Ce mémoire met en lumière les détails de l'histoire romanesque d'Indiana, jeune Créole victime de la domination masculine et de la pression imposée par la société de l'époque, mais aussi et surtout le message féministe véhiculé par George Sand à travers son oeuvre Indiana. Après avoir montré les liens étroits qui existent entre la vie de l'auteur et le personnage fictif d'Indiana qu´elle mit en scène dans son roman éponyme, nous avons présenté les personnages principaux et nous avons analysé l'oeuvre à travers le prisme d'un féminisme réaliste, romantique et toujours actuel. Le mémoire a aussi interrogé la manière dont le roman a reflété les conditions sociales et légales des femmes à l´époque de sa publication et l'accueil réservé aux élites intellectuelles comme de la part des lecteurs d'hier et d'aujourd'hui. Il est apparu qu´il y a eu des critiques élogieuses malgré une certaine réserve, quant au tableau peu reluisant que l'auteur brosse des femmes mariées soumises au diktat de lois machistes. L'analyse conclut sur l'audace d'une George Sand, fer de lance du féminisme dont elle a été l´une des pionnières. / This essay brings to light the details of the story of Indiana, a young Creole victim of male domination and the pressure imposed by the society of the time, but also and above all the feminist message conveyed by George Sand through his Indiana. After showing the close links that exist between the life of the author and the fictitious character of Indiana that she puts in scene in her eponymous novel, it is about presenting the main characters and analyzing the work to through the prism of a realist, romantic, social and ever-present feminism. The thesis is also interested in the reception of the book when it was released, by the intellectual elites of the time as well as by the readers of yesterday and today. He underlines rave reviews despite a certain reservation as to the gloomy picture that the author portrays of married women subjected to the diktat of macho laws. The analysis concluded on the boldness of a George Sand spearhead of feminism, one of the pioneers of which she was.

No description available.

En un siècle troublé, né du séisme de 1789, le bagne, lieu de fracture, peut se comprendre comme le modèle spatial du doute, de la contrainte et de la souffrance, des fins et des commencements. Surtout, il est le fondateur du forçat, personnage de tous les paradoxes, repoussant les limites, animé de la fièvre des résurrections. Dans un roman cherchant à affirmer son identité, au milieu des récriminations d’une Histoire en mouvement, que signifie le surgissement en littérature, comme une invitation à imaginer l’inimaginable, de cet homme déchu, de ce coupable révélé, qui ne se satisfait d’aucune finitude et représente pourtant la finitude elle-même ? A la frontière de la réalité et du mythe, le bagnard, cet être du dehors, éclairé de la lumière étrange que projette sur lui le lieu extrême du bagne, apparaît comme un personnage nécessaire à la mise en place du roman, pêle-mêle vindicatif d’observations et d’inventions, composé du silence et de la parole. Il réunit en effet les cheminements de la différence et de la quête propres aux drames romanesques. Cet être de l’opposition – chez Victor Hugo, Balzac, Paul Féval ou encore George Sand – s’impose donc ainsi qu’un héros. L’imagination des romanciers le transfigure et lui offre le pouvoir du symbole. Comme le Titan révolté de l’Antiquité, le forçat romanesque du XIXe siècle suggère la vérité mythique d’une humanité à la recherche du sens. / In a troubled century, ensuing from the upheaval of 1789, the penal colony, place of divide, can be interpreted as a spatial model of doubt, constraint and suffering, of endings and beginnings. Above all, it is the founder of the convict, character of multiple paradoxes, pushing back the limits, motivated by the heat of resurrections of a History in motion, what is the meaning of the emergence, in literature, as an invitation to imagine the unimaginable, of that fallen man, that uncovered culprit, who is not satisfied with any finiteness yet stands for finiteness himself? Halfway through reality and myth, the convict, that man from outside, lit up by the weird light that the extreme place that is the penal colony sheds on him, appears as a necessary character for the setting up of the novel, vindictive hodge-podge of observations and inventions, made of silence and speech. It links, indeed, the development of the notions of difference and quest that are inherent to fictional drama. This being of opposition – in the works of Victor Hugo, Balzac, Paul Féval or else George Sand – imposes himself as a hero. The imagination of the novelist transfigures him and gives him the power of the symbol. As the rebellious Titan of Antiquity, the convict of the 19th century suggests the mythic truth of mankind in search of meaning.

In this thesis, I will study two manifestations of the legacy of Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s educational and political theories between 1832 and 1833: George Sand’s Indiana (1832) and Honoré de Balzac’s Eugénie Grandet (1833). I will argue that both novels treat the difficulties that uneducated or domestically educated young women face when they first encounter the artificial relationships of society, and that both authors attribute their protagonists’ situation to the lack of connection between the ideology of their upbringing and that of society. Furthermore, I will view these texts within the context of Romanticism, which buoyed the influence of Rousseauvian thought in the early nineteenth century by declaring nature preferable to society, a critical tenet of Rousseau’s theories. Social and political changes, however, led to Romanticism’s decline as the nineteenth century progressed, and this waning influence, coupled with the rise of Realism, can be observed in Indiana and Eugénie Grandet. The first chapter of this work will discuss the ideas that Rousseau presents in Emile, ou de l’éducation (1762) and the Discours sur l’origine et les fondements de l’inégalité parmi les hommes (1754). Although women are painted as independent in the original state of Nature, Rousseau argues in Emile that they should be domesticated in society, and he outlines the male and female educations that he believes will best prepare men and women for their assigned gender roles in society. The two chapters that follow treat the interpretations of Rousseau’s theories that Sand and Balzac put forward in Indiana and Eugénie Grandet. Sand refutes the nineteenth-century discourse concerning women’s innate “irrationality,” attributing Indiana’s difficulties with love and social norms to the distance between her “natural” education on Ile Bourbon and the artificiality of French relationships, eventually rejecting the possibility that reformed education can purge society of its corruption. Balzac, meanwhile, traces Eugénie’s transition from naïve young woman to true adulthood, when she is versed in the relations of “intérêt” that govern those around her. Eugénie, raised to base her relationships on true affection, is eventually isolated by her education, but Balzac does not envision her possible escape from society. / text

Thesis (Ph.D.) -- McMaster University, 1998. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 236-247). Also available via World Wide Web.

Thesis (doctoral)--Université de Paris, 1919. / Vol. 2 has title: Le Berry dans l'œuvre de George Sand. Vol. 1 has subtitle: Nohant, 1808-1876. Includes indexes. Includes bibliographical references (v. 1, p. [632]-657; v. 2, p. [356]-366).

No description available.

No description available.

In the nineteenth century, amidst the rise of anti-Catholicism in the Western world, narratives served as a persuasive medium to influence the reading public. Anti-clerical sentiment was conveyed in various forms of text, often depicting the Catholic convent as a place of sinister confinement. This thesis offers an alternative representation of the French nineteenth-century convent. Considering the prevailing social, economic, and political environment in France, along with the conception of social space, I argue that the convent represents a place of sanctuary and opportunity for some women and girls. Further, in view of Victor Hugo's Les Misérables, I examine the representation of the convent as a place for rebirth. Likewise, in analyzing George Sand's autobiography Histoire de ma vie, I explore the representation of the convent as a haven for reviving creativity. Thus, by close reading and critical examination of these literary representations, I contend that the nineteenth-century convent can provide a place of refuge. / Master of Arts / Following the French Revolution of 1789, two opposing ideologies gathered momentum in France: monasticism and anti-clericalism. Beginning in 1815, enlistment of nuns in religious congregations doubled every fifteen years until the end of the century. During this period, anti-clericalism remained a potent political and social force. As with any institution of power, narratives served as a persuasive medium to influence the reading public. Anti-clerical sentiment was conveyed in various forms of text, often depicting the Catholic convent as a place of sinister confinement. These diverse depictions of the convent as a nefarious enclosure seem to contradict the growth and appeal of female religious orders during the epoch. This thesis offers an alternative representation of the French nineteenth-century convent. Partially owing to prevailing social, economic, and political structures that limited women's opportunities, convents attracted women from middle- or upper-class families who desired to serve in the public domains of healthcare and education. Considering this environment in France, along with the conception of social space, I argue that the convent represents a place of sanctuary and opportunity for some women and girls. Further, in view of Victor Hugo's Les Misérables, I examine the representation of the convent as a place for rebirth. Likewise, in analyzing George Sand's autobiography Histoire de ma vie, I explore the representation of the convent as a haven for reviving creativity. Thus, by close reading and critical examination of these literary representations, I contend that the nineteenth-century convent can provide a place of refuge.

Dans la présente étude intitulée « Une approche transnationale des écritures des femmes ottomanes et françaises (européennes) au 19ème et au début du 20ème siècle » nous avons étudié les ouvrages et œuvres de femmes ottomanes et européennes autour de l’image du « harem » avec une approche transnationale féministe. La revendication de la thèse est que l’on ne peut ni parler d’une seule image du harem ni d’un type de récit de harem de femme ottomane, anglaise ou française. En replaçant ces ouvrages, classés dans la catégorie de « littérature de harem » au rang de la littérature mondiale, nous avons observé les différentes manières d’appréhender la lutte pour la libération de la condition féminine des femmes ottomanes comme autant de témoignages différents. D’autre part, nous avons mis en évidence, les interactions et la solidarité que les femmes féministes ottomanes et européennes ont mis en place, malgré les différences, de race, langue et religion pour leur lutte pour la condition féminine, dans un commun état d’esprit lié aux revendications de leur genre, du 19ème siècle au début du 20ème siècle. / In this manuscript titled « A Transnational Approach to Literatures of Ottoman and French (European) Women Writers of 19th and Early 20th Centuries » works of Ottoman and European women writers gathered around the image of « harem » are explored with a comparative and transnational feminist method. Their work is analyzed in a non-Eurocentric, transnational, multi-cultural and multi- lingual, global and systematic perspective divorced from discourses of male hegemony. The central argument of this manuscript is that there are multiple images for the East and hardly any type of European women’s narrative can serve as a prototype. In this study, narratives piled under the category « harem literature » are evaluated as part of the greater World Literature and arenas for contrasting testmonies of Ottoman Women’s Liberation Movement. Moreover, solidarity and interaction developed among Ottoman and European women are noted who had common gender-related problems next to differences due ethnicity, language and religion, in the 19th and early 20th centuries.