My thesis takes the notion of the sublime out of its usual Romantic context to look at what it can reveal about post-Romantic France. This is a period of rapid capitalist and urban development, often described as the age of the prosaic - an age of cliche, platitude and banality. It is also, however, a period in which Romantic aspirations survive: this is often accepted by critics in terms of literary projects, but less so in terms of broader social developments. I will use the notion of the sublime to trace the presence of these aspirations in post-Romantic discourses - across the supposed divide between literature and society. The first section of the thesis is a theoretical introduction to the notion of the sublime in Western philosophy, with a particular focus on its appropriation in France. It includes three chapters, the first of which looks at Longinus and Boileau, the second, Kant and Hegel, and the third, modem and postmodern theoretical perspectives. The aim of this section is both to frame the problems and questions that the sublime poses for French culture and literature, and present the critical concepts that I will bring to bear on readings of specific texts in the second part of the thesis. The second section contains chapters 4 to 7 of the thesis. In chapter 4, I look at how Flaubert parodies rhetorical over-inflation in Madame Bovary and strips it away in 'Un Coeur simple'. Chapter 5 focuses on the sublime in Zola's Au Bonheur des dames, a text that shows how capitalist discourse makes use of the imagery of the Romantic sublime. In chapter 6, I move on to the sublime in working-class discourses, especially revolutionary oratory and performance, before bringing the thesis to a close in chapter 7 with an examination of the metaphysical underpinnings of some of the major artistic developments in the period.

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This study concerns an essential but, until recent years, little explored area of social work: environmental social work. The social work profession has long considered persons in their environment; however, use of the term environment has typically referred to social rather than nonhuman physical dimensions of space and place. It is common knowledge that we face today a number of serious environmental challenges, but less common is an understanding of how things came to be as they are. Why, for example, did things not develop differently? Why is our human-nonhuman relationship so strained? This research asserts human conceptualisations of the nonhuman other influence treatment of not only the nonhuman but also other human beings. Having an interdisciplinary focus involving social work, environmental studies and early Canadian history, Wendat and French conceptualisations of the nonhuman are explored through an ecofeminist framework in a culture-contact context to initiate consideration of, and in due course attending to, the uneasy intersection of the human and the nonhuman, social work and environmental issues, and current Aboriginal-non-Aboriginal relations. Through locating our environmental crisis within a historical context, it is possible to unsettle some contemporary assumptions about the human-nonhuman relationship, drawing attention to the fact that things could have been otherwise, that the environmental challenges experienced today were not inescapable. While there are certainly many ways to approach a history of our present environmental crisis, this investigation in the Canadian context involving a clearly defined case of culture contact between the Wendat and French in the early seventeenth century offers a variety of advantages deriving, in part, from the comparable but different complexities belonging to each group and the opportunity to explore two highly dissimilar cultural practices and belief systems from the time of initial contact. This study examines in detail how the two cultures understood and interacted with the nonhuman, and each other, through a forty-year period from 1609-1649. From this historical exploration of Wendat and French worldviews and land-use practices implications for social work are described and a model for place-based social work is generated.

In order for the study of French to survive in American higher education, it will be necessary to adopt a pedagogy that motivates learners as well as teaches them both language and culture. I argue that the judicious use of visual materials (film, video and graphic novels) is ideal for this undertaking. I further assert--based upon numerous sources from fields such as Second Language Acquisition, cognitive psychology, anthropology and sociolinguistics--that language and culture are inseparable, and that visual materials provide the necessary context to facilitate the teaching of both. Visual materials present both problems and opportunities. I discuss such difficulties as cognitive overload (i.e., students’ being overwhelmed by too much information in too short a period of time) and suggest practical solutions. I also present criteria for the selection of films, such as appropriateness, learning goals and appeal to US university students. I also show how authentic media such as video can be adapted for all proficiency levels (e.g., assigning beginners’ simple word recognition tasks). In considering graphic novels, I suggest a familiar comic strip, Tintin, which is appropriate for beginning to advanced students, and which is likely to appeal to all students, given its American film adaptation. In the appendices, I include applications of the points presented in this report. In the conclusion, I argue that, regardless of the length formal instruction in French, this pedagogy can support practical skills (for example, dealing with people from other cultures) and lifelong learning (for example, staying involved with French culture through the aforementioned media). / text

Mergers and acquisitions have received much attention through the years due to the waves of modernity it has implicated. Three crucial aspects that can shape a merger or an acquisition are culture, leadership and human resource management. These aspects are studied and analyzed in a Swedish company that has been involved in an acquisition process with a French company.  The purpose of this dissertation is to explore the role of culture, leadership and human resource management in an acquisition process between a French/Swedish company. An abductive research approach is adopted for the research since a mixture between inductive and deductive research approach is used. The method chosen was semi-structured interviews, which was fulfilled with the management team in the chosen company as well as with a consultant.  The findings of the study are that the three aspects have an impact on the acquisition process where culture is the most central. The culture had a significant impact on the acquisition process and affected the leadership and the human resource management within the company as well. In the company studied, the human resource management was lacking and found that communication is crucial during an acquisition process.  The limitations are that only one company is studied and the aspects are limited to culture, leadership and human resource management. The original value of the study can give a clearer picture on how the three aspects affect each other and the total acquisition process. Suggestions for further research include analyzing additional processes and cultures, not only the ones chosen in this dissertation.

This study concerns an essential but, until recent years, little explored area of social work: environmental social work. The social work profession has long considered persons in their environment; however, use of the term environment has typically referred to social rather than nonhuman physical dimensions of space and place. It is common knowledge that we face today a number of serious environmental challenges, but less common is an understanding of how things came to be as they are. Why, for example, did things not develop differently? Why is our human-nonhuman relationship so strained? This research asserts human conceptualisations of the nonhuman other influence treatment of not only the nonhuman but also other human beings. Having an interdisciplinary focus involving social work, environmental studies and early Canadian history, Wendat and French conceptualisations of the nonhuman are explored through an ecofeminist framework in a culture-contact context to initiate consideration of, and in due course attending to, the uneasy intersection of the human and the nonhuman, social work and environmental issues, and current Aboriginal-non-Aboriginal relations. Through locating our environmental crisis within a historical context, it is possible to unsettle some contemporary assumptions about the human-nonhuman relationship, drawing attention to the fact that things could have been otherwise, that the environmental challenges experienced today were not inescapable. While there are certainly many ways to approach a history of our present environmental crisis, this investigation in the Canadian context involving a clearly defined case of culture contact between the Wendat and French in the early seventeenth century offers a variety of advantages deriving, in part, from the comparable but different complexities belonging to each group and the opportunity to explore two highly dissimilar cultural practices and belief systems from the time of initial contact. This study examines in detail how the two cultures understood and interacted with the nonhuman, and each other, through a forty-year period from 1609-1649. From this historical exploration of Wendat and French worldviews and land-use practices implications for social work are described and a model for place-based social work is generated.

Cette thèse propose un parcours biographique et littéraire autour de la vie et de l’oeuvre de Nikos Kazantzaki (1883-1957), ses contacts avec la langue et la culture françaises et leur influence sur sa vision du monde. C’est une recherche des éléments de la culture française dans l’oeuvre de Kazantzaki et plus précisément dans les deux ouvrages écrits directement en français, Toda-Raba et Le Jardin des Rochers. Kazantzaki, tel un Ulysse contemporain, voyage émerveillé dans l’oecoumène, afin de découvrir les richesses de la réalité humaine, pour agir au lieu d’être agité par elle! Ouvrier insatiable de l’esprit, il ne cesse de proclamer, jusqu’à la fin de ses jours, les belles vertus universelles: Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité, Dignité Humaine! Sa préoccupation primordiale : transformer la chair en esprit, transmettre la semence de ses écrits, riche héritage d’amour, à la postérité, ne rien laisser à Charon si ce n’est quelques os! Il tisse le cocon de sa poésie, pareil à un ver de soie, laissant la semence d’une création immortelle, trait d’union entre le passé et le futur. La joie d’apprendre, l’amour des langues, la beauté, l’art, la grâce, la tendresse, se rejoignent dans ce bijou multiculturel kazantzakien, pour danser au rythme du souffle de la vie! Bergson est la colonne dorsale de la création kazantzakienne. Ses théories de la durée réelle, de la matière et de l’esprit, de l’évolution créatrice et de l'élan vital, du langage, de l'art comme moyen de communication entre la nature et Dieu, forment le fleuve de la culture française qui traverse l’oeuvre kazantzakienne pour la conduire à la liberté : à Dieu! Le dieu de Kazantzaki évolue et est réinventé dans les fables humaines. C’est un Dieu qui attend l'homme pour le sauver, afin qu’ensemble ils puissent créer la vie ! / This thesis proposes a bibliographic and literary journey in the life and work of Nikos Kazantzaki (1883-1957), his relation to the French language and culture, their influence on his vision of the world and his creation. It is a research on the elements of French culture in the work of Nikos Kazantzaki and more specifically in the two novels written directly in French, Toda-Raba and The Rock Garden. Kazantzaki, a contemporary Ulysses, travels in the world with amazement, discovering the richness of the human reality, acting instead of being acted by it! An insatiable worker of the spirit, he does not stop proclaiming the beautiful universal virtues: Freedom, Equality, Brotherhood, and Human Dignity! His essential concern: to transform the flesh into spirit; to transmit the seed of his writings, that rich inheritance of love, to the posterity, leaving nothing to Charon, except a few bones! He weaves his cocoon of poetry, similar to a silk worm, and leaves the seed of its immortal creation as a link between past and future. The joy of learning, the passion for languages, beauty, art, grace and tenderness, join in that multicultural jewel , Kazantzaki’s work, to dance on the rhythm and breath of life! Bergson is the central figure of the French culture in Kazantzaki’s creation. His theories on real duration, on matter and spirit, on creative evolution and the élan vital, on language and art as a means of communication between nature and god, a god who changes and is reinvented in the human fables, a god who waits for men in order to save them, to create life together with them, will be the river of French culture crossing Kazantzaki’s work and leading him to freedom, to God!

「哈法」是一種存在於臺灣，在哈日、哈韓之外的文化現象，「哈法族」則是一群真實存在於我們生活周遭的人們，同時形成一種融入法國文化的生活風格，但每個哈法族會因其接觸法國文化的時間、所接受的文化資本與生活經驗而有所區別。故本研究根據10位受訪者的學經歷、法語程度、會消費的法國文化商品、日常生活實踐與對法國文化的看法，將其歸納為內化與外顯等兩類哈法族。 透過深度訪談的質化研究，以布迪厄的文化消費實踐理論與高夫曼的戲劇理論，分析哈法族習癖的養成歷程及所呈現的生活風格與自我形象，並探討這一個喜愛法國文化的族群，如何透過個人的各項資本，將法國文化、法國性與日常生活的各個場域相互關聯，得以實踐自己的法式生活。 研究發現將法國文化內化至精神態度中以呈現其生活風格的內化的哈法族與藉由法式符號的蒐集、儀式化行為的模仿來展示品味的外顯的哈法族，兩者雖皆是在喜愛法國文化這個共同前提下，但呈現出的仍是各具差異的消費心態，沒有一個完全趨同的哈法樣貌，亦體現法國文化的異質性。 對哈法族而言，法國文化不僅僅是生活的一部分，而是經由各式各樣的管道接觸、理解、並消費，再透過日常生活實踐的過程，使其不斷構連法國文化與自我之間的意義。而哈法族的品味，最終演變為本質就是我的意涵。 / Some people who like French culture and connect it with their daily lives and show a different lifestyle. They are called “Francophiles” in this thesis. The purpose of this study is to explore and analyze the cultural consumption practices of these people, using Bourdieu and Goffman’s theories as a research approach. Its goal is to give an insight of Francophile in terms of taste, capital, distinction and self-performing. According to the study, Francophile can be represented by two categories, internalization and externalization, differentiated in their views of French culture, daily lives and ways of consuming artefacts from France. The first category, internalization, shows its “Frenchness” in lifestyle and mental attitude; while the second category, externalization, collects symbols of French culture and imitates ritual behaviors of French people from books, movies and mass media.

This paper compares two art museums, both created during the French Revolution, that fostered national unity by promoting a cultural identity. By analyzing the use of preexisting architecture from the ancien régime, innovative displays of art and redefinitions of the museum visitor as an Enlightened citizen, this thesis explores the application of eighteenth-century philosophy to the formation of two museums. The first is the Musée Central des Arts in the Louvre and the second is the Musée des Monuments Français, both housed in buildings taken over by the Revolutionary government and present the seized property of the royal family and Catholic Church. Created in a violent and unstable political climate, these museums were an effective means of presenting the First Republic as a guardian of national property and protector of French identity.