Après plus de cent ans de recherche sur les inscriptions gravées sur os et écailles de tortue datant de la fin de la dynastie Shāng, ce matériel graphique réévalue la paléographie chinoise qui est née au fur et à mesure de l’évolution de l’étude des inscriptions sur bronze entamée par les lettrés Sòng. Cette discipline à part entière qui est désormais inscrite dans l’étude de l’écriture chinoise, est marquée par le caractère interdisciplinaire qu’implique une approche multilatérale au vu de l’emploi de cette écriture en Chine antique du XIIIème au XIème siècle av. J.-C. dans un contexte de divination de la maison royale Shāng. Le présent travail se concentre sur l’identification et la compréhension de cette écriture, dont le déchiffrement constitue la tâche principale. Le déchiffrement graphique est soumis à l’épreuve visant à le définir et, tout particulièrement, à le systématiser dans un contexte philologique et culturel spécifique. La présente thèse se consacre à la tâche de repérer une méthodologie de base du déchiffrement de l’écriture sur os et écailles dans le cadre de l’avancement de son étude tout au long du XXème siècle et jusqu’à nos jours. / The inscriptions on bones and tortoise shells of the late Shāng dynasty have been studied for more than one hundred years. These graphical materials have given a new value to Chinese palaeography which was developed gradually from the studies of bronze inscriptions by Sòng scholars. This independent discipline has now become part of the science of Chinese writing and is marked by its interdisciplinary character and multilateral approach. Such an approach is required in the investigation of a writing system that goes back to the 13th-11th centuries BC period, when it was used for divinatory purposes in China during the rule of the Shāng royal dynasty. This paper focuses on the identification and comprehension of this script with the ultimate objective of deciphering it. Graphical deciphering is tested in order to define and systematize it in a specific philological and cultural background. The main thrust of the paper is the search for a fundamental methodology of the deciphering process of oracle bone inscriptions in the framework of the advancement of this process in the course of the 20th century and until now.

This paper sets out to evaluate the influence of Russia’s increasing levels of hegemonic masculinity upon the erosion of the nuclear taboo in relation to increased threatening rhetoric, military preparedness, targeting of nuclear facilities, and withdrawal from existing arms control legislation which indicates potential first-use employment of nuclear weapons against Ukraine. Utilizing a dual research methodology of comparative process tracing and critical discourse analysis, gender theory is applied to assess various critical junctures and political focal points that contributed to a dual-partite path dependency of increasing hegemonic masculinity, coupled with the feminized securitization of Ukraine, and retaliatory masculinity as performed via state-sponsored employment of conflict-related sexual violence and nuclear posturing against Ukraine. The alternative explanation of “Escalate to De-escalate” is critically investigated; however, the empirical analysis provided by this paper suggests that the lack of gender-sensitive evaluation within this explanation fails to adequately account for the effect of increasing domestic hegemonic masculinity within Russia. Increased perception of an existential threat against Russian masculinity was found to contribute to an increased dependency on nuclear weapons. Ultimately, this paper forwards a novel explanatory causal mechanism, providing one of the first analyses of the nuclear taboo in relation to a gender-sensitive lens.