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The essential goal of this study is to expose the complex nature of the connections between Milan Kundera's theory and practice of literature and philosophy. Through a brief investigation of his essays and novels, this thesis attempts to demonstrate that Kundera maintains a relation of both proximity to and distance from certain of the "great" thinkers from the world of philosophy (Nietzsche, Husserl, Heidegger). This study's succinct examination of the evolution of contemporary philosophy allows a better grasp of the influence of philosophy on the structure and intentions of Kundera's work, while its reflections on the form of Kundera's interrogation caste in relief the degree to which Kundera's art moves beyond the strict limits of philosophical discourse and seizes upon the paradoxes of our existence and our epoch.

This thesis is made up of two distinct parts. The first part is a translation of Valeria Narbikova's text B sc HOHMOCTb Hac. The second is a commentary constituted of a presentation of the author, of her work and of the characteristics distinctive of her work and of the characteristics distinctive of her writing, as well of a reflection on the process of translation. The approach developed for this translation of literary translation is presented; it is inspired mainly by the conception of two authors: Antoine Berman and Henri Meschonnic. The concepts of openness and respect of the source language and source culture are two fundamental aspects of this approach. The approach is illustrated through the examination of the problem of cultural references. A classification of the references found in Valeria Narbikova's text and a discussion of the different methods used to translate them is also presented.

Martin Amis remains on the outer fringes of the modern literary canon because his novels have not been appreciated in the context within which they were written. This is, basically, a postmodernist experimental mode which self-consciously tests (but does not abandon) the boundaries of form and content in the traditional English novel. The principal contention here is that Amis "challenges" but does not "change" the human subject as it exists in literature. Hyper-self-consciousness, the signature mark of postmodernism, does not mean simply that Amis's characters are just one-dimensional pawns of literary gamesmanship, even though this is a valid point of inquiry (examined in Chapter One). Rather, the presentation of subjectivity allows for a polyphonous critique and affirmation of literary and moral value. Such critiques and affirmations can be analysed when one examines Amis's inscription and parody of past value systems (such as modernism, described in Chapter Two), and those of the present, nuclear age (described in Chapter Three). As these three inquiries show, Amis does offer a portrait of the human subject, but it is bruised and abused by both the author and the world. Value, in other words, exists here, but its packaging is distinctly different. Amis is therefore not an immoral pop-cultural icon, but a serious postmodernist writer that deserves to be judged accordingly.

Jacques Ferron, Quebecois writer famous for his incisive and polemic style, has created his literary works with numerous genres of great diversity. Although the author has never published any poetic works, the manuscripts found at the National Library of Quebec demonstrate all the interest Ferron had for the poetic genre. In fact, the Jacques-Ferron Archives contain over fifty poetic texts, which are being edited for this study. The first part, which presents Ferron's unpublished poems, also exposes the editorial principles that guided the task of transcribing the manuscripts. In the second part of this study, I reflect upon the idea of "conscience generique " (generic conscience), priorly established by Michal Glowinski. Once having demonstrated that Jacques Ferron used his poetic material to write some of his tales or plays, I build upon the hypothesis that his profound knowledge of poetry reading and writing modes influences him to change his literary approach to this genre. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

Presently, most aesthetic discourse focusses primarily upon questions of beauty and ugliness. Yet, this rather limited approach to aesthetics overlooks all work that does not belong to either of these two categories. More precisely, most contemporary debate fails to consider the important category of ambivalence. What might it mean to both love and hate a given work of art? The following essay examines the complex emotion of ambivalence as a category of aesthetic experience. Drawing upon the work of British filmmaker Peter Greenaway, it will be argued that ambivalence encourages a new, dynamic approach to the work of art. Ultimately, this new approach will be looked to as a possible means of challenging the hegemony of the Modernist/Postmodernist divide.

This study examines the drama of Yusuf Idris (1927-1991), a well-known Egyptian playwright who has made very important contributions to the search for Arab roots, Arab identity, and a new face for Egyptian (Arab) drama. / The analysis of Idris's eight plays (written over a quarter of a century) in the light of Egyptian (Arab) post-1952 social, political, and cultural realities has enabled us to clarify the playwright's ideas and understand why his literary works have occasioned so much discussion and so many polemics. / This study shows that Idris's plays mirror and document the post-Revolutionary Egyptian (Arab) era. They also appeal to the reader's conscience, calling for change and reform. Furthermore, Idris's plays reflect the artistic search for an original Egyptian (Arab) dramatic form, a search the playwright himself provoked. Finally, Idris's plays reveal the author's faith in the true human qualities of the Egyptian (Arab) man and his tremendous potential, which is yet to be awakened and explored.

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This thesis deals with violence in the language of Timothy Findley's work: both the language of narration and the language of dialogue between the characters. In the thesis, I will examine the way language is violated for the purpose of re-assembling it into a more competent vehicle for communication. Bakhtin's theory of dialogics and Robert Kroetsch's theory of violent silence will be examined with regard to Findley's consistent focus on the way language must be violated to render it useful, and why any character of Findley's who refuses to violate language and chooses instead to submit to silence, is destroyed. According to Findley, the only means of validating existence and literature is to dispel silence with dialogue. I will prove that Timothy Findley treats violence as a positive and necessary precursor to any sort of creativity, asserting again and again through his texts that nothing can be constructed until something is first torn down.