According to Julia Kristeva, abjection is an unconscious process (a cut) every human being has to operate to be able to autonomize her or himself from the dyadic relationship with the mother. An autonomous subject then has access to what « sémiotique tensive » (influenced by the phenomenology of perception andstructuralism) calls « field of presence » from where she or he can enunciate and thus enter the Symbolic order. In this thesis, I posit that the field of presence changes from modernity to postmodernity, and that some avant-garde authors, such as Michel Butor in the 1960's, are articulating the shift from one to the other and modifying the relationship between subject and abject. My textual analyses focus on two of Butor's most innovative books : Mobile. Étude pour une représentation des États-Unis (published in 1962) and 6 810 000 litres d'eau par seconde. Étude stéréophonique (usually referred to by critics as Niagara, the title of its English translation, published in 1965). My hypothesis is that, on the level of enunciation, Mobile shows traces of a modem field of presence, where the margins are highly dysphoric (abject), while Niagara tends to represent a more postmodern one, using différent discursive stratégies to defuse the abject threat. I close with a reflection on the state of abjection as a subjectivity inducing process, the subject it exhausts in postmodern times, and the new relationship to the body (therefore, to perception and enunciation) it imposes.

Thesis--Wisconsin. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 238-271).

No description available.

Michel Butor is one of the most prolific writers of post-war French literature. The size of his production is equalled only by its diversity. Originally a novelist, Butor has developed into an author of "open works", opera, poetry, dream texts and children's books. This study is a search for unity in the midst of this diversity. Taking as our starting point Butor's adoption of Rimbaud' s famous assertion ·'Il faut changer la vie", we elaborate a perspective of commitment to change in both writing and reality which we apply to the four most developed areas of Butor's production: the novels, the experimental texts, the Illustrations series and the Mati~re de Reves series. Devoting one section of the thesis to each of these four areas, we examine the parallel between the formal evolution of Butor's production, the change that can be seen in his writing, and the thematic evolution, the change that he would like to see in reality. In the novel section we discuss Butor's treat ment of the myth of imperial dominance as the expression of modern western man's existential outlook and its implications for the reader of novels together with Butor's own, different existential outlook and his consequent abandonment of the novel genre. In the second section we examine Butor's conception of the relationship between man and place together with his experimental attempts to solve the problems raised by the novel form, the solution finally appearing in the thought 1?ehind the "open work". The Illustrations section contains a study of Butor's collaboration with the art world, his development of the corporate text and the elaboration of the concept of collage reality, a concept designed to replace the imperial organisation criticised in the novels. Finally in the Mati~re de Rives section we analyse Butor's method of using his own literary career as an example of the re-integration, re-organisation and attitude required for the construction and maintenance of the new, collage reality.

Thesis (M.A. 1978) from the Department of French, University of Adelaide, 1977.

Cette étude vise à démontrer qu'en dressant le portrait d'Honoré de Balzac, Michel Butor se met lui-même en scène en plaçant à l'avant-plan certaines de ses propres préoccupations littéraires. Il existe ainsi deux niveaux de discours aux Improvisations, l'un renvoyant à Balzac et l'autre à Butor, comme si le portrait du second se surimprimait à celui du premier. Ce chevauchement invite à des lectures et à des interprétations où chacune des deux oeuvres apporte un éclairage nouveau à l'autre. C'est cette possibilité de dialogue qui sera explorée en rapprochant des textes des deux auteurs et en réfléchissant à la démarche critique et autoréflexive de Butor telle qu'elle se présente dans les Improvisations

No description available.

No description available.

Le Nouveau Roman est passé à la postérité comme l’un des exemples majeurs d’un moment intransitif de la littérature française. En déstabilisant le traitement de la narration et de l’intrigue, du cadre spatio-temporel, des personnages et des voix, le Nouveau Roman conteste la mimèsis référentielle réaliste pour se tourner vers les aspects formels de la création romanesque. Néanmoins, cela n’est pas un geste gratuit : la déconstruction formaliste, les nouveaux romanciers la revendiquent au nom d’un « nouveau réalisme ». Le Nouveau Roman se veut l’avènement d’une « ère du soupçon » sur les conventions esthétiques et les représentations diffusées par celles-ci. De plus, ce parti pris ne peut se comprendre en dehors d’un contexte historique marqué à la fois par les traumatismes de la Seconde Guerre mondiale et les impératifs de modernisation économique qui de 1946 à 1975 transforment profondément la société française. Loin d’anéantir la référentialité, le Nouveau Roman témoigne d’un conflit avec elle, si bien que sa déconstruction du roman est une reconstruction produisant de nouvelles — parfois pas si nouvelles que cela ? — formes, représentations, manières d’affirmer l’existence de l’homme et de la société. Aussi le Nouveau Roman contribue-t-il à l’imaginaire social de son époque. En proposant une lecture des romans de Michel Butor et d’Alain Robbe-Grillet, cette thèse se penchera sur la tentative néo-romanesque de réinventer et la littérature et le monde. Trois axes d’analyse guident ce travail : le premier porte sur la représentation de l’univers fictionnel parallèlement à une discussion sur le problème de la mimèsis ; le second, sur la poétique des personnages et son rapport à la question de l’identité personnelle ; le troisième, sur le statut de la socialité dans les œuvres, à travers les questions de l’identité collective, de la mémoire et des usages sociaux de la langue. / The nouveau roman passed to posterity as one of the main examples of an intransitive moment of french literature. By destabilizing the narration and the plot, the spatio-temporal framework, the characters and the voices, the Nouveau Roman disputes the realistic referential mimesis and turns itself to formal aspects of novelistic creation. However, this is not a vain gesture: the so-called nouveaux romanciers claim a formalist deconstruction in the name of a “new realism”. The nouveau roman proposes the advent of an “age of suspicion” about the esthetical conventions and the representations disseminated by them. In addition to this, with the purpose of understanding this position, one must take into account its historical context, marked by the traumas of World War II as well as the requirements of the economic modernization, which deeply modifies French society from 1946 to 1975. Far from having annihilated the referentiality, the nouveau roman is in conflict with it, so that its deconstruction of the novel is a reconstruction, creating new–sometimes not so new?–forms, representations, ways to affirm the existence of man and society. Thus, the nouveau roman contributes to the social imaginary of its time. Through a reading of the Michel Butor’s and Alain Robbe-Grillet’s novels, this thesis will focus on this attempt by the nouveau roman to reinvent the literature and the world. Three axes will guide this work: the first concerns the representation of the fictional universe along with a discussion on the mimesis problem; the second, the poetics of characters and its relation to the question of personal identity; the third, the status of sociality in the novels, addressing the questions of the collective identity, the memory and the social uses of language. / O novo romance passou à posteridade como um dos exemplos emblemáticos de um momento intransitivo da literatura francesa. Ao desestabilizar o tratamento da narração e da intriga, do recorte espaço-temporal, das personagens e das vozes, o novo romance contesta a mímesis referencial realista e se volta aos aspectos formais da criação romanesca. Entretanto, não se trata de um gesto gratuito: os novos romancistas reivindicam a desconstrução formalista em nome de um “novo realismo”. O novo romance propõe o advento de uma “era da suspeita” diante das convenções estéticas bem como das representações por elas difundidas. Ademais, tal atitude não pode ser compreendida fora de um contexto histórico marcado ao mesmo tempo pelos traumas da Segunda Guerra Mundial e pelos imperativos de modernização econômica que de 1946 a 1975 transformam profundamente a sociedade francesa. Longe de aniquilar a referencialidade, o novo romance está em conflito com ela, de tal modo que sua desconstrução do romance é uma reconstrução, com a produção de novas — às vezes não tão novas assim? — formas, representações, maneiras de afirmar a existência do homem e da sociedade. Assim, o novo romance contribui com o imaginário social de sua época. Através de uma leitura dos romances de Michel Butor e de Alain Robbe- Grillet, esta tese pretende debruçar-se sobre a tentativa neo-romanesca de reinventar a literatura e o mundo. Três eixos de análise guiam este trabalho: o primeiro trata da representação do universo ficcional paralelamente a uma discussão acerca do problema da mímesis; o segundo, da poética das personagens e de sua relação com a questão da identidade pessoal; o terceiro, do estatuto da socialidade nas obras, abordando as questões da identidade coletiva, da memória e dos usos sociais da língua.

«L’essai de soi », en tant que méthode littéraire, crée dans l’œuvre de Woolf, Les Vagues, une nouvelle façon de faire littérature, ainsi qu’une nouvelle pensée philosophique. À fin de comprendre comment l’essai exerce une influence sur le travail de Woolf, J’ai analysé Les Essais de Michel de Montaigne, comme une méthode, comme l’exegium, dans ses multiples connotations ainsi que comme processus qui donne naissance à l’essai en tant que genre littéraire, dans son acception moderne. À travers « l’essai de soi » Montaigne et Woolf élaborent leurs propres autoportraits avec des mots. Pour une meilleure compréhension de ce processus j’ai établi des échos avec des philosophes contemporains et avec l’analyse des spécialistes. Pour une meilleure compréhension de « l’essai de soi » par rapport au travail de Woolf, je propose la définition des principes qui définissent la méthode de Montaigne. Ces principes ont été développés comme des axes de « l’essai de soi » sa définition et son interaction à chaque moment de son écriture. Dans le sens d’un « jeu d’abymes », j’ai visé le centre d’un entrecroisement d’hommages. Celui que Montaigne rend à Etienne de la Boétie, et la relation littéraire que Woolf établit avec Montaigne. Les deux auteurs développent son écriture comme une sorte d’autobiographie, mais ils vont au-delà de ce genre, par le registre du passage du temps et les transformations qui s’opèrent au moment de l’écriture. Les personnages de Woolf sont construits à partir de la variété de multiplicités que chacun en soi, celle que les autres et le regard des autres lui apportent. Les Vagues est une radiographie de l’esprit humain qui est au même temps approche philosophique, l’écriture suit ce que Montaigne décrit comme une forme elliptique de création. Les deux auteurs se basent sur l’expérience humaine, celle qui est commune à tous, là au chacun se rencontre avec l’autre. À travers ce processus, Woolf traduit la philosophie de Montaigne en style narratif. / This work deals on how the “essai de soi” as literary method creates in Virginia Woolf’s work in particular in The Waves, not only a new form of writing in the literary sense but also a new form of thinking. For being able to understand how the essay is such an important incidence in the cited work of Virginia Woolf, I looked into The Essays by Michel de Montaigne, not only to analyze him as a philosopher with a specific esthetics and ethics but furthermore, as a method, as exegium in its multiple connotations and as a procedure that allowed the essay to be born as a literary form. By using the “essai de soi” Montaigne and Woolf make their self-portraits in words. For the comprehension of the procedure I established an echo with contemporary philosophers and the specialist analysis of self portrait work. For a better comprehension of the “essai de soi” that allows a latter approach to Woolf´s work. I propose the definition of specific principles in Montaigne´s method. They will be developed in separate ways as axes of the “essai de soi” with the characteristic and parallel interactions in each moment of his writing. In a sort of “jeu d’abîmes” I gaze into a cross homage. That of Montaigne to Etienne de La Boétie and the literary relation that Woolf establishes with Montaigne. Both authors use their writing as a form of autobiography but go beyond that by registering the daily transformation of the present. In Woolf´s characters, she uses a multiplicity of biographies of the same person, seen by different people in which she finds a source to build the others in her own mirror. The Waves is a radiography of the human spirit used as a philosophical subject, her writing has what Montaigne describes as an elliptical form of creation. Both authors dwell on the human experience, that is common to us all, that which communicates and identifies itself in the other. By doing so Woolf allows herself to translate Montaigne’s philosophy in a narrative style.