The purpose of this dissertation is to provide a new means of examining the way in which the domestic space influences the protagonists of the three following novels written by McOndo authors: Mala onda by Alberto Fuguet, Vidas ejemplares by Sergio Gómez and Fue ayer y no me acuerdo by Jaime Bayly. Until now little research has been conducted on the works of the McOndo generation with reference to the protagonists' typically dysfunctional familiar situations. Delving deeper into their sparsely related and virtually untold childhoods, this dissertation seeks to find the core of the protagonists' problems and explains how their childhood experiences have led to their near total destruction as adolescents and young adults. The narrative analysis is supported with the theoretical framework of Judith Butler, Sigmund Freud and Melanie Klein, whose scholarly contributions link gender, psychoanalysis and early childhood development to the protagonists' search for individual identity. The protagonists represented within the pages of these narratives live in what the McOndo authors refer to as the true reality of Latin America during the last three decades of the twentieth century. This globalized and virtual reality is anything but the exotic or magical space represented by Gabriel García Márquez‘s fictional city Macondo in Cien años de soledad. Instead, the backdrops of these narratives are crime-ridden (sub)urban spaces which are seemingly the spaces from which the protagonists long to flee. These adolescents and young adults who are troubled by familiar expectations, rejection and abandonment have another agenda in mind, however, and that is to escape from that which has caused the gravest threat to their wellbeing: their family. In an attempt to recuperate the missing link to happiness, the protagonists are faced with a challenge: whether or not they pardon their family. My study of psychoanalysis and gender formation leads to the conclusion that the unhealthy relationships between the protagonists and their parents result from the emotional loss of the parent(s) during early childhood. The physical loss of the parent(s) during adolescence or early adulthood is what leads the protagonist to flee, but is also what ironically leads them to forgiveness.

L’hypothèse d’une théorie musicale du sujet postule que l’on peut éclairer certaines problématiques de l’existence humaine à la lumière de la fugue musicale, et inversement. A partir du sens technique et musical du «sujet» de fugue, nous opérons dans la première partie une relecture (étymologique, sémantique et historique) de la fugue et du fait musical en lien avec l’émergence de la conscience européenne moderne, au tournant du 16ème siècle. En retour, les enjeux culturels, psychologiques et sociaux de la fugue s’éclairent grâce à l’injonction éthique de faire de sa vie une œuvre d’art - une fugue, dans la vie comme dans l’art. Cette hypothèse, énoncée au terme de la première partie, est explorée dans la troisième partie. La deuxième partie est consacrée à une esthétique comparée des arts de la fugue visant à faire apparaître la transversalité des enjeux et des principes de cette forme particulière. La prégnance de ces manifestations artistiques renforce l’hypothèse selon laquelle la subjectivité de fugue peut fonctionner comme un modèle de compréhension du sujet humain. La troisième partie s’ouvre sur une analyse de la psychopathologie de fugue. Ainsi la description de l’Homo Fugiens, figure anthropologique de l’homme en fugue, s’adosse in fine à une axiologie du sujet : le sujet humain, aux sens psychologique, social et éthique, évolue entre le sens positif (esthétique) de la fugue (œuvre d’un sujet absolu, créateur, en quête de lui-même) et le sens passif (voire pathologique) de la fuite (appauvrissement du sujet, qui peut aller jusqu’à la perte). / The hypothesis of a musical theory of the subject postulates that the musical fugue partly explains human existence, and conversely. Considering the technical and musical significations of the fugue «subject», in the first part we reassess the musical fugue (through etymology, semantics and history) in its relation to the emergence of modern consciousness in Europe, at the turn of the sixteenth century. On the other hand, what is at stake with the cultural, psychological and social aspects of the fugue can be explained through the ethical injunction of making your life a work of art - a fugue, in life, as in art. This hypothesis emerges at the end of the first part and is directly addressed in the third part. The second part is dedicated to a comparative aesthetics of the arts of the fugue aimed at underlining the transversality of the principles specific to this artform. The omnipresent manifestations of the fugue in art reinforce the idea that the subjectivity of / in the fugue can operate as a model of understanding of the human subject. The third part develops from an analysis of the psychopathology of fugue. Accordingly, we show that the description of the Homo Fugiens (the anthropological figure of « man in (the) fugue ») rests on an axiology of the subject : the human subject, psychological, social and ethical, evolves between the positive (aesthetic) meaning of the fugue (the human subject, absolute, in quest of himself, creating his life) and the passive meaning of fugue-as-flight (ranking from the impoverishment to the loss of the subject, which is the pathology of the fugue).

Obesity prevalence continues to increase worldwide, yet few safe and effective treatment options are available suggesting there needs to be a greater emphasis on preventing rather than treating obesity. This research investigated the association of obesity predisposing SNPs and a gene score with nutrient consumption patterns including total energy intake and macronutrient distribution in a European ancestry population as well as discussing an evolutionary perspective on eating disorders using current epidemiological evidence to identify genes which may be involved. The association of two of the 14 obesity predisposing SNPs and the gene score with BMI was confirmed in the EpiDREAM population. Novel associations between two SNPs located in or near BDNF (rs6265 and rs1401635) were found with total fat, MUFA, and PUFA intake. Rs1401635 was also associated with total energy and trans fat intake. Novel associations of rs6235 (PCSK1) and the gene score were found with total energy intake. The novel associations found indicate that food related behaviours are one of the mechanisms of action through which obesity predisposing SNPs cause obesity and therefore warrant further investigation. The lack of association among all genes and the modest association of the gene score show that mechanisms other than food consumption are important. The investigation of the evolutionary history of eating disorders revealed that the adapted to flee famine hypothesis is a plausible theory explaining anorexia nervosa while the thrifty genotype hypothesis provides a possible explanation for bulimia nervosa and binge eating disorder. These evolutionary theories can be applied to identify new candidate genes as well as phenotypic traits to investigate to better understand the genetic architecture of eating disorders. Understanding genes associated with disordered eating patterns may highlight future areas for obesity prevention. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc) / A large percentage of the risk of developing obesity or an eating disorder (anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge eating disorder) is determined by genetics. For obesity, many genes have been identified as influencing risk, but the mechanisms through which the genes work are largely unknown. For eating disorders, gene identification efforts have been mostly unsuccessful and no mechanisms of action have been determined. In the first component of this thesis we found an association between previously identified obesity risk genes and food intake, specifically the total number of calories consumed per day and the percentage of calories from total fat and fat subtypes. These results support that food related behaviours are possible mechanisms of action which need to be further investigated. In the second half of the thesis we viewed eating disorder behaviours from an evolutionary perspective. We concluded that there are theories that possibly explain eating disorder behaviours including being able to live off of small quantities of food as well as binging. These evolutionary theories can be applied to identify new genes to study in the context of eating disorders as well as different definitions of eating disorders.