This work aims at filling a gap in African cinema studies. The plurality in film production has been neglected or overseen by Africanist critiques as well as most of the filmmakers from the continent. Such continental shield of a monolithic Africa has been carried by European anthropologists and fostered in part by the Negritude movement in the late 1930s, still conveyed by mimetic writing. We begin by assessing such a uniform vision and explaining the ways in which it resisted time after more than 40 years of cinema in Africa. Then we introduce the notion of national cinema by exploring the evolution of thematic discourse in Senegalese film, in order to highlight national specificities, which have been overshadowed by a Pan-africanist approach. Our focus on Senegalese film production allows us to unearth the cultural and social elements embedded in a peculiar history of Senegal. The countrys early contacts with Islam and later with Christianity and colonization on the one hand, and its relatively privileged relationship with the colonial power, i.e. France, before and after independence have generated a unique socio-cultural and political landscape. We investigate how filmmakers have used such a rich and complex historical stream to question and challenge Senegalese national identity and esthetics. In analyzing the thematic evolution in Senegalese filmic discourse, we come to find that not only Nations-states have always existed in Africa, but above all, the various styles and themes, which have emerged from the different approaches to filmmaking. Age, and therefore generation in Senegalese film production is crucial to understanding the Pan-africanist, yet local pattern in Sembenes films, the national and urban focus of Djibril Diop Mambety, the poetry and evasion in Moussa Sène Absas work as well as the various discourses on women through the male cinematic gaze which culminates with Joseph Gaye Ramakas controversial Karmen Geï. Ultimately, lAfrance is a pretext to explore the continuous, yet varied thematic evolution of migration between Senegal and France specifically through these generations of filmmakers, within the contiguous context of migration of texts and bodies.

The purpose of this thesis is to analyze the relationship between language and themes in Marie Darrieussecq's novel Truismes. Having as its core the theme of metamorphosis, Truismes tells the story of a young woman who after passing through a multitude of experiences transforms into a pig. The character's journey through the metamorphosis is marked by excesses. The excess manifests itself at all levels: in the physical and mental transformation of the female character, in the description of the secondary characters, in the composition of the environment that sustains the narration, and ultimately in the language. By using Julia Kristeva's theory of the abject, while conducting a careful analysis of the language and narrative style of the author, this thesis illuminates the relationship between the main character's use of language and the development of themes in the novel. Thus, Marie Darrieussecq's Truismes is shown to be a work concerned with the notion of "speaking the unspeakable." The thesis analyses not only the position of women in a predominantly masculine society, but also the political and economical relations that govern the activities described. Ultimately, this interpretation of Truismes discusses the notion of what it means to be living outside the social norm and, therefore in close relation to nature.

This dissertation addresses Samuel Beckett's bilingualism in an effort to understand how the author's use of language affected his writing style and depiction of gender. Beckett began writing in English, switched to French for the composition of new works for ten years, and then returned unexpectedly to English. His first English works are characterized by stylistic virtuosity, erudition, and misogyny. With Beckett's adoption of French his style became simple, spare, and cerebral. Plot structure based on a journey in early works was abandoned in favor of static situations and dialogue. Women were either ignored or viewed negatively. In 1956, Beckett returned to his mother language with All that Fall, a radio play. The setting and language are distinctively Irish, the plot is built around a trip to the train station, and the protagonist is a woman. Another play from the second English period, Happy Days, displays a more balanced synthesis of style and contains elements of both the English and French writing. It retains the French period qualities of static plot and simple language; however, it has a female protagonist who may be, in part, based on the author's mother. The study of these two plays in the context of Beckett's bilingualism shows the influence of the mother tongue on writing style and the introduction of positive depictions of women.

This dissertation is focused on the contribution of literature in the establishment of democracy in four French-speaking countries of the Golf of Guinea between 1988 and 1998. They are Benin, Cote dIvoire, Guinea and Togo. In 1991, a democratization movement that started in Benin occurred in many West African countries. It was propelled by an invented idea of National Conferences that were gathered by the countries elites either with the support or against the will of the ruling government. Thus, it was possible to organize a successful National Conference in some of those countries like Benin, Mali and Niger. But it was a fiasco in others like Togo. Others like Côte dIvoire and Guinea opposed that spirit of national consensus and held National Forums. The causes of the movements were sociopolitical and economic. In fact, since the acquisition of their independences in the 60s most French speaking countries of the Golf of Guinea, experienced diverse economical plans for development. Varied political systems were also implemented in order to achieve that goal. Unfortunately, the populations never had the chance to live a better life. They went poorer and poorer. The economic dire has been worsened by the oppressions perpetrated by the tyrant leaders who chose to hang on power. Some writers with their endeavor to peace and justice, decided to fight against those powers of tyranny and oppression. La naissance dAbikou written by Olympe Bhêly-Quenum, En attendant le vote des bêtes sauvages by Ahmadou Kourouma, Un rêve utile of Tierno Monénembo and La Polka of Kossi Efoui were published on that purpose. They focused on the citizens sociopolitical and economic daily misfortunes to convey their literary messages. They enlightened peoples mind about arbitrary rules and encouraged them to pass over to action in order to overthrow dictatorship and establish democracy. The comments and reports made on the different novels prove that they positively influenced the success of the democratic movements in the Golf of Guinea between 1988 and 1998. Once again, literature has mingled its roots with social realities to prove that African history cannot be conceived today excluding literary texts.

Jean-Paul Sartre's autobiography Les Mots (1964) is shown to be a departure from the Sartrean oeuvre because it represents an abandonment of littérature engagée. In Les Mots Sartre not only abandons littérature engagée, but also embraces a view of literature which he formerly opposed--l'art pour l'art. Sartre defines his views of literature--littérature engagée--in Qu'est-ce que la littérature? (1948) Robbe-Grillet defines l'art pour l'art in Pour un nouveau roman (1963). In Les Mots Sartre embraces Robbe-Grillet's l'art pour l'art and abandons his own littérature engagée. Since these two views of literature are theoretically opposed, it is interesting to find that Sartre makes this one-hundred-and-eighty-degree turn. Sartre's shifted view of literature, as represented in Les Mots, is further supported by a comparison of it to the autobiographies of a selection of Nouveaux Romanciers: Alain Robbe-Grillet's Le Miroir qui revient (1984), Nathalie Sarraute's L'Enfance (1983), and Marguerite Duras's L'Amant (1984). The autobiographies of the Nouveaux Romanciers are used as illustrations of Robbe-Grillet's notion of l'art pour l'art. Although Sarraute and Duras do not claim allegiance to Robbe-Grillet's view of literature, nor to the name "Nouveau Romancier," their autobiographies are similar enough to Robbe-Grillet's that they seem to be part of his school of thought. The relationship between Sartre and Robbe-Grillet adds to the irony of Sartre's shifted view of literature. Sartre rejects practitioners of l'art pour l'art in Qu'est-ce que la literature? and Robbe-Grillet specifically rejects Sartre and his littérature engagée in Pour un nouveau roman.

My dissertation examines the rewriting of myths by writers from the Ivory Coast: Maïéto Pour Zékia by Bohui Dali, La guerre des femmes by Zadi Zaourou, La révolte d'Affiba by Régina Yaou and Assémien Déhylé, roi du Sanwi by Bernard Dadié. I analyze these texts in the context of nineteenth and twenty century French works by Baudelaire (Le peintre de la vie moderne); Camus (Le mythe de Sisyphe); Aragon (Le paysan de Paris). Comparisons with feminist texts by Beyala (Femme nue, femme noire); Djebar (Femmes d'Alger dans leur appartement); Bâ (Une si longue lettre) underline how the rewriting of myths by Ivorian writers corresponds to a general discourse reflecting the struggle for women's liberation which goes beyond geographical, social and religious boundaries. To define the myth, I explore the works by Barthes (Mythologies), Calame-Griaule (La parole chez les Dogon), and Eliade (Aspects du mythe) on this subject. By questioning ideologies contained in old traditions such as human sacrifice and the inability of women to inherit the material properties of their late husbands, I demonstrate how Ivorian writers analyze and challenge the cultural traditions of their country in order to find how they conflict with modern values. By studying the rewriting of myths in the aforementioned francophone texts, I also address topics such as violence and identity. Since most myths grant more rights to men than to women, the debate over myth in Ivory Coast has become an ideological 'war' between those who take pride in their cultural traditions and refuse to change them and those who want to rewrite them to reflect the greater respect given to women's and children's rights. The examination of these myths has proven how Ivorian writers use their rewriting to make a detailed self-criticism of their cultural traditions and to raise questions about the rights of children and women in Africa. Women's and children's increased access to education is the best 'weapon' against old misogynist myths. 'Education' will lead people to more independent thinking and change the way they look at the world and see themselves in it as well.

In the second half of the twentieth century, the Cajun language, which had been entirely oral for most of its history, began to emerge as a productive literary language. One of the prominent new authors of the period was Zachary Richard, also an important Cajun musician. One of his collections of poetry, Faire récolte (Les Éditions Perce-Neige, 1997), is translated here. This thesis also includes a translator's note that briefly explores the broad themes of the poems and the methods used in translating them.

This thesis examines the relationships between mothers and daughters against the background of education in early nineteenth-century France. This era was the first time that a large population of French girls was separated from their mothers. Because of their attendance at school, girls created an identity separate from that of the one that their mothers had helped them to create. By using George Sands autobiography Histoire de ma vie and Marceline Desbordes-Valmores poem Ondine à lecole, the process of distinguishing the daughter from the mother has been analyzed from both the mothers perspective and the daughters perspective. For Sand, who writes from the daughters perspective, her maternal figures (mother and grandmother) push her away from them so that she could get an education. As a result of being pushed away, she is forced to create her own identity. For Marceline Desbordes-Valmore, the opposite occurs. Writing from the mothers perspective, she becomes very protective of her daughter and seems threatened by Ondines success at school through which she creates a distinct identity away from Desbordes-Valmore. By studying these two works together, one can learn about the mother-daughter dynamics at work and the emotional hardships suffered by both mothers and daughters, as girls began school during this era. Both mother and daughter experienced a feeling of loss, and relationships were permanently changed as daughters created unique identities for themselves.

Critical review of the existing literature on African women writers clearly shows that nowhere is the question of writing as a cultural negotiation posed, discussed or much less addressed. This is a lacuna that this dissertation addresses for the first time by proposing a re-reading of the selected works of Ama Ata Aidoo, Mariama Bâ and Marie NDiaye through the new prism of writing as part of cultural negotiation. In doing so, the dissertation goes beyond the paradigm of binary oppositions that undergirds the critical literature on writing by Sub-Saharan women in favor of the innovative concept of negotiation. In addressing womens issues such as marriage and polygamy, motherhood and witchcraft, this study makes the powerful case that Mariama Bâ, Ama Ata Aidoo and Marie NDiaye have negotiated a space of creativity for themselves through writing, hitherto the preserve of men, and from which they pose, discuss and address through negotiation, those cultural issues affecting them. Chapter One, with brief biographical sketches of the writers and a summary of their texts, deals with the theoretical framework for the study by providing the critical overview of Sub-Saharan women writers and in-depth analyses of the concepts of writing, negotiation and culture in order to explain how these women writers are able to negotiate their respective cultures in their writing. In Chapter Two, hybridity and its perils are discussed specifically in relation to the colonizer/colonized binary model. Through this binary, displacement of authority is engendered by means of a series of mimetic identifications with the colonizer by the colonized in an ambivalent hybridized cultural space. We discuss interracial and inter-caste polygamy and their role in the victimization of women in Chapter Three. Chapter Four questions the notion that motherhood is the equivalent of mens reproductive labor and a source of oppression suggests that empowerment can be derived from surrogacy and freedom of choice. Chapter Five explores modern day beliefs in witchcraft and its cultural impact on women. From the feminist theoretical perspective, the study suggests that witchcraft, if reclaimed by women, is a powerful negotiating tool.

This thesis traces the evolution of attitudes towards the body, desire, autobiography, and self-affirmation, in three novels of Assia Djebar: L'amour, la fantasia, Vaste est la prison, and Les nuits de Strasbourg. The three novels share a common trait: the narrators' will to express their body and their desires. This body, which is simultaneously anonymous and concealed, is at the very center of a contradiction; it is often relegated to representation as a ghost without any corporeal reality. It is been our objective to follow the narrators' introspective reflection on the multiple relationships between Algerian women and public space, designated as a masculin dominion controlled by the male gaze. The narrators move from a symbolic aphasia in L'amour, la fantasia, in which they are incapable of experiencing and expressing emotions to the definition of a private space of desire in Vaste est la prison, and ultimately, in Les nuits de Strasbourg, to the possibility of mastering space and time which they themselves define in their relationships to men. In order to subvert the patriarchal system, the narrators develop strategies of camouflage and disguise as means of manipulating the notion of the incorporeal feminine body. In this progression from passive to active invisibility, they render conscious the unconscious dimension of their attitude towards themselves and towards men. In the context of Algerian society, the presence of woman in the public space is unacceptable. The gesture of making public space accessible to women requires a collaboration between the newly conscious Algerian woman and a male partner who embraces both her and his evolved identity.