Th. doct.--Droit. / Bibliogr. p. 271-278.

<p> Pratt&rsquo;s contact zone theory draws researchers&rsquo; attention to the initiative and creativity of local cultures in colonized areas. Such features make Pratt&rsquo;s theory productive in dealing with cultural issues in modern China. Heretofore, people in the process of cultural contact, for instance, Westernized Chinese in concessions, have not been discussed in detail. The concession is a contact zone. The history of the concession in modern China started in the 1840s and ended in the 1940s. The concession is a particular social space for Chinese and Western cultures to meet; in which Western colonizers and Chinese local citizens have direct cultural contact. As products of the contact zone, many Westernized Chinese in concessions actually have dual cultural status. They are both a part of the local culture and a part of the foreign culture. Their unique cultural status is worthy of further analysis. &ldquo;Fake foreign devil&rdquo; is a title local Chinese used to describe their Westernized fellows in concessions, suggesting a contradictory attitude the local Chinese held towards these foreignized fellows in the contact zone. The Chinese local community admitted the cultural heterogeneity of those Westernized Chinese, which is the reason those people had been called &ldquo;foreign.&rdquo; Meanwhile, their Chinese cultural identity had never been denied, hence the necessity of the &ldquo;fake&rdquo; prefix. &ldquo;Devil&rdquo; implies the unpleasant relations between these two groups of people. This thesis will use the concept of fake foreign devils as examples to analyze the reaction of local cultural communities when faced with cultural products associated with a bicultural identity from the contact zone. Textual analysis will be the main method utilized. An important result of the cultural contact between Western and Chinese cultures, the Westernized Chinese in concessions and their relative cultural experience will provide a valuable research case for post-colonial theory regarding the intercultural communication that occurred in modern China. </p><p>

<p> This thesis deals with the strategies in the works of E. T. A. Hoffmann and Pu Songling that are used to arrange the fantasy elements. It examines the basic settings of the environments and social backgrounds as presented in several works by Hoffmann and by Pu Songling. It also investigates and compares the various modes of presentation considering the adventures of the protagonists in these selected works by a German and by a Chinese author. It demonstrates that, although both authors tend to use fantasy elements as an important part in their narration each, they organize them differently. Hoffmann first puts his characters into a daily life background and then constantly brings fantasy events to them in order to arouse the feeling of amazement and to romanticize the world. Pu Songling uses elements of fantasy power to create a paradise that is like an idealized version of the human world. By juxtaposing the two authors, this thesis argues that both Hoffmann and Pu Songling play significant but also quite different roles in the transition process from traditional tales with fantasy elements to modern fantasy fictions in their own traditions. Hoffmann inherits but also makes some unique and remarkable innovations to the literary heritage of German Romanticism; Pu Songling modifies the usual pattern of <i>zhiguai</i> and <i> chuanqi</i> to achieve better art effect. Hoffmann&rsquo;s unique style of intertwining reality with fantasy has influenced many modern writers, including Herman Hesse. Pu Songling&rsquo;s creation of a secular paradise and the promotion of qing (a Chinese notion that represents emotion and love) may also be seen as the precursor for later works such as Dream of the Red Chamber.</p><p>

The starting premise of this dissertation is that the formal techniques of comedy make the comic novel a distinct form within the category of the novel, not just in terms of content, the way one novelistic genre is distinct from another, but also in terms of form, similar to the way poetry is distinct from prose. The argument is that the formal structures of comedy, such as set-ups, punchlines, and comic rhythm, combine to constitute a formally rigorous, almost rule-bound art form. These techniques are explored through close readings of various 20th century comic novels, in particular Voyage au bout de la nuit by Louis-Ferdinand Céline, Le Sabotage amoureux by Amélie Nothomb, Moskva-Pethushki by Venedikt Erofeev and Catch-22 Joseph Heller. The further extension of this argument is that these formal structures create certain fundamental characteristics the comic novel, which in turn instantiate spiritual and emotional functions of the comedy on a structural level. The most important of these functions are that comedy serves creates a sudden, epiphanic awareness of reality, a sense of self-transcendence, and an instant bond between people. Finally, the dissertation considers the limitations of these functions. For example, comedy creates awareness of that which was previously latently grasped, but rarely substantively new knowledge. The sense of self-transcendence it is real but momentary, fleeting. And the connection it fosters between people is instant but limited by its own basic impersonality.

This study comprises a series of comparative readings of authors key to the high-cultural renaissances in the Romantic literature of nineteenth-century America and twentieth-century Quebec. The Introduction lays out the historical and theoretical foundation for such a cross-cultural, cross-temporal reading, by arguing that, on the basis of both intellectual/historical "influence" and a strong affinity of means and ends, the American Romantic canon should reasonably be extended to include Quebec writers from the 1960s. The comparative readings at issue thus approach the writers under scrutiny from the converging perspectives of literary history (as artists sharing in an intellectual tradition) and literary theory (as moderns or contemporaries similarly participating in a bid for "authority"). In the first instance, from the perspective of literary history, the assimilation of the highly representative thought and rhetorical practice of sixteenth-century French skeptic Michel de Montaigne into the mainstream of American Romanticism by such equally representative authors as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Herman Melville serves to suggest an explanation for the proximity of their ideas and aims with those of their twentieth-century Quebec counterparts. In the second, a survey of criticism on works from both periods complements that account by showing how such a complex body of criticism-it too enabled by a body of theory with verifiable affinities with the thought of Montaigne-tends to (re)duplicate the rhetorical practice of American and Quebec writers under scrutiny by finding in writers or critics from the opposite canon a call to autonomy, and thereby effectively assimilating them to their own enterprise. Chapter One attempts to track the presence of Montaigne's philosophic skepticism at the center of the revolutionary poetics, prophecy, and politics of Thomas Carlyle, whose work is construed as basic to an understanding of the relationships between philosophical and political revolutions in the (post)Romantic era. Building on the first chapter, the second approaches Emerson, not in the tradition of prophecy and ethical direction with which he is conventionally associated, but from the standpoint of the (Post)Romantic and Existentialist enterprise of (re)visionary mythmaking in which he played such a significant role. Chapter Three concludes the thesis by bringing together the various dimensions of the problem engaged in Chapters One and Two, by a reading of Melville in relation to his devoted Quebec reader and student Beaulieu. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

Abstract Not Available.

Abstract Not Available.

Abstract Not Available.

No description available.

Ingeborg Bachmann's prose did not begin to be critically examined and appreciated by German scholars until a few years after her death in 1973. By the late 1980s, her work was being translated into English. Her position in the canon of German literature as a representative postwar writer and a precursor to the feminist movement calls for serious consideration of the English translations of her work, since they will represent her writing and be widely used by English-speaking Germanistik students and scholars. The focus of the present analysis is the title story from Bachmann's last collection of stories published in 1972. "Simultan" is a stream of consciousness narrative with a simultaneous interpreter as protagonist. The complexity of the narrative structure, including the integration of multilingual elements, poses many problems for translation. This thesis locates Bachmann in her historical context and considers the influence linguistic philosophers Ludwig Wittgenstein and Walter Benjamin had on her writing. Identifying these influences sets the groundwork for translation analysis. Since Bachmann's narrative technique reveals a complex web of shifts in narration and focalization, I propose a schema based on narratological and translation theory to unravel the narrative structure of "Simultan." Using this theoretical framework, I then analyze Mary Fran Gilbert's translation "Word for Word." Given the important role multilingualism plays in the story, I also consider intertextual issues and the challenge multilingualism poses for translation. The analysis reveals certain deforming tendencies that produce a different focus in the translation than in the original. A successful translation solution for the problem of multilingualism is proposed.