ralzac's own life and character. They recur throughout the Comdie Humalne but are skilfully condensed in Le Pere Goriot.

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