Throughout his life Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) was aware of his role as an outsider and had a deeply conflicted view of his identity. The challenges he faced as a Jew in an overwhelmingly Christian and increasingly anti-Semitic Central Europe, as a German speaker in predominantly Czech speaking Bohemia and Moravia, as a Czech in the Austrian empire, and as an Austrian in a highly militarized but rapidly declining empire in the face of increasing pan-German nationalism, all contributed to this status. At the same time, his diverse early background provided a rich variety of musical experience, leading to an openness to musical influences that would accompany him throughout his career. Mahler was one of the first German modernists. His approach to the symphony was unique, revolutionary and widely misunderstood. By stretching the boundaries of structure and content with references to childhood, nature and the sounds and images of everyday life, through the deliberate, unsettling juxtaposition of the banal and the sublime, and through the use of voice and text, he used the symphony as a vehicle for personal reflection and exploration. Mahler’s primary forms of composition were Lieder and symphonies, and as his career progressed the two became inexorably intertwined. His music has been described as Weltanschauungsmusik - music that expresses a world outlook. Driven by a desire to engage with the symphonic tradition, his works included the first non-programmatic choral symphonies since Beethoven. This study focuses on particular aspects of Mahler’s compositional style to demonstrate his continuous search for identity: the references to and quotations from his own songs, from the works of other composers, and from sources such as Jewish/Central European folk music; the rhythmic influence of dances and marches as social references and indicators; the use of non-traditional instrumentation, timbre and sound effects to provide emphasis, coloration and contrast; and the symphonic use of vocal music to explore religious and philosophical beliefs.

Cette thèse, qui recense plus de mille contes de fées composés entre 1808 et 1920, s’intéresse au renouveau du merveilleux, un registre vieillissant faisant face au désenchantement. Ce travail montre comment le conte, en juxtaposant la modernité et l’imaginaire, bascule dans le comique (parodie des auteurs du Grand Siècle, désacralisation des héros, sapement des valeurs chevaleresques). En même temps, les figures masculines chutent de leur piédestal en engendrant une modification des représentations du féminin.Dans la première moitié du XIXe siècle, les fées et les princesses sont réduites aux stéréotypes de genre : elles sont seulement belles, riches et bienfaisantes. Puis l’esprit fin-de-siècle impose de nouveaux canons, attribuant aux héroïnes les vices de leurs contemporains. Notre thèse dissèque cette vision misogyne afin de montrer comment la crainte de l’extinction de la « race » est née : les pouvoirs magiques des fées et la considération qu’on leur porte diminuent ; les princesses constatent que l’heureux dénouement promis n’est plus. Désormais, ces femmes au cœur de glace deviennent la source des souffrances masculines.Notre travail engage également une réflexion sur les perversions au XIXe siècle et démontre comment les auteurs de contes décadents se servent de motifs propres au merveilleux (manducation, servage des héroïnes) afin d’esthétiser la souffrance et la transformer en plaisir. Enfin, les réécritures de « La Belle au bois dormant » sont emblématiques de la fin-de-siècle. Cette princesse endormie incarne à la fois l’intouchable virginité et la pire des perversités. Sa passivité illustre les violences physiques et psychiques que la société lui impose et justifie ; son éveil revendique les droits des citoyennes et annonce le féminisme. / This thesis, taking an inventory of more than one thousand fairies tales written between 1808 and 1920, examines the marvellous’ renewal, an outmoded register facing disenchantment. This study shows how the fairy tale, placing modernity next to imagination, turns to comic (parody of the authors of the XVIIe century, deconsecration of heroes, destruction of chivalrous values). At the same time, male characters fall from their pedestal, making an alteration of the female’s representations.In the first half of the XIXe century, fairies and princesses are reduced to gender stereotypes : they are only beautiful, wealthy and benevolent. But the fin-de-siècle’s mind imposes new models, assigning to heroines the contemporaries’ vices. Our thesis reviews this misogynous representation to show how the fear the “race’s extinction” was born : the fairies’ magic power and the esteem for them decrease; the princesses notice that the promised happy end is not anymore. Henceforth, these ice-hearted women become the origin of male sufferings.Our work develops a thought about perversions in the XIXe century and shows how the decadent authors of tales use marvellous subjects (erotic devouring, serfdom of the heroines), in order to anesthetize suffering and transform it into pleasure. Finally, rewritings of “Sleeping Beauty” are emblematic to the fin-de-siècle. This sleeping princess personifies the untouchable virginity and the worst of the perversities both. Her passivity illustrates the physical and mental violence that society imposes her and justifies; her awakening claims female citizens’ rights and announces feminism.

Este trabalho se propõe a analisar a novela Leutnant Gustl (1900), de Arthur Schnitzler. A obra, o primeiro monólogo interior em língua alemã, foi escrita no fin-de-siècle em Viena, período conhecido por sua alta produtividade intelectual e artística. Como consequência de uma política mesclada entre a monarquia e burguesia, a regência da cidade era caracterizada por um hibridismo de valores, a priori, paradoxos. Esse composto heterogêneo se reflete na sociedade e na classe artística, resultando em uma produção na qual elementos modernos e pré-modernos díspares convivem. Nesse sentido, sempre considerando o objeto como ponto de partida da análise, será observado em que medida a novela representa a pré-modernidade, com traços como a defesa da honra e a prática do duelo, e outros tipicamente modernos, como a ascensão do lazer, o consumo massificado e a valorização do individualismo. É nesse cenário que examinaremos o tenente Gustl, personagem-narrador, por muitos teóricos considerado um tipo representante do indivíduo da sociedade vienense daquela época. Tomando sua personalidade e sua trajetória como eixo norteador desse estudo, tentaremos mostrar em que medida ele se configura como um indivíduo moderno, apesar de sustentar, externamente, uma fachada de valores prémodernos, os quais, por meio do monólogo interior, o leitor sabe não se tratar nada além de uma imagem. Assim, tomando Gustl como um representante de seu tempo, contraditório e zeloso das falsas aparências, será investigada a sua inserção como indivíduo no seu tempo. / This dissertation aims to analyze the novel Leutnant Gustl (1900), by Arthur Schnitzler. The novel, the first to employ the \"stream-of-consciousness\" technique in German, was written in fin-de-siècle Vienna, a period known for its high intellectual and artistic productivity. Owing to a merged policy between the monarchy and the bourgeoisie, the citys government was characterized by a hybridization of values, paradoxical a priori. This heterogeneous compound is reflected in society and the artistic community, resulting in a production in which modern and pre-modern different elements coexist. Thereby, always considering the object as a starting point of analysis, there will be seen to what extent the novel represents the premodern with traits like the defense of honor and the practice of dueling , and other typically modern, as the rise of leisure, the massive consumption and the awareness of individualism. It is in this background that we examine the lieutenant Gustl, character and narrator, by many experts considered a representative of the individual type of Viennese society at the time. Taking his personality and his career as a core line, this study attempts to show the extent to which he is configured as a modern individual, in spite of sustaining, externally, an artificial appearance of pre-modern values, which, through interior monologue, the reader knows it is nothing but a façade. Hence, taking Gustl as a representative of his time, contradictory and earnest of false appearances, it will be investigated his inclusion as an individual in his time.

Notre travail questionne l'assise temporelle de Cyrano de Bergerac d'Edmond Rostand. En effet, depuis 1897 et encore aujourd'hui, l'œuvre a la réputation d'être le dernier drame romantique français, au mépris des plus grandes évidences chronologiques. Notre approche allie littérature, histoire et sociologie. Notre travail s'applique dans un premier temps à éclairer cette impression d'anachronisme en explorant les pistes du romantisme, du cape et d'épée et des liens entretenus avec la comédie héroïque ainsi que la commedia dell'arte. Nous cherchons ensuite à montrer l'ancrage de la pièce dans son temps, en exhibant notamment ses rapports avec l'idéalisme fin de siècle et la modernité de sa proposition dramatique, qui tient du théâtre total, recourant par exemple fortement aux arts dits « mineurs ». Nous accordons toute leur place aux composantes du nez et du panache qui font l'originalité de l'œuvre rostandienne. Enfin, nous tâchons de saisir la constitution de Cyrano comme mythe littéraire et culturel en étudiant sa réception par la presse, la critique théâtrale, les artistes et la population, tout en soulignant le tournant qu'a représenté la Première Guerre mondiale. Nous interrogeons les tentatives de récupérations politiques en abordant l'aspect national de l'œuvre. Par là même, nous insistons, d'un point de vue littéraire, sur les spécificités du drame qui allie efficacement gauloiserie et préciosité. Nous soulignons finalement le passage du littéraire au moral, de l'esthétique à l'idéologique, pour montrer que Cyrano de Bergerac, loin de n'être qu'une simple pièce de théâtre, est devenue un véritable objet social. / This PhD dissertation queries the context in which Edmond Rostand wrote Cyrano de Bergerac. Since 1897, this play has been considered as the last French romantic drama, despite obvious chronological facts. Combining literature, history and sociology, this PhD dissertation throws light on this impression of anachronism by considering the entries of romanticism, cloak-and-dagger, heroic comedy and commedia dell'arte. Then, it shows that the work is deeply rooted in its time : first, because of its links with the "fin de siècle" idealism ; then, because it is an attempt of "total theatre" and because it includes arts that are often seen as "minor". Of course, we attach great importance to Cyrano's nose and panache which are key components of the play. Finally, studying how the newspapers, the dramatic critics, the artists and people apprehend the play and its heroe, this PhD dissertation considers Cyrano de Bergerac as a literary and cultural myth. Highlighting World War One as a turning point, we show that the play was used in a political way. Cyrano de Bergerac is supposed to be a national play but truly in a literary manner because of the alliance of "gauloiserie" and preciosity. Therefore, this dissertation shows how Rostand's work moves from a matter of literature to a matter of ethics, from an aesthetic aspect to an ideological one. Indeed, Cyrano de Bergerac is not just a play but a real social object.

Este trabalho se propõe a analisar a novela Leutnant Gustl (1900), de Arthur Schnitzler. A obra, o primeiro monólogo interior em língua alemã, foi escrita no fin-de-siècle em Viena, período conhecido por sua alta produtividade intelectual e artística. Como consequência de uma política mesclada entre a monarquia e burguesia, a regência da cidade era caracterizada por um hibridismo de valores, a priori, paradoxos. Esse composto heterogêneo se reflete na sociedade e na classe artística, resultando em uma produção na qual elementos modernos e pré-modernos díspares convivem. Nesse sentido, sempre considerando o objeto como ponto de partida da análise, será observado em que medida a novela representa a pré-modernidade, com traços como a defesa da honra e a prática do duelo, e outros tipicamente modernos, como a ascensão do lazer, o consumo massificado e a valorização do individualismo. É nesse cenário que examinaremos o tenente Gustl, personagem-narrador, por muitos teóricos considerado um tipo representante do indivíduo da sociedade vienense daquela época. Tomando sua personalidade e sua trajetória como eixo norteador desse estudo, tentaremos mostrar em que medida ele se configura como um indivíduo moderno, apesar de sustentar, externamente, uma fachada de valores prémodernos, os quais, por meio do monólogo interior, o leitor sabe não se tratar nada além de uma imagem. Assim, tomando Gustl como um representante de seu tempo, contraditório e zeloso das falsas aparências, será investigada a sua inserção como indivíduo no seu tempo. / This dissertation aims to analyze the novel Leutnant Gustl (1900), by Arthur Schnitzler. The novel, the first to employ the \"stream-of-consciousness\" technique in German, was written in fin-de-siècle Vienna, a period known for its high intellectual and artistic productivity. Owing to a merged policy between the monarchy and the bourgeoisie, the citys government was characterized by a hybridization of values, paradoxical a priori. This heterogeneous compound is reflected in society and the artistic community, resulting in a production in which modern and pre-modern different elements coexist. Thereby, always considering the object as a starting point of analysis, there will be seen to what extent the novel represents the premodern with traits like the defense of honor and the practice of dueling , and other typically modern, as the rise of leisure, the massive consumption and the awareness of individualism. It is in this background that we examine the lieutenant Gustl, character and narrator, by many experts considered a representative of the individual type of Viennese society at the time. Taking his personality and his career as a core line, this study attempts to show the extent to which he is configured as a modern individual, in spite of sustaining, externally, an artificial appearance of pre-modern values, which, through interior monologue, the reader knows it is nothing but a façade. Hence, taking Gustl as a representative of his time, contradictory and earnest of false appearances, it will be investigated his inclusion as an individual in his time.

La crise traversée par l’Église à la fin du XIXe siècle se répand dans l’univers littéraire. Le rapport entre confession et esthétique s’instaure de manière distincte des romanciers catholiques de la première moitié du siècle : la transmission exemplaire de la foi à travers le discours religieux se confond avec la représentation de cette transmission elle-même par la littérature hagiographique. Ce renouvellement esthético-littéraire relativise et la fiction et l’hagiographie. Ainsi, chez Flaubert, Bloy et Huysmans, une sainteté se réclamant primitive et terrifiante bouleverse l’expression de l’art catholique accusé de mièvrerie. Des récits d’inspiration, d’intention ou de subversion hagiographique contestent également les représentations littéraires naturalistes et décadentistes. La réécriture de la sainteté côtoie le roman en transformation, de même que le personnage de fiction se rapproche souvent des saints. Le personnage-saint et le saint-personnage se situent donc dans une terrain indéfini entre récit romanesque et récit hagiographique. La confession personnelle d’écrivains comme Bloy et Huysmans invite à mieux examiner la subversion discursive, caractéristique du discours littéraire : la confession peut-elle être subversive malgré elle? Inversement, un récit structuré sur les modèles hagiographiques médiévaux de la Légende de saint Julien l’hospitalier révèlent qu’un certain respect de la forme n’implique pas en une profession de foi. / The crisis the Catholic Church went through during the 19th century spread into the literary universe. The relation between faith and aesthetics establishes itself in a different way from the catholic novelists of the first half of the century: the exemplary transmission of faith through religious discourse mingles with the representation of this transmission itself through hagiographic literature. This literary and aesthetic renewal puts both fiction and hagiography into perspective. For instance, in the works of Flaubert, Bloy and Huysmans, a sanctity claiming itself to be both primitive and terrifying disrupts a catholic art accused of sentimentalism. Moreover, narratives of hagiographical inspiration, intention or subversion question literary representations of naturalism and decadentism. Rewriting sanctity is accomplished as a parallel to the transformations which affect the novel, whereas fictional characters are more closely represented in the manner of saints. The character as a saint and the saint as a character lay somewhere within an indefinite land between the narrative of the novel and the hagiographic narrative. The faith of writers such as Bloy and Huysmans calls for reflections on the discursive subversion, characteristic of the literary discourse: can faith be subversive in spite of its intentions? Inversely, a novel structured on the medievel hagiographic models of the Legend of saint Julien the Hospitaller reveals that a certain respect of the form does not necessarily imply professing one’s faith.

La question alimentaire, chez Joris-Karl Huysmans, est une préoccupation centrale. Son œuvre témoigne d’un réel intérêt pour la nourriture et le motif de la quête du repas structure plusieurs de ses écrits. Bien au-delà de la simple question diététique, j’émets l’hypothèse que l’alimentation constitue chez Huysmans un véritable topos qui parcourt l’œuvre et la structure. Depuis la névrose de l’indigeste jusqu’à l’élévation spirituelle des nourritures célestes, elle progresse dans un cheminement toujours plus mystique alors que le mangeur tente d’accéder à la béatitude alimentaire. Afin de mieux cerner cette évolution thématique et discursive, j’examine principalement un corpus restreint comprenant À Vau-l’eau (1882), En Ménage (1881), À Rebours (1884) et Là-bas (1891). Ces quatre œuvres, prises isolément, présentent un contenu particulièrement riche en préoccupations alimentaires; côte à côte, elles dévoilent une réelle évolution textuelle et thématique, développent et amplifient la question alimentaire qui passe de la quête vitale de subsistance à celle d’une nourriture plus spirituelle. / Food is a fundamental concern in Joris-Karl Huysmans’ work. His novels reveal a genuine interest for the edible, and a number of his protagonists embark on a quest for an acceptable meal. But beyond simple dietary preoccupations, I propose that food in Huysmans’ œuvre constitutes a veritable topos that structures and determines the narrative. From the indigestion caused by toxic meals to the spiritual elevation permitted by heavenly foods, eaters engage in an increasingly mystical journey as they attempt to find alimentary bliss. To better understand this thematic and discursive evolution, I analyze a small selection of works comprising À Vau-l’eau (1882), En Ménage (1881), À Rebours (1884) and Là-bas (1891). These four texts, studied separately, present a fecund mise en scène of dietary issues; examined diachronically, they reveal a veritable textual and thematic progression, developing and amplifying the question of food that from a vital quest for subsistence evolves into a search for deeper spiritual fulfillment.

The following text deals with the problem of the representation of female characters in Arthur Schnitzlerʼs work. The initial point of the interpretation is the basic division of the literary types of the turn of the century into femme fatale, femme fragile and femme enfant. Based on the analysis of seven selected works (Märchen, Liebelei, Reigen, Frau Berta Garlan, Fräulein Else, Traumnovelle, Therese. Chronik eines Frauenlebens) it discusses their position in the narrative structure. In the end, it comments the question of the typification of these figures and Schnitzlerʼs tendency to relate them to concrete groups.

Die Oper „Ariane et Barbe-Bleue“ (Uraufführung 7. Mai 1907 in der Opéra-Comique Paris) von Maurice Maeterlinck und Paul Dukas weist mit der Protagonistin Ariane eine ungewöhnlich starke und selbstbewusste Frauenfigur auf, die entgegen allen Erwartungen und Konventionen gegen Verbote handelt, um die fünf gefangenen Ehefrauen Blaubarts zu befreien. Im Gegensatz zu anderen Frauenfiguren auf der Opernbühne des Fin de Siècle, wie beispielsweise Mélisande oder Salomé, wird sie nicht mit dem Tode bestraft, sondern geht nach ihrer Mission unversehrt von dannen. Maurice Maeterlinck gelang mit diesem Libretto und vor allem der Frauenfigur Ariane die Wende vom symbolistischen zum realistischen Theater. Paul Dukas sicherte sich die Vertonungsrechte für seine erste und einzige Oper, drängte Maeterlinck aber zu umfangreichen Änderungen am Libretto, die hier nachgezeichnet werden. Diese Arbeit untersucht den Entstehungsprozess des Librettos von den ersten Skizzen Maeterlincks 1898/1899 bis zur Endfassung des Textes der Orchesterpartitur (1907) und zeichnet den Einfluss Dukas’ auf die Konzeption des Librettos nach. Gleichzeitig werden die vorgenommenen Änderungen in Beziehung gesetzt zu Maeterlincks Dramenschaffen der Jahre 1890 bis 1902, die sowohl eine Entwicklung der Frauenfiguren als auch der Dramenkonzeption im allgemeinen aufweisen. Georgette Leblanc, Schauspielerin und Sängerin als auch Lebensgefährtin des Schriftstellers Maeterlinck, hatte einen nicht unerheblichen Einfluss auf die Entwicklung von Maeterlincks Frauenbild, dessen Entwicklung exemplarisch an den Dramen „Princesse Maleine“, „Aglavaine et Sélysette“ und „Monna Vanna“ nachgezeichnet wird. Die philosophischen Werke Maeterlincks („Le Trésor des Humbles“, „La Sagesse et la destinée“ und „Le Double Jardin“) bilden die theoretischen Grundlagen für Maeterlincks Werke und erlauben eine konkrete Verortung der Figur der Ariane innerhalb der Entwicklung des Frauenbildes Maeterlincks. / The opera “Ariane et Barbe-Bleue“ (première May 7, 1907 at Opéra-Comique in Paris) by Maurice Maeterlinck and Paul Dukas features the protagonist Ariane, a very unusual strong and self-conscious figure of a woman that acts against all kinds of expectations and limitations to free the five captured wives of Bluebeard. Unlike other figures of women of fin de siècle opera like Mélisande (‘femme fatal’) or Salomé (‘femme fragile’) Ariane is not punished for disobedience, after she accomplished her mission she walks away. With the libretto of “Ariane et Barbe-Bleue” Maeterlinck managed to change his dramatic technique from symbolistic to realistic theatre. Paul Dukas acquired the rights to set the libretto to music for his one and only opera and urged Maeterlinck to change important parts of the piece. This dissertation in on the one hand side uncovering Dukas’ participation on Maeterlinck’s libretto that can be traced in the three different stages of the libretto from the first version (preserved only in German) in 1899 through the published ‘Theatre’ version (1901) to the printed text in the score of 1907. This changes will be put in relation to the development of Maeterlinck’s dramatic changes of the years 1890 to 1902, which include also the development of the figure of women in his dramas in general. Georgette Leblanc, singer, actress and 23 years companion of Maeterlinck had a great impact of Maeterlinck’s picture of women and its’ development that are examined in the theatre plays “Princesse Maleine”, “Aglavaine et Sélysette” and “Monna Vanna”. The theoretical basis of his theatre works can be found in Maeterlinck’s philosophical works (“Le Trésor des humbles”, “La Sagesse et la destine” and “La Doube Jardin”) that also places the figure of Ariane in the context of the development of his image of women.

La question alimentaire, chez Joris-Karl Huysmans, est une préoccupation centrale. Son œuvre témoigne d’un réel intérêt pour la nourriture et le motif de la quête du repas structure plusieurs de ses écrits. Bien au-delà de la simple question diététique, j’émets l’hypothèse que l’alimentation constitue chez Huysmans un véritable topos qui parcourt l’œuvre et la structure. Depuis la névrose de l’indigeste jusqu’à l’élévation spirituelle des nourritures célestes, elle progresse dans un cheminement toujours plus mystique alors que le mangeur tente d’accéder à la béatitude alimentaire. Afin de mieux cerner cette évolution thématique et discursive, j’examine principalement un corpus restreint comprenant À Vau-l’eau (1882), En Ménage (1881), À Rebours (1884) et Là-bas (1891). Ces quatre œuvres, prises isolément, présentent un contenu particulièrement riche en préoccupations alimentaires; côte à côte, elles dévoilent une réelle évolution textuelle et thématique, développent et amplifient la question alimentaire qui passe de la quête vitale de subsistance à celle d’une nourriture plus spirituelle. / Food is a fundamental concern in Joris-Karl Huysmans’ work. His novels reveal a genuine interest for the edible, and a number of his protagonists embark on a quest for an acceptable meal. But beyond simple dietary preoccupations, I propose that food in Huysmans’ œuvre constitutes a veritable topos that structures and determines the narrative. From the indigestion caused by toxic meals to the spiritual elevation permitted by heavenly foods, eaters engage in an increasingly mystical journey as they attempt to find alimentary bliss. To better understand this thematic and discursive evolution, I analyze a small selection of works comprising À Vau-l’eau (1882), En Ménage (1881), À Rebours (1884) and Là-bas (1891). These four texts, studied separately, present a fecund mise en scène of dietary issues; examined diachronically, they reveal a veritable textual and thematic progression, developing and amplifying the question of food that from a vital quest for subsistence evolves into a search for deeper spiritual fulfillment.