As the central figures in a booming theater industry, actresses in nineteenth-century France were granted the resources and freedoms to forge a powerful if unsuspectingly subversive voice. Comediennes were adulated as talented and beautiful women bringing fame and fortune to the stages of Paris yet were also legally and socially marginalized because of lingering Rousseauean conceptions of female performers as deceptive prostitutes. From this position outside mainstream society, the power of actresses to challenge norms from both on and off the stage went largely unrecognized. They had a profound effect on other women of the time who were as riveted as the men by the audacious personal lives, unconventional manners, independence, and difference of these new stars. Actresses' ability to convincingly adopt one role and then another and to juxtapose conflicting personas undermined the concept that certain attributes belong exclusively to a specific gender, class, or age. With the growing success of the French theater industry, portrayals of actresses seemed to be everywhere---in the memoirs of Sarah Bernhardt and other celebrated performers, in the journals of the Goncourt brothers, in the photographs of Nadar, and in the literary works of such authors as Ajalbert, Balzac, Baudelaire, Champsaur, Leroux, Maupassant, Merimee, Nerval, Rodenbach, Villiers, and Zola. Attempts to portray their identities accurately, however, whether in fiction or in life, were continually betrayed by the many, often contradictory roles they played. Revealing little about the actresses who were their ostensible subjects, these representations reveal much, on the other hand, about the fears and desires of the writers: if the actress provided for many a convenient blank screen onto which one could project one's fantasies, she also functioned as a mirror (perhaps as a Lacanian mirror) that revealed hidden societal truths and exerted a profound influence over broader conceptions of identity. Whether consciously or not, the nineteenth-century French actress raised critical questions of identity and representation, questions that continue to be explored in the highly conscious work of contemporary feminist filmmakers.

This dissertation examines an anti-West and anti-humane role played by China in the works of Claudel, Segalen, Malraux, Michaux and Sollers. I argue that the search for different values in China makes their works a homogenous discourse, which reflects the crisis in subjectivity and in language in modern Western society. China serves as a reference in criticizing Western humanistic tradition, and also offers a model of "deja-la moderne" in the search for a new aesthetic, in an age of token-language (Jean-Joseph Goux, 1984). Thus, focusing on the inadequacy of the Western heritage rather than on Western power over the other, this discourse reveals some features that Edward Said failed to discuss in his Orientalism (1978). In part one, I first outline the motifs in the praise of the Chinese writing by Claudel, Michaux and Segalen, and point out the connection between their admiration of Chinese sign and the development of a no-representative aesthetic. Then I look at the ways in which those writers bring Chinese writing in their works. I argue that their effort to create the effect of simultaneity of signs intends to break with the linear constraints of writing. It also leads to the emergence of an anti-ideological "ecriture" in Sollers' works that completely breaks with the representative literature. In part two, I discuss Segalen's expectation of a "transfer from the Empire of China to the empire of self", and Malraux's rejection of the oriental wisdom in his search for a new concept of man. I also examine whether Segalen, who insists on the search for a secret self, or Claudel, who dedicates himself to the glory of God, turn of God, turn to the Taoist notion of emptiness, which leads to the break with the Cartesian cogito. Finally, I focus on the two different stages of Sollers's use and depiction of China. From revolution to "no action", China is linked to his dream of an anti-West "logical turn-over" that comes true, in his later works, in an individualized, yet emptied space.

El presente trabajo es un estudio sobre los personajes femeninos en las novelas de Miguel de Unamuno. Partiendo de la premisa unamuniana, "todo ser de ficcion ... que crea un autor hace parte del autor mismo," proponemos que las protagonistas femeninas en La tia Tula y San Manuel Bueno, martir representan aspectos importantes de la personalidad de Unamuno. Se observa que atraves de estas dos mujeres Unamuno se analiza a si mismo y que gracias a ellas el puede explorar posibles soluciones a sus preocupaciones personales. El objetivo principal de este trabajo es atribuir a los personajes femeninos unamunianos una mayor importancia en la filosofia y en la ficcion de su creador.

The present work is a study of metafictional aspects in three novels of Miguel de Unamuno. The first chapter provides a definition of metafiction and positions the idea of metafiction within the Spanish novel. This fictional concept is traced through the history of the Spanish novel beginning with its first appearance through its manifestation within the novels of Unamuno. In the second chapter, Unamuno's narrative style is described. The focus is placed on the author's own theory of the novel and on the metafictional elements of his style which illustrate him as an innovative novelist. A relevant way to understand the metafictional aspects in Unamuno's narrative is to analyze the fictional techniques that reflect the idea of metafiction in Niebla, Como se hace una novela, and San Manuel Bueno, martir. The function of the techniques is discussed in order to understand the innovations which Unamuno presents in these novels.

The series of the Rougon-Macquart is the grand epic of the nineteenth century. As in the series that comprise the earlier, classical epics, each link in the chain can stand alone and be examined separately from the rest. La Curee, the second novel in the series, is particularly interesting for, in it, a naturalist novel--itself an ironic form--Zola has written a myth in the true sense of the word. An archetypal study of La Curee reveals three distinct and definite stories recounting the Quests of three distinct and definite heroes. All of these heroes follow the pattern of what Joseph Campbell calls the Monomyth, the universal, metaphorical rendering of the explanation of life. This Monomyth is the story of the Hero's Quest and always entails certain steps: separation from society (especially mother), initiation (tests and trials), and return to society, the Hero bringing with him the boon of knowledge gleaned from the Quest. The myth of La Curee, like the universal Monomyth, has a specific structure: it is quite definitely circular and cyclical. The novel is circular in physical structure and the themes of death and rebirth, construction and destruction and the continual round of the phases of time recur in cyclical fashion. Zola's mixed use of demonic and apocolyptic imagery throughout is a further indication of the author's feeling (conscious or unconscious) for the mythic form within the guise of the ironic novel. Zola's desire to write a great epic succeeded in The Rougon-Macquart series, but his writing of La Curee shows that he was more than a scientist observing the history of a family--he was an imaginative author capable of explaining his world and survival in it, just as the classics and primitives explain theirs, through the metaphysical restatement of the Monomyth, the only truly universal art form.

Although most critics view Monluc's Commentaires as an historical work, there remains a literary value which cannot be neglected. Monluc recognized that an historical or military treatise alone would not ensure success. He therefore sought to improve the literary quality of the general narrative by impregnating it with subjective comments on moral, social, and military issues. The medium through which these comments are expressed to the reader is most often presented in the form of a remonstrance or speech. The purpose of this dissertation is to show the importance of remonstrance and oratory in the Commentaires relative to the general narrative and to determine their literary value. Remonstrance is defined in Huguet's Dictionnaire de la lanque francaise du seizieme siecle as an "exhortation" or "enseignement"; the term "discours" is mentioned as a treatise (traite) or account (recit) of certain events. Monluc's use of remonstrance and discourse in the Commentaires adheres closely to the above definitions. The remonstrances and discourses are found in the Commentaires as interruptions in the historical narrative or, especially in the case of oratory, as an integral part of an historical situation as described by Monluc. Monluc uses remonstrance and discourse for didactic purposes as he tries to impart his military knowledge to the reader; elsewhere his oratory becomes a tool of persuasion in furthering his own designs within the descriptive setting of an historical event while remonstrance takes the form of a complaint as he seeks to justify himself against accusations of treason and extortion. This study shows that the literary value of the Commentaires lies primarily in the application of remonstrance and oratory to historical narrative. The work is unique in that few histories of the period use remonstrance and oratory for the purpose of self-interested exhortation, counsel and justification. For this reason the Commentaires can be set distinctively apart as representing something more than history, they now become literarily appealing because they represent a particular application of forms that can be interpreted, discussed and analysed as literature. This study has uncovered a Monluc who is no longer to be viewed simply as a cruel and relentless soldier-historian but as an orator and polemicist who, considering the time period and the purposes for which he wrote, achieved great success in the forms of persuasion that he chose to use.

In La Tentation de l'Occident, written in 1926, the Chinaman Ling created a dividing line between the Orient and the Occident by saying that the Oriental wanted "to be" and that the Occidental wanted "to do." Ling's delineation of Orient and Occident, which can be defined as Yin Yang or "etre et faire," will form the basis of Malraux's attempt to fuse these two antithetical parts of the human psyche in order to create a new mode of being for Western man in the Oriental and Occidental trilogies. The task will be taken up by men of heroic stance who undergo shamanic initiation, thereby earning the right, in Malraux's viewpoint, to guide others. The Oriental trilogy (La Voie Royale, Les Conquerants, La Condition Humaine) will be treated as a Yin experience (etre) or a descent into the darkness of "time out of mind" in which Malraux freely experiments with various aspects of Oriental thought with the goal of creating a new balance between "etre et faire" through various paths of endeavor that would be acceptable to Western mentality: through isolated action in the jungles of Cambodia (Claude, Perken), through political action (Garine), through an effort to reintegrate the individual into concerted group activity while yet retaining his individuality (Kyo, Hemmelrich, Katow). The ultimate message of the Oriental experience, as it is mirrored through the shaman Gisors, is that Malraux's answer to Oriental absorption into the divine, though still on an abstract level, is Fraternity, or absorption into the human family. The Occidental trilogy (Le Temps du Mepris, L'Espoir, Les Noyers de l'Altenburg), or the Yang experience (faire), represents a coming back to "time within mind." The return to the relative sphere of existence changes the face of "etre et faire" from a purely metaphysical investigation which took place in the absolute freedom of cosmic timelessness in the Oriental trilogy, to an ethical investigation in which human action implies all the responsibilities involved in the encounter with one's fellowman in the immediate, existential, and historic moments of life. The practicality of the division of "etre et faire," as it represents the ethics of two groups, is explored (the anarchists and the purists versus the Communists in L'Espoir). The balance between "etre et faire," as it manifests itself in single individuals at different stages of life, is also reviewed (Manuel, Alvear). In its broadest terms, however, a detailed study of the characters of the Occidental trilogy shows that Malraux has arrived at a tentative solution for the West which treads a parallel path with the Orient. Although each man has an individual path, his doing is grounded in the Being of Fraternity. Kassner's intuition of Self, coupled with the intuition of a cosmic union with all men, is expanded in L'Espoir to take in individuals from the four corners of the globe, and culminates in the insight of the narrator of Les Noyers who is the shaman-writer Malraux, that although he is conscious of his own identity, he is also absorbed into the eternal flow of human history. On the individual level, this knowledge of self creates the desired balance between what a man "is" and what he "does" (Yin Yang). On a cultural level it will bring East and West together from which could arise a new value for modern man.

"L'espace du roman" refers to the space where the writing of the novel, as well as the reading of it, takes place; but it is also a structure of representation--a descriptive device within the text. In Maupassant's six novels, which are still regarded by the public at large and by many scholars as a form of what Roland Barthes called a "sous-ecriture," spatial structures form a stratified narrative in which the reader may discover several levels of discourse, thus risking semantic ambiguity. A semiotic approach allows the critic to determine the principles of organization, the modes of production, and the narrative articulation of the text as a coherent system of signs. In this perspective, space is a structure of representation as well as a representation of this structure. To understand the dual function of space, one must explore the text in a two-dimensional axis of contiguity and association. Space is first defined as a "system," a paradigmatic account of thematic motifs such as the voyage, the function of particular objects, the figures of elevation and descent, and so on. It can subsequently be considered as a syntagmatic process in the case study of each novel. While following the chronological order of the works as well as that of each narrative, the reader must maintain a circular perspective, since factors of correspondence and correlation between the texts and within each text are very frequent. In the light of this analysis, the novel appears to be based on a spatial network encompassing three levels which overlap and undermine one another: the textual dimension, which is the referential space of representation, the intratextual dimension, which is the space where the text refers to its own performance (in particular with the motifs of the letter and the mirror), and finally, the intertexual dimension, the space of literary denotation, where the text refers to other writings. From Une Vie to Notre Coeur, there is a noticeable evolution in the intertextual level as the narrative progressively rids itself of literary references. The intertextual space in Notre Coeur has become "reflexive," since it refers to a completely fictitious novel, the exact replica of itself: reality in literature has become a form of invention. The mirror images, such as the one mentioned above, exist at all three levels of spatial organization, and reveal a metalinguistic instance in Maupassant's novels. In search of its own (re)construction, the text produces in fact a sort of "sur-ecriture" where space is always in "excess." Unmasking the illusions, yet covering up the transparent messages of the naturalist novel, the very function of space is to associate antithetical elements, to maintain unresolved distances. Like Bel-Ami's one-way mirror, space is both a passage and a reflection, and while entertaining the reader with narcissistic images, it gives him clues concerning not only the making but also the critical reading of the novel.

The constant movement of time is the most significant pattern in the complex texture of the novels of William Faulkner and Marcel Proust. Both authors focus on the continuity of past and present as a central theme, and use the temporal attitudes of their intellectual protagonists as a means of characterization, ultimately arriving at dissimilar conclusions concerning their characters' ability to survive. Whereas Marcel is portrayed in a successful effort to recall the actions of the past through the use of memory and the discovery of a metaphoric method, Faulkner's isolated intellectuals ultimately fail in their effort to understand the discontinuity between past and present. The quest which enthralls both Faulkner and Proust is the effort to discover elements of timelessness in the self and in experience. In the literary portraits of Marcel and of Faulkner's intellectual figures, they describe the protagonists' quests for unity of being and continuity of time within the framework of past, present, and future. With their philosophical focus on time as an eternal phenomenon which man attempts to survive through forms of transcendence, the Proustian and Faulknerian perspectives are remarkably parallel. While using several of the same aesthetic techniques, however, the two authors present their fictional interpretations of man's effort to transcend the passage of time in completely different manners. With his imagination focused on the present, and the belief that he experiences life's reality through the repetition of sensation, Marcel realizes that recurring sensation can restore his original sense of being, fusing past and present into one. Reality is thus revealed in arrested moments of memory that Marcel can then aesthetically reproduce in art, hoping that his writing will have the same effect of restoration of being for the reader. With imaginations held captive by the past, Faulkner's intellectuals believe that life's only reality is to be found in the recreation of their idealistic obsessions from a time long ago. Whereas Proust employs the aesthetic device of arrested moments and recurrent sensation as Marcel's artistic means of transcending time, Faulkner uses the arrested moments of his intellectual protagonists as an aesthetic device to reveal the static, spatially frozen quality of time created from an emotional impasse caused by the outraging of their ideals. Through use of the identical aesthetic device of the arrested moment, which Proust expands to be all encompassing and Faulkner contracts to be static and rigid, both writers nevertheless emerge with a philosophical emphasis on man's constant need for restoration of being, which represents life itself. . . . (Author's abstract exceeds stipulated maximum length. Discontinued here with permission of school.) UMI

In Narrative Discourse Gerard Genette suggests the usefulness of examining narratives in terms of the relationships which exist among the story which the narrator sets out to relate, the narrative version of the story he actually tells and the act of telling the story. Taking as his model the various grammatical aspects of the verb, he examines these relationships with respect to time, mood and voice. The application of this approach in a study of four representative novels by Jean Giono--Un de Baumugnes, Le Chant du monde, Mort d'un personnage and L'Iris de Suze--brings to light aspects of his narrative technique which have not been clearly perceived before. The time aspect involves a comparison of the order, duration and frequency of events in the narrative with those in the story. Each of the Giono narratives displays a marked tendency to follow in its broad outlines the chronology of the story. At the level of smaller, mid-level narrative units a pattern of beginning many major divisions in medias res and returning to the past by means of alternating secondary narratives can be observed. At the microstructure level the primary narrator's utterances tend to remain closely tied to the narrative present moment. An examination of narrative speed reveals the texture of three of the narratives to be richest in the expositional sections, thinnest in the non-resolution portions and at a middle value as the conflicts are resolved. Each of the three is also found to follow a general pattern of scenes separated by ellipsis with narrative pause being rare and substitutes for summary the norm. The extensive use of iterative narrative in one work leads the narrator into conceptualization difficulties. The category of mood reveals a tendency to strive for less narrative distance by the direct reporting of characters' speech. Each of the four stories is internally focalized and a trend toward stricter adherence to a focalization concept can be detected. A study of narrative voice reveals a definite progression as the narrator in each successive work tends to be less evident as a personality than his predecessor.