Doctorat en philosophie et lettres / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

The Nazis' deployment of foreigners (Ausländereinsatz) between 1939 and 1945 established one of the largest forced labour programs since the abolition of slavery during the nineteenth century. Foreign civilians from across Europe were deployed in Germany's war economy. Between 350,000 and 400,000 Belgian civilians were deployed in Germany during the Second World War- roughly half of these workers went to Germany voluntarily, but under a degree of pressure due to the Military Administration's economic policies in occupied Belgium. This thesis examines the implementation of the Nazi forced labour program through the analysis of the lives of Belgians who worked in Germany in the period 1940-1945 and by using a variety of original sources, including the records of the German Military Administration in Belgium and German and Belgian labour officials and the accounts of those who lived and worked in Germany. This thesis proposes a social history of the Nazi foreign labour program with a strong focus on the history of everyday life, drawing extensively on records such as letters, diaries, photographs and personal accounts of Belgians who worked in Germany during the Second World War, as well as hospital, police and judicial records. The employment patterns and experiences of Belgians deployed in Germany are examined through detailed case studies of Berlin and Düsseldorf, industrialised cities where Belgians were deployed in significant numbers. The Nazi regime divided Belgium's population along linguistic lines: Belgians were officially subject to differentiated treatment based on whether they were Flemings or Walloons. Examining the treatment of Belgians by the Nazi regime and comparing Nazi racial policies and practice, this thesis emphasises the key role played by local authorities, employers and individual Germans in shaping the experiences of foreign workers. It is argued that an important distinction must be made in relation to the material advantages western European workers enjoyed due to their elevated position in the Nazi racial hierarchy and the benefits individual foreign workers were able to secure by virtue of their employment skills, linguistic skills and greater confidence. The experiences of Belgian workers are also compared and contrasted with those of other national groups and are related to the broader history of foreign labour in Nazi Germany. This study also examines the experiences of Belgian women. While Belgian women represented close to 15 percent of Belgians deployed in Germany, studies of Belgian labour in Germany have largely overlooked their experiences. Utilising the limited available sources, this thesis contributes to an understanding of women's experiences. By focussing on the social history of the Ausländereinsatz and the stories of individual Belgians, this thesis maps the varied experiences of Belgians in Germany during the Second World War, illustrating convergence and divergence from Nazi racial policy and the fundamental role ordinary Germans played. More importantly, however, this thesis shows that Belgian civilian workers were not just passive victims of the German occupation. The decision to go to Germany to work was a personal one for many Belgian volunteers, based on individual circumstances. In difficult economic times and with no end to the war in sight, Belgians sought to navigate the best course for themselves and their families. While conscripts were by definition not free, as western Europeans Belgians were afforded greater rights and legal protections, which ensured they had room for manoeuvre and were able to exercise a significant degree of control over their own destinies.

In 1883 a group of Belgian artists wishing to challenge the hegemony of the Brussels Academy founded the organization, Les Vingt, on the principles of egalitarianism and artistic freedom and elected Octave Maus, editor of the self-proclaimed avant-garde journal, L'Art Moderne, as its secretary. Henceforth, Les Vingt assumed the identity of Belgium's leading visual exponent of modernité and L'Art Moderne became its foremost champion. In actuality, the alliance the Vingtistes formed with L'Art Moderne allowed Octave Maus and his co-editor Edmund Picard to gain control of the group's operations. The journal's editors, through their association with the Belgian social reform movement, had formulated an artistic concept they called l'art social and Les Vingt was to become the incarnation of this new doctrine of social art. During the period of 1887 to 1889, however, while the Belgian workers' movement erupted in a succession of strikes and demonstrations, Maus and Picard radically changed their strategy in marketing Les Vingt to its viewing public. They campaigned for a revised, "depoliticized" avant-garde identity for the group, and the model they chose to represent this new identity was French divisionism. The group's appropriation of divisionism, however, signified a forfeiture of many of the group's original ideals. Furthermore, it became a point of conflict for those Vingtistes who chose to remain loyal to their own styles. This conflict is evident in the case of James Ensor, one of the group's important founding members. During this period, he developed his own personal imagery that was a synthesis of Flemish and modern themes and motifs. This imagery made a bold, critical attack upon Les Vingt's capitulation to French divisionism, which signified an acqui-esence to the ardently Francophile tastes of the Brussels bourgeoisie. The focus of this thesis is an analysis of Les Vingt's avant-garde identity as it evolved out of its relationship with L'Art Moderne, and how that relationship led to the importation of divisionism. Ensor's conflict with Les Vingt and his provocative Flemish imagery is also examined as a means of assessing the significance of Les Vingt's adoption of the French art style. / Arts, Faculty of / Art History, Visual Art and Theory, Department of / Graduate

Academic study of women and WW1 literature has taken place since the 1970s, with a focus on female novelists published pre-1939. Despite the variety of studies, questions remain as to whether the breadth of women’s roles in WW1 is accurately represented in fiction. The purpose of this study was to examine female characters in WW1 novels (published in Britain) who challenge traditional war binarisms i.e. war (male)/peace (female), by taking on war work. It specifically compared novels published pre-1939 and historical (post-1939) novels written by both female and male novelists. The methods employed were the critical reading of forty novels, as well as data collection related to the roles of female characters and the language used to describe them. he study found that there is little representation of women’s war work in the forty novels. A key factor is that they are by middle class authors and written from a middle class point of view. Although historical novels are often used to re-imagine the role of women, WW1 is an exception. Key factors here include the perpetuation of stereotype and nervousness around detracting from the horrific experiences of the male soldier. Challenges to binarisms in subsequent wars (e.g. women in the armed services) have not stimulated a re-visioning of women’s roles in WW1. Society will continue to accept and endorse traditional binarisms, if they are not challenged by cultural representations of war. There is no novel based on the female military experience of WW1. In response, I was inspired to write a historical novel: The Half-Painted War. The protagonist is a female artist who enrols in the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC). It is intended as an act of remembrance but also allows the reader to consider the role of women in the military, both in WW1 and today.

Le champ littéraire belge francophone du second après-guerre n'a jamais fait l'objet d'une étude approfondie et exhaustive. Après avoir rappelé les conditions littéraires et culturelles de la Seconde Guerre mondiale, nous étudions l'épuration du champ littéraire, à savoir la réorganisation de celui-ci, par des instances qui lui sont extérieures. Nous analysons ensuite les rapports entre les écrivains et les institutions publiques et littéraires, avant de nous atteler à la description du champ littéraire de l'après-guerre. Nous tentons d'y décrire la position et les prises de positions des différents agents en présence. Se déploie alors en filigrane l'image d'une institution littéraire faible, incapable de faire émerger un nombre conséquent des auteurs de l'époque.

Entre août et octobre 1914, l’invasion allemande donna lieu à une des plus vastes mouvements de populations qu’ait connu la Belgique. En l’espace de quelques semaines, plus d’1,5 millions de Belges quittèrent le pays pour trouver asile en France, en Grande-Bretagne et aux Pays-Bas. Si beaucoup regagnèrent leurs foyers une fois le front stabilisé, plus de 500.000 d’entre eux firent le choix d’un exil prolongé. Cette thèse se propose d’étudier ce phénomène selon différentes approches. Le premier chapitre s’attache à dégager les raisons qui présidèrent à l’exode massif des populations civiles. Il s’agit ensuite d’étudier les mécanismes de solidarité mis en œuvre dans chacun des pays d’accueil. Les grands contours de l’action humanitaire engagée en faveur des réfugiés belges mettent en évidence des processus de mobilisations sociales dont l’évolution rapide permet d’appréhender de quelle manière ils furent perçus par les populations locales. En outre, par le biais de l’aide aux réfugiés, il est permis d’esquisser quelques grandes caractéristiques des politiques sociales lancées durant la Première Guerre mondiale. La mise au travail des réfugiés apparaît comme le seconde grand axe de ce travail. Dans un contexte marqué par de fortes pénuries de main-d’œuvre ouvrière, la présence des réfugiés éveilla des enjeux économiques et sociaux insoupçonnés. En effet, dès 1915, que ce soit en France ou en Angleterre, les réfugiés belges prirent une part active à l’activité économique des pays qui les accueillaient. Cette participation des Belges à l’effort de guerre allié est particulièrement intéressante en ce qu’elle fut l’occasion d’une rencontre inédite entre peuples qui se connaissaient peu. De même, elle vit émerger quelques entreprises dont le fonctionnement éclaire la manière avec laquelle gouvernement et patronat belges concevaient les rapports sociaux en ce début de XXème siècle. Afin d’encore mieux cerner quel fut l’apport des réfugiés à l’effort de guerre belge, l’accent est mis sur leur engagement dans la lutte armée. L’attitude réservée des Belges face à la mobilisation générale permet d’illustrer les limites de leur adhésion à la guerre et éclaire la détérioration sensible de leur image. Pour terminer, le dernier chapitre s’attache à déterminer quelle fut la nature des rapports que nouèrent réfugiés et populations locales. Il s’agit de voir de quelle manière les réfugiés s’intégrèrent aux communautés d’accueil et dans quelle mesure ils pâtirent des vagues xénophobes qui balayèrent les différents pays d’accueil dès 1917./On both the eastern and western fronts, the First World War led to the displacement of millions of civilians. The invasion of Belgium by German forces proved no exception: between August and October 1914, more than a million a half Belgians fled their country. They sought asylum in the Netherlands, France and Great Britain. In total, more than 600,000 Belgians settled abroad during the First World War. This thesis studies this unprecedented and unrepeated exile of hundred of thousands of Belgians between 1914 and 1918.

Taking the transformative potential of education as its starting point, this thesis analyses Belgian attempts to use schools policy to strengthen the hegemony of the colonial state in the Congo during the interwar years. Through an empirical treatment of the development of the colonial school system, based largely on archival research, the study pursues two main contentions. The first is that the Belgian colonial authorities played a far more direct role in formulating and implementing education policy than is often believed. The second is that the state authorities’ interest in education was defined both by the economic imperative of colonial exploitation, which compelled them to train skilled workers, and the fear that access to education would fuel potential sedition. Six thematic chapters demonstrate that this paradox of necessity and fear shaped Belgian education policy in the Congo, looking at the reasons behind the fear of potential unrest, and at its ramifications. This thesis argues that these pressures caused the Belgian colonial authorities to try to mould Congolese society using education as a tool, by using specific streams of instruction to inculcate certain groups of Congolese, such as auxiliaries, healthcare workers, and women, with the principles of colonial rule. The thesis also considers how these policies were put into practice, focusing on relations between the colonial authorities and the Catholic and Protestant mission societies, and evaluates their efficacy. Moreover, this thesis attempts to establish, where possible, the reactions of colonized Congolese to European educational provision. Having analysed these issues, this thesis concludes that the colonial education system in the Congo during the interwar years failed to fulfil its main purpose and perpetuate Belgian colonial rule.

Les études consacrées à la thématique de l’eau sont multiples. Néanmoins, elles concernent le plus souvent un des aspects de la symbolique aquatique et se réfèrent à la littérature d’un seul pays ou même d’un seul auteur. Tenant compte des ouvrages de recherches déjà existants, nous aimerions présenter dans une seule étude la lecture comparatiste des auteurs qui n’ont jamais été réunis dans le contexte de l’imaginaire aquatique. Le choix du domaine polonais et francophone n’est pas contingent. Le modernisme polonais, pour des raisons historiques, surgit un peu plus tard que le symbolisme à l’Ouest de l’Europe. Grâce à ce décalage, il s’inspire d’auteurs tels que Mallarmé, Verlaine, Baudelaire ou Maeterlinck et de peintres tels que Gustave Moreau ou Odilon Redon. L’analyse de ces œuvres nous semble d’autant plus intéressante qu’elle concerne deux langues et deux cultures différentes qui comprennent et expriment le symbole chacune à sa manière.En effectuant une recherche littéraire et linguistique, et en appliquant différentes méthodes d’analyse, nous espérons avoir abouti à une étude approfondie de la création des artistes francophones et polonais qui aidera à mieux connaître leurs mondes imaginaires. / There are a lot of studies on the theme of water. However, they usually concern one aspect of aquatic symbolism and refer to the literature of one country or even a single author. Taking into account the existing research, I would like to present in a single study the comparative analysis of authors who have never been gathered in the context of the aquatic imagination.The choice of Polish and French-speaking area is not contingent. Polish modernism, for historical reasons, appeared later that the symbolism in western Europe. With this shift, he was inspired by writers such as Mallarmé, Verlaine, Baudelaire, or Maeterlinck and painters such as Gustave Moreau and Odilon Redon. The analysis of these works seems a lot more interesting as it involves two languages and two cultures that include the symbol and express it in their own way.By searching literature and language, and applying different methods of analysis, I hope to have led to a thorough study of the works of French and Polish artists that will help better understand their imaginary worlds.

Orientador: Guilherme de Paula Nogueira / Coorientador: Luzia Helena Queiroz / Banca: Gisele Zoccal Mingoti / Banca: Rafael Silva Cipriano / Resumo: Os animais congênicos possuem apenas uma região específica do cromossomo transferida de uma linhagem para outra através de cruzamentos monitorados por análises genéticas. Essa metodologia foi utilizada para produzir linhagem congênica de bovinos da raça Nelore carreando o polimorfismo no gene da miostatina proveniente do Belgian Blue. O objetivo desse trabalho foi comparar o peso ao nascimento, incidência de partos distócicos e taxa de mortalidade neonatal em animais de 3 variações genéticas para o gene da miostatina (homozigotos sem o polimorfismo, heterozigotos e homozigotos mutados). Animais homozigotos sem a mutação nasceram com 31,19 kg ± 0,32 kg, os heterozigotos com 35,82 kg ± 0,32 kg (diferença de 4,63 kg) e os homozigotos mutados nasceram com 40,46 ± 0,32 kg, com acréscimo médio de 9,26 kg acima dos bezerros homozigotos não mutados (p=2 x 10-16). Além disso bezerros machos apresentaram um acréscimo de 1,55 Kg em relação as fêmeas. A taxa de distocia dos bezerros homozigotos sem o polimorfismo e dos heterozigotos foram de 5,4% e 5,7%. A taxa de mortalidade dos bezerros homozigotos sem o polimorfismo e dos heterozigotos foram de 5,4% e 5,2%, dentro das normalidades esperadas. Entretanto, animais homozigotos mutados apresentaram altas taxas de distocia 47,5% e de mortalidade de bezerros 37,3%. Os dados indicam que a mutação no gene da miostatina quando em heterozigose gera um aumento de peso ao nascimento sem causar aumento de distocia ou de mortalidade neonatal. Conclu... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: Congenic animals have only one chromosome specific region transferred from one lineage to another through crosses monitored by genetic analysis. This methodology was used to produce a Nellore cattle congenic line carrying the myostatin gene polymorphism from Belgian Blue. The objective of this study was to compare birth weight, incidence of dystocy and neonatal mortality rate in animals from the 3 genetic variations for the myostatin gene (homozygotes without the polymorphism, heterozygotes and mutated homozygotes). Homozygous animals without the mutation were born with 31,19 ± 0,32 kg, heterozygotes werte born with 35,82 ± 0,32 kg, a difference of 4,63 kg and the mutated homozygotes were born with 40,46 ± 0,319 kg, with an increase of 9,26 kg above homozygotes without the polymorphism calves (p = 2*10-16). In addition, male calves showed an increase of 1,55 kg in relation to females. The rates of dystocia of calves homozygous within polymorphism and heterozygotes were 5,4% e 5,7%. The rates of mortality of calves homozygous within polymorphism and heterozygotes were 5,4% e 5,2%, within expected normalities. However, mutated homozygous animals had high rates of dystocia (47.5%) and calves mortality (37.3%). The data indicate that mutation in the myostatin gene when in heterozygosis results in an increase birth weight without causing increased dystocia or neonatal mortality. We conclude that animals heterozygotes can be produced on a large scale, and may be an advantageous str... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Mestre

Using ethnographic data and James Scott's (1990) concepts of public and hidden transcripts, this thesis examines fow the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) government's public transcript has been institutionalised through the use of 'genocide ideology' laws. It is concerned with understanding how the RPF's use of ‘genocide ideology' is a mechanism to facilitate a continuum of violence, which I argue has led to ‘ethnic' marginalisation. ‘Genocide ideology' is a legally abstract term that refers to discourses that contest – consciously or unconsciously - the government narrative regarding the 1994 genocide. As focusing strictly om the public transcript does not tell the whole storry about power relations between the RPF government and Hutu, it also explores hidden transcript. This is necessary as the Rwandan government employs the category of ‘genocide ideology' to silence dissent and to justify arbitrary arrest. For example, since taking power, the RPF government has strived to eliminate the Hutu/Tutsi identities, replacing the divisive identities with ‘Rwandan.' Those who use Hutu/Tutsi identities outside the context of the genocide are considered génocidaire sympathisers and legally guilty of ‘genocide ideology'. I argue that within the public RPF transcript on the genocide, the victim/perpetrator dichotomy has become intertwined with Tutsi/Hutu identities, creating a hierarchy of victimhood. I concluded by arguing that the violence, fear and marginalisation experienced by participants through the government's use of the public transcript in conjunction with ‘genocide ideology' laws is causing resentment, which could lead to further conflict.