Thesis (doctoral)--Universität, Bonn, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (doctoral)--Universität, Bonn, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references.

Par les thèmes centraux qui l’animent sans relâche – honneur, devoir, trahison, châtiment, vengeance, … –, le cycle de Guillaume d’Orange entretient avec le droit médiéval d’étroits rapports thématiques que les jongleurs n’ont cessé d’exploiter pour nourrir la trame narrative relatant les hauts faits de la famille de Narbonne. Nées dans un contexte historique, politique et social particulièrement dense, propice aux innovations en matière de réflexion éthico-juridique, les chansons du cycle de Guillaume imposaient de s’interroger sur la nature profonde de ces liens afin de mieux saisir ce qui constitue la représentation épique du juste et de l’injuste. Comme cette opposition n’apparaît jamais en ces termes dans notre corpus, notre souci premier fut d’adapter aux mentalités et aux préoccupations inhérentes au contexte de production du cycle de Guillaume les outils conceptuels qui allaient fonder notre démarche : plutôt que de rechercher les manifestations du juste et de l’injuste selon une opposition moderne en distinguant les obligations découlant du droit positif des devoirs imposés par la morale, nous avons choisi de nous intéresser à toutes les normes sociales dont la présence, plus ou moins implicite dans nos textes, impose toutefois à nos personnages épiques une impérieuse restriction d’action, tant dans la sphère privée que sur la scène publique. Au terme de notre parcours, il est apparu que les normes enjointes à la société épique du cycle de Guillaume d’Orange ne s’organisaient pas autour des deux pôles normatifs (terrestre et humain d’une part, spirituel et divin d’autre part) qui avaient constitué notre hypothèse de départ : c’est une hiérarchisation normative bien plus floue et bien plus relative – dont l’existence trouve sa source en outre dans l’épisode central du couronnement de Louis par Guillaume – qui régit la société de notre corpus et permet ainsi aux jongleurs des potentialités dramatiques aussi riches que nombreuses. / Through the central, ubiquitous themes that animate it – honor, duty, betrayal, retribution, vengeance – the cycle of William of Orange maintains close thematic links with medieval law, links that the jugglers never ceased to use in order to provide a narrative framework to relate the exploits of the Narbonne family. The songs of the cycle of William were born into an especially intricate historical, political, and social context conducive to innovations in ethical-juridical reflection, and so had to wrestle with the profound nature of these links in order to grasp more deeply the epic representation of the just and the unjust. Since this opposition never appears in our corpus in these terms, our first concern was to calibrate the conceptual tools intended to ground our method to the mentalities and preoccupations inherent in the context of the production of the cycle of William: rather than seeking the manifestations of the just and the unjust according to a modern opposition by distinguishing obligations that flow out of positive law from duties imposed by morality, we decided to concern ourselves with all the social norms whose presence, more or less implicit in our texts, nevertheless demands of our epic characters an urgent restriction of action, as much in the private sphere as in the public. At the end of our investigation it appeared that the norms enjoined upon the epic society of the cycle of William of Orange were not organized around the two normative poles which had constituted our initial hypothesis (terrestrial and human on the one hand, spiritual and divine on the other): itis a normative hierarchization much more fluid and relative – whose existence finds its source, moreover, in the central episode of the coronation of Louis by William – that reigns over the society of our corpus and that thus grants the jugglers dramatic possibilities as rich as they numerous.

La thèse propose une redéfinition des relations entre droit et littérature, en s’appuyant sur des concepts issus de l’ « anthropologie dogmatique » développée par Pierre Legendre. Partant d’un aperçu de l’état de la recherche et d’une présentation détaillée de la théorie legendrienne, l’étude avance l’hypothèse que l’étroit enchevêtrement du droit et de la littérature confère à la littérature le pouvoir soit d’accroître l’efficacité de la normativité culturelle, soit de l’influencer – influence à comprendre dans le sens d’une force modificatrice. La cohérence de cette hypothèse est ensuite vérifiée à l’aide de l’analyse de deux romans, Le Procès de Kafka et L’Homme au Sable de Hoffmann. Le Procès est présenté comme un roman mettant en scène un échec fondamental d’interprétation – l’interprétation étant, selon Legendre, la technique première qui, dans la culture, assure le non-délire de l’existence humaine. Ici, l’interprétation est vouée à l’échec au niveau diégétique, pour l’auteur ainsi que dans la relation texte – lecteur. Le lecteur est confronté à l’absence d’un système de sens et comprend ainsi, ex negativo, la nécessité d’être inscrit dans un ordre de Référence, véhiculé par le droit ainsi que par la littérature. L’analyse de L’Homme au Sable repose sur une combinaison entre le concept de témoignage et deux concepts centraux de l’anthropologie dogmatique : l’altérité et la représentation. Ainsi, la thèse montre comment la dissolution de la frontière entre réalité et fiction, typique du fantastique et poussée à bout dans le roman, donne au lecteur un aperçu de la contingence des structures qui forment le fond de l’ordre culturel ainsi que de la subjectivité. / The doctoral dissertation “Viva vox iuris” is aimed at extending the research on law and literature by developping a new perspective, based on Pierre Legendre’s “dogmatic anthropology”. Starting with an overview of the current state of research in this field, and based on a detailed presentation of Legendre’s theory, the dissertation develops the hypothesis that the deep entanglement of law and literature confers upon literature the capacity of either reinforcing the effectivity of cultural normativity, or of influencing it in the sense of a modificatory force. The plausibility of this hypothesis is then assessed by a thorough analysis of Kafka’s The Trial and Hoffmann’s The Sandman. The Trial is presented as being a novel that stages the failure of interpretation on the diegetic, hermeneutic as well as the production level, i.e. with regard to the author (– interpretation being, from Legendre’s perspective, the fundamental cultural technique assuring a non-delusional human existence). Being confronted with this failure and the consequent lack of a regime of sense, the reader gains insight, ex negativo, into the necessity of being inscribed, by way of interpretation, into an order of Reference that needs to be mediated by literature and law. With regard to The Sandman, the dissertation undertakes to show, through a combination of the concept of testimony with the dogmatic-anthropological core concepts of alterity and representation, how the fantastical blurring of the limits between reality and fiction, as staged in the novel, provides insights into the contingency of the fundamental structure of the normative order of cultural and subjective identity.

This thesis explores the forms and significance of dispute settlement by arbitration, or ‘δίκη’, in the Iliad. I take as my focus the ‘storm simile’ of Iliad XVI: 384-393, which describes Zeus’ theodical reaction to corruption within the δίκη-court, and the ‘shield trial’ of Iliad XVIII: 498-508, which presents a detailed picture of such a court in action, and compare the forms and conception of arbitration that emerge from these two ecphrastic passages with those found in the narrative body of the poem. Analysing the terminology and procedures associated with dispute settlement in the Iliad, I explore the evidence for the development of an ‘ideology of δίκη’, that valorises arbitrated settlement as a solution to conflict, and that identifies δίκη as a procedure and a civic institution with an objective standard of fairness: the foundation of a civic concept of ‘justice’. I argue that this ideology is fully articulated in the storm simile and the shield trial, as well as Hesiod’s Works and Days, but that it is also detectable in the narrative body of the Iliad. I further argue that the poet of the Iliad employs references to this ideology, through the narrative media of speech and ecphrasis, to prompt and direct his audience’s evaluation of the nature and outcome of the poem’s central conflict: the dispute of Achilles and Agamemnon.

Dans la France du XVIe siècle, la justice traque l’hérésie chez les auteurs et les imprimeurs attirés par la Réforme : on connaît les poursuites à répétition contre Clément Marot et l’exécution d’Étienne Dolet sur le bûcher en 1546. Mais cette politique répressive ne se limite pas à ces condamnations tristement célèbres, ni aux seuls sujets touchant la foi. Plusieurs autres poètes, connus et méconnus, sont mis en cause pour leurs compositions religieuses, mais aussi satiriques, voire, dans quelques cas isolés, obscènes. Les contentieux portant sur la propriété littéraire mettent également aux prises les différents acteurs de la fabrication du livre. Il s’agit alors de comprendre comment de telles contraintes judiciaires ont pu déterminer l’écriture de la poésie à la Renaissance. Il faut d’abord reconstituer les opérations de censure des textes poétiques, depuis le repérage du texte suspect jusqu’à l’interrogatoire du poète, en passant par l’octroi de l’autorisation d’imprimer ou l’enquête sur les vers satiriques placardés aux carrefours de la ville. On prend ainsi la mesure du régime de contrôle auquel les poètes font face en tentant de défendre leur liberté d’écrire – droit à la satire, droit de chanter leur foi, liberté de jouer avec les codes de la poésie érotique. Aussi l’idée de liberté d’expression ne leur est-elle pas si étrangère qu’on pourrait le croire, car ils peuvent donner un sens politique à la notion de « licence », qui, d’ordinaire, justifie les excentricités du langage poétique. Grâce à l’écriture, les poètes essaient de faire avancer leurs procès et se réapproprient leur expérience de la justice : ces usages spécifiques font de la poésie judiciaire l’équivalent d’un genre à la fois en prise avec le réel et ouvert aux échappées irréelles de la réécriture des événements. / In XVIth century France the legal system hunts down heresy among the writers and printers attracted by the Reformation. Some well-known examples are the repetitive legal actions against Clément Marot and the execution of Étienne Dolet, burned at the stake in 1546. But this repressive policy was not limited to only these sadly famous cases, nor to matters of religious faith. Many other poets, famous and unknown, are put on trial because of their religious, satirical, and, in a pair of isolated cases, even obscene writings. Moreover the various actors implicated in the making of the book confront each other in some cases concerning literary ownership. This study aims to understand how such legal constraints influenced the writing of poetry in the Renaissance. The first steps are to reconstruct the process in which poetic texts were censored, from the identification of the suspicious text to the interrogation of the poet, including the licensing of the book and the investigation of satirical verses posted at town intersections. This is the system of control which poets stand up against, attempting to defend their freedom of speech, –the right to write satire and to sing their religious beliefs, the freedom to play with the codes of erotic poetry. In fact, the idea of freedom of speech is not so foreign to them as we could think, as they give political meaning to the notion of « license », which ordinarily justifies the excentricities of poetic language. Through their writing, poets try to advance their cause and to reappropriate their experience of the law : these specific goals make legal poetry a genre of its own, both in dealing with the reality and in recreating the events in an unrealistic manner.

For the last forty years, Jane Eyre criticism has understandably focused on Bertha Mason Rochester as a marginalized, abused, and silenced mixed-race woman. Although Jane's childhood friend Helen Burns is a very different and much less controversial character, she and Bertha suffer similar deaths from the culpable neglect of their guardians. Both women serve as the impetus of a bystanders dilemma: the perennial question of whether a person is obligated to protect another's life or dignity at the risk of his or her own. Because contemporary law imposed no duty to rescue upon bystanders, this paper uses the commentary of Victorian legal theorist John Austin to create a standard against which to judge the ethical merit of the choices made by bystanders throughout the novel. Maria Temple, superintendent of Lowood, is a bystander to the fatal abuse heaped upon her students; she has the power to expose the schools brutal conditions, but chooses to remain silent so that she can keep her job and her limited power. Her choice, while practical, makes her complicit in Helen's death. When Jane becomes bystander to Bertha's dangerously negligent captivity, she chooses to flee Thornfield rather than intervene. Though many critics have decried her selfishness, Jane makes a practical and ethical choice because she has so little chance of helping Bertha and so much to lose in the attempt. Just as Miss Temple is able to protect Jane because of her self-serving decisions, Jane in turn is able to protect Adele. Yet all these successes are predicated upon earlier neglect of persons unable to protect themselves, as Helen and Bertha remind us. There is no comfortable solution to the bystanders dilemma.

Summaries in Afrikaans and English / In hierdie navorsingsverslag word die representasie van die reg en die verskynsel van die verhoor as romangegewe in enkele tekste van André P. Brink ondersoek. Die studie vind plaas binne die interdissiplinêre konteks van die reg en die letterkunde. Die studie: (i) fokus op die rol wat die reg in die literêre teks vervul; (ii) ondersoek uitbeeldings van die verhoor soos wat dit in Brink se romankuns aangetref word; en (iii) ondersoek die fiksionalisering van historiese en dokumentêre regsbronne met spesifieke verwysing na sekere eksemplariese Brink-­‐romans. / In this research report, representations of the law and of the trial, as embedded in certain novels by André P. Brink, are explored. The study is structured within the interdisciplinary field of law and literature. This study: (i) focuses on the role of law within the literary text; (ii) explores the legal delineation of a trial in novels by Brink; and (iii) explores the fictionalisation of historic and documentary judicatory resources with specific reference to exemplary texts by Brink. / Afrikaans & Theory of Literature / M.A. (Afrikaans)

Summaries in Afrikaans and English / In hierdie navorsingsverslag word die representasie van die reg en die verskynsel van die verhoor as romangegewe in enkele tekste van André P. Brink ondersoek. Die studie vind plaas binne die interdissiplinêre konteks van die reg en die letterkunde. Die studie: (i) fokus op die rol wat die reg in die literêre teks vervul; (ii) ondersoek uitbeeldings van die verhoor soos wat dit in Brink se romankuns aangetref word; en (iii) ondersoek die fiksionalisering van historiese en dokumentêre regsbronne met spesifieke verwysing na sekere eksemplariese Brink-­‐romans. / In this research report, representations of the law and of the trial, as embedded in certain novels by André P. Brink, are explored. The study is structured within the interdisciplinary field of law and literature. This study: (i) focuses on the role of law within the literary text; (ii) explores the legal delineation of a trial in novels by Brink; and (iii) explores the fictionalisation of historic and documentary judicatory resources with specific reference to exemplary texts by Brink. / Afrikaans and Theory of Literature / M.A. (Afrikaans)

This thesis discusses the interaction between the concepts of ”justice” (ma‛at) and ”law” (hpw) in ancient Egypt. Ma‛at, one of the earliest abstract terms in human speech, was a central principle and, although no codex of Egyptian law has been found, there is abundant evidence of written law, designed to realise ma‛at on earth. The king, as the highest legal authority, was the nexus between ma‛at and the law. Egyptologists have few sources of knowledge about law and justice in ancient Egypt because the ancient Egyptians used commonplace language in legal documents and they only had a few imprecise technical terms relating to law. For Egyptology to advance, therefore, we need to reappraise its sources. The Tale of the Eloquent Peasant has a strong legal background and should be treated as an additional source of information about how law and justice were perceived and carried out in ancient Egypt. / Classics and Modern European Languages / M.A. (Ancient Languages and Cultures)