Is the Swedish author Stig Dagerman an existentialist? This work takes a close look at Dagerman’s novel Island of the Doomed to see if it is possible to consider it an expression of existentialist thinking and to see if it interacts with any specific existentialist tradition. Dagerman’s novel was compared with select works of five existentialist thinkers – Søren Kierkegaard, Martin Heidegger, Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus and Karl Jaspers, all read in the light of the four categories of existentialistic thinking identified by the Swedish scholar Lennart Koskinen. All the four categories appeared to be central themes within the novel and a few subcategories were identified. An analysis based on these subcategories showed that the novel had obvious similarities with all of the five existentialistic thinkers. The main conclusion of my work is thus: it is reasonable to consider Stig Dagerman’s novel Island of the Doomed an expression of existentialist thinking, but it doesn’t match any specific existentialist tradition. Dagerman is therefore to be considered an independent existentialist.

Texte remanié de: Th. doct.--Linguist.--Grenoble 3, 1997. / Contient des textes en français et en persan. Bibliogr. p. 307-318.

Zugl.: Fribourg, Univ., Diss., 2008

Zugl.: Mainz, Univ., Diss., 2008

My thesis seeks to examine the relationship that exists between queer selfidentification and heterosexual hegemonic/heteronormative power in three works of and about the AIDS era. Working from feminist and queer theory perspectives, I first chart the way in which a problematic identity—be that identity a non-identity of utter invisibility, a sick identity, a dangerous identity, or (most commonly) an identity of utter hedonism disconnected from any notions of attachment, affection, or love beyond the physical sexual act—has been and is still wholly adopted by some. I do this principally with a close reading of Renaud Camus' 1981 novel Tricks, as well as with substantial historical grounding. I assert that this is not just a problem in queer literature, but in queer life which queer literature deeply reflects. Through a close reading of Tony Kushner's play Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes, I seek to illustrate the consequences of accepting entirely and without question a constructed and problematic identity for gay men. Historical examination also comes strongly into play through correspondence and personal narratives of men who lived through (and died in) the AIDS era, casualties of war of queer self-definition. Employing a close literary analysis of Larry Duplechan's 1986 novel Blackbird, my thesis seeks to chart a way to a stable, holistic, queer identity negotiated from a position of strength. In a larger sense my thesis explicates constraints upon queer identity intended to limit queer people to a heteronomous, damaged, vulnerable social position. I raise awareness of these constraints in attempt to navigate a way around them with the ultimate destination of this navigation being a perpetually increasing humanization of a historically and institutionally dehumanized population.

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Published in 1780, Nicolas Le Camus de Mezieres' The Genius of Architecture; or, The Analogy of Tkat Art with Our Sensations is firmly ensconced in the traditions of western architectural theories, dating back to Vitruvius' The Ten Books on Architecture . Continuing the traditional relationship to the theatre as well as to the harmonic proportions of the orders although recast in terms of the century in which he wrote, Le Camus uses the paradigm of the theatre as the space of reception for his architecture. / Definitively establishing the conventions and taste of the theatre in eighteenth century France, Denis Diderot's The Paradox of Acting established the role of the poetic genius in relation to his or her audience. The relationship to the audience as enabled by the conventions of good taste allows for an understanding of Le Camus' unique analogy of architecture and the sensations, giving to his architecture the ability to provide a cathartic morality as put forth by Diderot.

This essay is a study of the portrayal of the theme of alienation in Eugene Ionesco's novel The hermit. In my study I examine the different ways in which the theme of alienation is portrayed and how the cause of the narrator's experience of alienation can be found in ideological, psychological and existential conflicts that the narrator has to face. The result is an experience of das unheimliche, a Freudian concept, which is a kind of uncanny detachment that the narrator experiences, when he is put up against an invisible force that lurks in the perifery of the world, which is portrayed in the story. The meaning of the ideological conflict is a portrayal of man's situation in a world that is ruled by capitalism, with marxism as a positive leveler and the meaning of the psychological conflict is a conflict in the narrator's own inner reality. The meaning of the existential conflict is a portrayal of man's situation in a world absent of God. The novel by Ionesco points at these conflicts and also offers a solution to the limitations, that are caused by alienation by transcending them. In my study I focus on the function of language, biblical imagery, allegory and the theories that are being used to define the ideological (marxist theory) and existential (Albert Camus' theory of the absurd) conflicts. In my analysis I have also used Camus' The stranger in comparison with Ionesco's novel.

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Cette dissertation explore le role de l'architecture en tant que langage expressif, a travers la theorie de caractere en France a la fin du dix-huitieme siecle. Depuis l'Antiquite, Vitruve avait etabli le role expressif de l'architecture dans sa definition du terme "decorum". Pour Vitruve, toutefois, l'architecture exprimait un ordre qui transcendait sa materialite, l'ordre de l'univers. / Vers la fin du dix-septieme siecle, des changements culturels importants transformerent la nature meme de l'architecture. Le questionnement des fondations naturelles de l'architecture plongea la discipline dans une crise potentielle de la signification architecturale. Les architectes du dix-huitieme siecle commencerent a explorer le pouvoir expressif de l'architecture en tant que produit d'une imagination personnelle et specifique au contexte culturel, et essayerent de preserver sa signification de facon a ce que l'architecture demeure un langage commun. / L'architecte francais et theoricien Nicolas Le Camus de Mezieres (1721--ca.1793) developpa une theorie de l'architecture suivant laquelle le caractere d'un batiment se devait d'exprimer sa destination ou le statu social du client pour lequel il etait construit. Contrairement aux theories de caractere precedentes en architecture, celle de Le Camus etait basee de facon explicite sur une analogie entre l'architecture et le theatre: le mode d'expression en architecture suivait une progression temporelle typique du deroulement dramatique dans une piece de theatre; l'augmentation graduelle de l'ornementation des portes et des seuils successifs rappelait la succession des decors dans une performance de theatre. Cette etude examine les theories d'expression au theatre qui influencerent de facon explicite les theorie architecturales de Le Camus, telles que la mise en scene et le jeu des acteurs. Une etude plus poussee du role social et politique du theatre dans sa forme construite met en evidence l'innovation architecturale de l'oeuvre batie de Le Camus. / Alors que les etudes precedentes sur Le Camus de Mezieres mettent l'emphase sur son plus important traite architectural, Le genie de l'architecture, ou l'analogie de cet art avec nos sensations, cette dissertation analyse egalement le vaste repertoire des oeuvres ecrites de Le Camus, incluant ses pieces de theatre, son roman, et une description d'un jardin pittoresque. Ces ouvrages revelent l'objectif reel qui sous-tend la theorie architecturale de Le Camus: la volonte d'exprimer la tension erotique d'une architecture des sens.