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The purpose of this work is to measure the influence of the Dialogues of Lahontan (1702--3) on contemporary thought relative to the myth of the Noble Savage. The text is divided into two parts: (1) Lahontan and the idea of the "noble savage" at the beginning of the 18th century in which we deal with the life of Lahontan, the historical and cultural background in New-France and in Europe at the turn of the 18th century, the Indian tribes of Northeastern America, and finally the Dialogues of Mr le Baron de Lahontan et d'un Sauvage, which consist in a comparison between two ways of life: the "civilized" i.e., European and the "savage" i.e., Amerindian. (2) The idea of the "noble savage" in the XXth century: a study of four representative authors. This part is divided in four chapters relative to the authors chosen. In chronological order: Charles Eastman who published his works at the beginning of the century, Sun Bear in the 70s, Georges Sioui and Jean Pictet after 1970. Each author's ideas are compared with those of Lahontan and, where it applies, with those of the other authors. / The conclusion underlines the fact that the ideas expressed in the four contemporary texts, having of course characteristics marking them as belonging to their specific historical milieu, borrow much from Lahontan and finally go back to a trend of thought that originated in Antiquity.

This dissertation on Byron's Don Juan begins with a history and analysis of the stanza form. Since ottava rima is a two-fold structure, comprising an alternately rhyming sestet followed by an independent couplet, it encourages the expression of dialectical ideas. Byron's prosodic virtuosity uses this potential to create a multivalent tissue of tones which is essentially—and almost infinitely—ironic. A view of prosody is developed here which is unique in its perception of the poem's existence in terms of a reading that unfolds in "real time." For various reasons, "reader-response" critics have not yet taken much cognizance of prosody. Don Juan is a good testing-ground for their approach because its narrator constantly addresses his reader, insisting on a present time which actively accumulates a past and projects a future, as a reader's consciousness moves sequentially forward through the text. The present time of the verse rhythms is the present time of the discourse, which is often most self-reflexive in the famous "digressions." Some of these begin with an epic simile whose vehicle grows out of proportion to its tenor; others are triggered by an interruption of the story, as the narrator—like a Renaissance improvisor in ottava rima— suddenly addresses his audience directly. Still other digressions are not metaleptic leaps from a fictional to a "real" world, or from one fictional world to another, however; they are the result of the narrator's tendency to linger too long in one world, elaborating descriptions until his story is forgotten. Despite the poem's many-voiced, digressive insouciance, an investigation of its moral and metaphysical components reveals that its irony has limits. Maugre those critics who would claim Don Juan as the paradigmatic work of unlimited, infinitely regressive Romantic irony, the issue of political liberty is not to be joked about, unlike the problem of erotic love. At this stable point in an otherwise absurd universe, Byron reveals a non-ironic self under the ironic mask. More effectively than traditional autobiography, because it is enacted rather than reported, this poem recreates its author dramatically, in terms of a shifting triangular relationship between narrator, protagonist and reader. The temporal locus of this relationship is a fictional present tense grounded in the "real" present time of a reading of the poem. / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate

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Alfred Lord Tennyson's The Princess: A Medley has posed interpretative difficulties for readers since its 1847 debut. Critics, editors, and artists contemporary with Tennyson as well as in this century have puzzled over the poem's stance on the issue of the so-called Woman Question. Treating Tennyson as the first reader of the poem yields an understanding of the title character, Princess Ida, as an ambassador of Tennyson's optimistic and evolutionary views of human development and links his work to that of visionary educators of nineteenth-century England. Later artists, however, produced adaptations of the poem that twisted its hopefulness into satirical commentary, reduced its complexities to ease the task of reading, and put it to work in various causes, many ranged against the improvement of women's condition. In particular, a series of editions carried The Princess into various nations, classrooms, and homes, promoting interpretations that often obscure Tennyson's cautious optimism.

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À travers deux ouvrages du baron d'Holbach, soit Le Christianisme dévoilé (1766) et le Système de la nature (1770), ce mémoire propose d'analyser l'évolution de la pensée du philosophe et de mettre en lumière son raisonnement athée. L'objectif principal est de démontrer que la critique antireligieuse, antichrétienne et antibiblique, établie par d'Holbach dans Le Christianisme dévoilé, s'avère le fondement d'un athéisme qui sera endossé de manière ostensible dans le Système de la nature. Le premier chapitre s'attache d'abord à mettre en place les modalités contribuant à l'émergence de la pensée antichrétienne de d'Holbach, en les replaçant à la fois dans le contexte des siècles précédents, afin d'en tirer les racines, et dans le contexte propre aux Lumières. Ce tableau historique brossé permet dans un deuxième temps d'aborder d'emblée Le Christianisme dévoilé, pour plonger au coeur de l'exégèse chrétienne de d'Holbach et dégager l'essence de sa pensée antibiblique et antichrétienne. En outre, par sa critique des fondements du christianisme, d'Holbach souhaite interpeller le lecteur et le conduire à constater combien l'incohérence intrinsèque à cette religion mine sa crédibilité au point où le bon sens ne peut la soutenir et légitimer l'envahissement du domaine religieux dans toutes les sphères de la société. Dans le deuxième chapitre, le christianisme vu par d'Holbach est analysé pour rendre compte de l'approche empiriste qui lui permet de révéler l'inconsistance et la mise en échec, à long terme, de la viabilité d'une telle religion, et ce, autant au niveau sociétal qu'individuel. Dans un même ordre d'idées, l'introspection que l'auteur fait du christianisme, sous la lunette de la moralité qui lui est inhérente, le porte à constater de nouveau l'incohérence d'une morale chrétienne, nuisible au genre humain, face à une morale dite"universelle", que d'Holbach propose de lui substituer. Nous nous intéressons dans le troisième chapitre au matérialisme qui constitue l'ancrage de l'athéisme philosophique de d'Holbach. Face à l'aboutissement de la pensée athée de l'auteur, telle que nous l'observons distinctement dans le Système de la nature, nous établissons qu'un mouvement initiateur de cet athéisme se perçoit à travers les lignes du Christianisme dévoilé . En somme, dans l'évolution de la pensée holbachique, les critiques historique et philosophique se complètent : en 1766, d'Holbach s'est limité à une déconstruction du christianisme en préparant le terrain de son athéisme, sans toutefois attaquer directement la conception théologique de l'univers, tandis qu'en 1770 il nous révèle sa véritable ambition de proposer une conception intégralement athée de l'homme et de l'univers.