This thesis examines the image of the adolescent girl in contemporary French first-person novels, read from a gender perspective. It is both a thematic and a narratologic study of thirty-two novels (1950-1999), focusing on the use of stereotypical concepts of femininity. From a thematic perspective, the female protagonists’ world stands out as dark and problematic, especially in comparison with the world of the male protagonists. The recurrent themes revolve around sexuality and violence in both worlds, but they are treated differently depending on the biological sex of the protagonist. This thematic study thus shows that the protagonists live in a patriarchal world, with different norms for girls and boys. However, an examination of the ‘I’ narrator somewhat modifies the compact, gloomy picture of the girls’ situation. The authors introduce perspectives on the fictional universe of the adolescent, for instance by contrasting the focalization of the adolescent and potentially unreliable narrator with the supposed view of the adult reader. These perspectives are subversive in some novels, but mostly vague. Accordingly, the readers are often left to their own interpretation and evaluation of the adolescent girls’ situation. Finally, a discussion of virtual readers and “target readers” shows a tendency to read and market the novels in question as more or less autobiographical. Such readings modify their ideological potential.

L'altérité de genre est un des sujets qui intéressait et intéresse toujours les linguistes. Dans notre thèse, nous avons choisi d'étudier les mots (tous types) qui connaissent l'altérité masculin-féminin et qui peuvent référer aux êtres humains spécifiques. Notre étude concerne donc les différentes classes grammaticales des langues française et arabe. Nous nous intéressons plus précisément à la manière dont le féminin est formé afin de constater si le mot, marqué en genre, représente le féminin comme l'Autre ou non. En d'autres termes, si le mot au féminin se forme à partir ou par rapport au masculin, ou s'il est indépendant de ce dernier. Le rapprochement entre le féminin et l'Autre, lié à la position qu'occupe chacun dans sa relation : masculin-féminin / Moi-Autre, permet, en fait, de voir, vu le statut attribué à l'Autre, si la position seconde du féminin reflète une certaine infériorité, entrainant une discrimination à l'égard des femmes dans la langue. / Gender alterity is one of the topics that was and still interesting to the linguists. In our thesis, we chose to study the words (all types) which have the masculine-feminine alterity and can refer to a specific human. Our study is concerned with the different grammatical classes of French and Arabic languages. We focus specifically on how the feminine is formed to note whether the word, is marked by the gender, represents the feminine as the Other or not. In other words, if the feminine word form relates, depends on the masculine or if it is an independent form. The comparison between the feminine and the Other that is related to the occupied position by each one in its relationship (masculine-feminine / Me-the Other), will allow in fact (acoording to the Other status that is attributed) to figure out if the second position of the feminine reflects a certain inferiority, which leads to a discrimination against women in the language.

Cette recherche qualitative et exploratoire porte sur la construction identitaire de l’homme marié violent au Liban. Elle s’appuie notamment sur les discours de l’homme violent et de la femme violentée (récits de vie, interrogatoires juridiques, questionnaires) et aussi sur le discours de personnes-ressources non violentes. La construction identitaire de l’homme violent au Liban est liée au système patriarcal fortement ancré dans la culture, les institutions et la vie des Libanais. L’homme évolue en fonction de 3 prototypes :- masculin : dominant, pourvoyeur, protecteur, agressif- féminin : soumise, femme au foyer, disponible, douce- du couple : verrouillage des autres prototypes dans une complémentarité sexisteLa violence masculine traduit la place de l’homme dans le couple (violences symboliques et violences spontanées), elle traduit aussi sa volonté de conserver l’ordre patriarcal dans la famille car toute évolution des prototypes notamment celui de la femme est sentie par l’homme comme une menace contre sa masculinité (violences interactionnelles). La violence est accentuée car le Liban évolue sous l’empire de stress, ce qui met les rôles patriarcaux en question en permanence. La trajectoire identitaire de l’homme violent libanais montre qu’il a un père autoritaire et sévère, parfois faible. Sa mère pourrait être envahissante, absente ou ambivalente. Du point de vue couple l’homme violent cherche le couple fusionnel car il traduit parfaitement la complémentarité patriarcale sexiste. L’ordre social patriarcal libanais est en perpétuelle reproduction engendrant des hommes sexistes prêts à devenir violents. La femme est encerclée par la violence même, sa honte d’être femme battue et/ou femme divorcée, mais aussi à cause du tiers d’idéologie sexiste : parents, amis, société, institutions concernées. La lutte contre la violence conjugale au Liban doit être totale : contre la violence, les inégalités de genre et la culture patriarcale. / This qualitative and exploratory research is about the construction of the identity of the violent married man in Lebanon. It is based on different sources, the violent man, the battered woman discourse (biography, court records, and questionnaires) and the discourse of non-violent resource-person. The construction of the identity of the violent man in Lebanon is related to the patriarchal system which is strongly anchored in the culture, institution and life of the Lebanese. In this environment man evolves into three prototypes:- The masculine: dominant, protector, provider, aggressive.- The feminine: submissive, housewife, available, soft.- The couple: the clamping of the two other prototypes in one complementary sexist relationship.The masculine violence can reflect the man’s place in the couple (symbolic violence, spontaneous violence), and can also show the willingness to conserve the patriarchal order in the family because every evolution of prototypes especially the women’s role is felt by man as a threat against his masculinity (interaction violence). Violence is accentuated because Lebanon is a society under stress, which permanently distorts the masculine image. The identity trajectory of the Lebanese violent man shows that he has an authoritarian and severe father figure, or a feeble one. His mother can be overbearing, absent or ambivalent. Concerning the couple, the violent man searches for the fusional couple because it reflects perfectly the sexist patriarchal complementarity. The Lebanese social patriarchal order is in perpetual reproduction generating sexist man ready to become violent. The woman is surrounded by violence, and shame feeling of being a battered woman and/or divorced woman, and because of the others that are sexist: parents, friends, society institutions and concerned responsible. The struggle against violence can only be total: it must be against violence, gender inequality and against patriarchal society.