Cette thèse est consacrée à l’exploration des enjeux philosophiques, religieux et littéraires d’un motif qui apparaît dans trois œuvres majeures de la latinité : celui de la révélation finale. Le dernier livre du De republica de Cicéron avec le « Songe de Scipion », le dernier livre des Métamorphoses d’Ovide avec le discours de Pythagore, et le dernier livre XI des Métamorphoses d’Apulée avec le dévoilement d’Isis, présentent en effet tous trois la particularité de mettre en scène une expérience de révélation. Il s’agit alors non seulement d’étudier la façon dont Cicéron, Ovide et Apulée élaborent une écriture de la révélation à partir de matériaux philosophiques et religieux qu’on aura préalablement replacés dans leur contexte historique ainsi que dans l’économie générale des œuvres et des interrogations respectives de ces trois auteurs, mais aussi de déterminer les effets produits par la place de ces révélations en ce lieu traditionnel de polarisation du sens qu’est la fin d’une œuvre : quel dialogue ces trois révélations entretiennent-elles avec la structure qui les précède ? dans quelle mesure ces révélations finales dans les textes sont-elles aussi des révélations finales des textes eux-mêmes, auxquels elles apportent une élucidation rétrospective ? et quelle Weltanschauung, quelle conception de la quête de la vérité cette dynamique traduit-elle dans chacun des cas ? Cette enquête sera précédée d’un chapitre préliminaire où l’on établira les outils conceptuels nécessaires à l’étude de ce motif et où l’on analysera les antécédents grecs de celui-ci, à savoir le deus ex machina dans la tragédie et le mythe eschatologique final chez Platon. / This doctoral thesis is devoted to the investigation of the philosophical, religious, and formal aspects of a motif which appears in three major works of Latin literature : that of final revelation. The last book of Cicero’s De republica with its “Dream of Scipio”, the last book of Ovid’s Metamorphoses with its discourse of Pythagoras, and the last book of Apuleius’ Metamorphoses with its unveiling of Isis, all share, indeed, the specificity of representing a revelatory experience. The aim of this research is then : on the one hand, to study the way Cicero, Ovid and Apuleius dream up a pattern of revelation on the basis of philosophical and religious material that we shall first replace in each case in its historical context and in the frame of the respective literary output and pervasive themes of thinking of our three writers ; on the other hand, to determine the effects given off by the setting of these revelations at the place that traditionally focuses meaning, the ending of the work : what kind of dialogue is set up between these three revelations and the preceding structure ? to what extent do those final revelations in the texts function at the same time as final revelations of the texts themselves, on which they cast retrospective lighting ? and what worldview, what conception of the search for truth does this dynamics convey in the three cases ? This investigation will be preceded by a preliminary chapter where we shall establish the conceptual tools required for the study of this motif and analyze its Greek antecedents, i.e. the deus ex machina in tragedy and the final eschatological myth in Plato.

The present study focuses on a theatrical principle known as a Latin calque Deus ex machina meaning "God from the Machine". Although this plot device used to resolve a seemingly unsolvable problem is already mentioned in the Aristotle's Poetics, its application and understanding keeps developing. Moreover, the status of Deus ex machina among other theatrical constraints changes as well. The aim of this M.A thesis is to describe the evolution of this particular theatrical device in terms of aesthetics and dramaturgy of the 17th Century French Tragedy. The first part of the study is dedicated to a theoretical analysis of Deus ex machina. Therefore, we introduce the opinions of three French classicist theorists, namely Jean Chapelain, abbé d'Aubignac and Hippolyte-Jules Pilet de La Mesnardière. In each of these theoretical works the theatrical device is analysed in the context of individual dramaturgical doctrines as well as in a close correlation with other theatrical rules. In the second part of the work we study the practical integration of Deus ex machina in six selected tragedies dealing with the legends on Iphigenia and Medea. In the entire work Deus ex machina is described mainly in the context of other "irrational" elements of the plot as they represent an inevitable part of a tragic action. Powered by...

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Due to the recent growth in popularity of hard magic in fantasy literature, the aim of the present study is to analyze how Brandon Sanderson utilizes his Laws of Magic to construct conflict that can be resolved using hard magic systems in Mistborn: The Final Empire. The pursuit of the study is to fill a gap in the field, as prior research on Sanderson’s writing and the function of hard magic is limited. In addition to the Laws of Magic, the study applies narratological theories about plot and conflict to determine whether Sanderson successfully avoids deus ex machina through clear definitions of magical limitations and foreshadowing of exceptions. The study concludes that Sanderson effectively ties the reader’s process of understanding the magic to the relationship of the two protagonists, where the more experienced magic user acts as a mentor for the less experienced one. By only conveying to the reader what characters know, Sanderson leaves room for twists where it is revealed that the characters were operating with an incomplete understanding of their own magic, allowing for unforeseeable, yet foreshadowed, new uses of their magic at the story’s climax. The discoveries of the study provide useful insight into how Sanderson works with his own Laws of Magic, which can be applied by writers that wish to use magic as a similar tool to construct and solve conflict in their own stories.