Ce mémoire est le résultat d’une exploration des thèmes de la quotidienneté et de la banalité qui ont mené à un projet de création. La première partie de ce travail est composée d’un court essai qui s’intéresse à trois axes en particulier : les entrées et les sorties de la narration, les lectures de tous les genres, ainsi qu’un commentaire sur quelques-uns des textes créés dans le cadre de cette maîtrise. La deuxième partie est consacrée à la création et est constituée d’un recueil de quatorze nouvelles intitulé Nouvelles orphelines. / May 2015

In this thesis, I set out to examine how Lukas Bärfuss’ Hundert Tage and Rainer Wochele’s Der General und der Clown represent the Rwandan genocide. I argue that narrative structures foreground the protagonists, their feelings and personal suffering rather than real events. The violence that occurred during the Rwandan genocide is narrated through the protagonists’ perspective and reflected in their development throughout the course of the novels. In a post-Holocaust and postcolonial paradigm German-speaking authors have to be mindful of the issues associated with topics such as genocide on the African continent. Especially texts written by German-language authors have to reflect on the violent history of German-speaking countries and they have to problematize traditional stereotypes that are connected with former colonies. Writing about genocide on a different continent highlights the difficulty of “speaking the unspeakable.” My analysis shows that both novels use narrative devices such as frame-narration and the separation between homo- and heterodiegetic narrators and their focalizers to create narrative and emotional distance from the characters and events. Further, the personal character traits and the development of the protagonists over the course of the novels are used to reflect both on the violence and the possibilities of narrating such extreme events. Both novels portray their protagonists as self-involved persons. I conclude that the statements they make about the genocide and their surroundings are ambiguous because they only relate those events that can be connected to the construction of the protagonists’s own identity. They present only parts of what they have seen in order to create a one-sided picture of themselves and of their suffering. In the first chapter of the main part of my thesis I provide an introduction about the issues associated with writing about the Rwandan genocide and locate Bärfuss and Wochele within the German-language tradition of writing about Africa. In the second chapter of the main part I examine how narrative strategies are used to call into question the veracity of the accounts of their protagonists. Furthermore, I argue that these narrative structures are also used to place special emphasis on the protagonists. The third chapter focuses on the protagonists’ perception of events and how their perspective is influenced by cultural stereotypes. I suggest that both protagonists aspire to create a certain picture of themselves, but a close reading reveals that both protagonists are influenced by cultural prejudices. These influences can also be seen in how they talk about the violence they have experienced. The last chapter investigates how violence is portrayed in the two novels. It becomes clear that the protagonists use descriptions of violence to foreground their own experiences, feelings and suffering rather than the actual genocide. I conclude that writing about genocide in a German-language context requires new narrative techniques to speak the unspeakable. Bärfuss and Wochele do not lay claim to any kind of truth. By problematizing their characters’ reliability as eye-witnesses, they undermine the notion that a universal “truthful” account of the events can be achieved. By focussing on their protagonists’ own suffering they highlight the “dark” continent’s role as the “other” in the self-conception of the West. Both authors use their protagonists to describe the violence that occurred in Rwanda and they do not absolve the murderers, but they also implicate their own protagonists and postcolonial Western cultural politics and stereotypes in contributing to the genocide.

Thèse diffusée initialement dans le cadre d'un projet pilote des Presses de l'Université de Montréal/Centre d'édition numérique UdeM (1997-2008) avec l'autorisation de l'auteur.

Thèse diffusée initialement dans le cadre d'un projet pilote des Presses de l'Université de Montréal/Centre d'édition numérique UdeM (1997-2008) avec l'autorisation de l'auteur.

La première partie de ce mémoire est une oeuvre de création qui joue avec les notions de focalisation et de voix tel que les représente Gérard Genette. Ce récit a principalement comme thèmes centraux le mensonge et les personnalités multiples qui peuvent habiter la psyché d'un homme. Il est suivi d'un essai qui a pour but d'analyser le lien de confiance que le lecteur et le narrataire peuvent avoir envers le narrateur dans Cité de verre de Paul Auster. Une analyse de la narration, de la focalisation et du discours intérieur dans ce roman constituera principalement cet essai. À la toute fin, nous pouvons conclure qu'aucun lien de confiance ne peut être établi entre les deux parties.

Roman singulier mais pluriel par ses cent soixante-dix-neuf histoires répertoriées dans le compendium, La Vie mode d’emploi invite le lecteur à pénétrer dans un monde hybride. Ancré dans l’imaginaire de Georges Perec, il n’hésite cependant pas à mettre un pied dans le réel du lecteur donnant à la narration un aspect particulièrement troublant et déroutant pour ce dernier. Les théoriciens de la psychologie évolutionniste tel que Joseph Carroll, proposent de considérer le texte littéraire comme le vecteur d’un apprentissage adaptatif de l’espèce humaine. Grâce à la narration, l’être humain développe des outils cognitifs nécessaires à sa survie. Le roman de Perec raconte les histoires de Percival Bartlebooth, un jeune rentier Anglais qui a consacré la moitié de sa vie à atteindre un idéal inatteignable, et de Gaspard Winckler, « son double », nourrissant une vengeance silencieuse et secrète à son égard. Le lecteur suivra donc les traces de ces destins incroyables pour tenter de découvrir l’ultime vérité que cache La Vie mode d’emploi. / Graduate / 0401 / magaliblanc20@gmail.com

In this thesis, I set out to examine how Lukas Bärfuss’ Hundert Tage and Rainer Wochele’s Der General und der Clown represent the Rwandan genocide. I argue that narrative structures foreground the protagonists, their feelings and personal suffering rather than real events. The violence that occurred during the Rwandan genocide is narrated through the protagonists’ perspective and reflected in their development throughout the course of the novels. In a post-Holocaust and postcolonial paradigm German-speaking authors have to be mindful of the issues associated with topics such as genocide on the African continent. Especially texts written by German-language authors have to reflect on the violent history of German-speaking countries and they have to problematize traditional stereotypes that are connected with former colonies. Writing about genocide on a different continent highlights the difficulty of “speaking the unspeakable.” My analysis shows that both novels use narrative devices such as frame-narration and the separation between homo- and heterodiegetic narrators and their focalizers to create narrative and emotional distance from the characters and events. Further, the personal character traits and the development of the protagonists over the course of the novels are used to reflect both on the violence and the possibilities of narrating such extreme events. Both novels portray their protagonists as self-involved persons. I conclude that the statements they make about the genocide and their surroundings are ambiguous because they only relate those events that can be connected to the construction of the protagonists’s own identity. They present only parts of what they have seen in order to create a one-sided picture of themselves and of their suffering. In the first chapter of the main part of my thesis I provide an introduction about the issues associated with writing about the Rwandan genocide and locate Bärfuss and Wochele within the German-language tradition of writing about Africa. In the second chapter of the main part I examine how narrative strategies are used to call into question the veracity of the accounts of their protagonists. Furthermore, I argue that these narrative structures are also used to place special emphasis on the protagonists. The third chapter focuses on the protagonists’ perception of events and how their perspective is influenced by cultural stereotypes. I suggest that both protagonists aspire to create a certain picture of themselves, but a close reading reveals that both protagonists are influenced by cultural prejudices. These influences can also be seen in how they talk about the violence they have experienced. The last chapter investigates how violence is portrayed in the two novels. It becomes clear that the protagonists use descriptions of violence to foreground their own experiences, feelings and suffering rather than the actual genocide. I conclude that writing about genocide in a German-language context requires new narrative techniques to speak the unspeakable. Bärfuss and Wochele do not lay claim to any kind of truth. By problematizing their characters’ reliability as eye-witnesses, they undermine the notion that a universal “truthful” account of the events can be achieved. By focussing on their protagonists’ own suffering they highlight the “dark” continent’s role as the “other” in the self-conception of the West. Both authors use their protagonists to describe the violence that occurred in Rwanda and they do not absolve the murderers, but they also implicate their own protagonists and postcolonial Western cultural politics and stereotypes in contributing to the genocide.

La performativité est une théorie qui a été développée de la théorie des actes de paroles (J.L. Austin), aux études anthropologiques (Victor Turner), jusqu’à être considérée comme un modèle épistémologique plus connu sous le nom de tournant performatif. La théorie performative est ainsi devenue une catégorie d’analyse qui cherche à étudier les phénomènes culturels en tant que représentations d’actes et de discours. C’est avec Judith Butler et les études performatives (Performative Studies) qu’elle a atteint son apogée comme outil fructueux pour l’étude des performances théâtrales. Cependant, son application aux phénomènes narratifs a été moindre et elle s’est à peine développée en tant que perspective qui favorise l’observation du genre comme performance dans le roman. À partir de la théorie de la performativité du genre (Butler) et des performances théâtrales considérées comme modificatrices des réalités des spectateurs, ce travail aspire, en premier lieu, à unir les deux concepts et à établir un cadre épistémologique qui permette d’organiser la performativité du genre dans le roman. Ainsi, nous utiliserons les concepts anti-essentialistes de Butler sur le sexe et le genre, le tabou, les livrets de genre et la parodie, puis les éléments propres à tout acte performatif décrits par Erika Fischer-Lichte dans sa théorie de la performance : l’imprévisibilité, la perception et l’ambivalence. Pour mettre en pratique cette théorie, nous avons utilisé un corpus de littérature contemporaine argentine composé des romans Ganarse la muerte de Griselda Gambaro, El común olvido de Sylvia Molloy et “Letargo” de Perla Suez. À travers les diverses stratégies narratives utilisées par ces écrivaines, nous entreprendrons de démontrer la manière dont se performe le genre dans le roman particulièrement à travers la figure du personnage. / The concept of performativity has been developed by different approaches, ranging from speech act theory (J. L. Austin) to anthropological studies (Victor Turner), and has been considered an epistemological model known as “performative turn”. The performative theory has turned into an analytical category that aims to investigate cultural phenomena as a representation of acts and discourses, reaching its peak by gender studies as created by Judith Butler and the Performance Studies as a tool to analyze dramatic performances. However, its application to narrative phenomena has been scarce and there hardly exists any perspectives that would allow to consider gender as a performance within a novel.Based on the theory of gender performativity (Butler) and drama performance as modifiers of spectators’ realities, the present work aims in the first place to fuse both concepts and establish an epistemological framework that allows the analysis of gender performances in narrative fiction. Among these concepts the anti-essentialist ones by Butler about sex and gender, taboo, gender libretos and parody, stand out, as well as the elements of every performative act as depicted by Erika Fischer-Lichte in her theory on performance: unpredictability, perception and ambivalence.A corpus of contemporary Argentine literature was used to put into practice this theory. It consists of the novels Ganarse la muerte by Griselda Gambaro, El común olvido by Sylvia Molloy and “Letargo” by Perla Suez. The authors of these texts make use of a wide range of narrative strategies whose analysis will prove how gender is performed in novels. / La performatividad ha sido desarrollada desde la teoría de los actos de habla (J. L. Austin) hasta los estudios antropológicos (Victor Turner) hasta considerarse un modelo epistemológico conocido como giro performativo. La teoría performativa se convirtió en una categoría de análisis que pretendía estudiar los fenómenos culturales como una representación de actos y discursos, cuyo desarrollo alcanzó su cima con los estudios de género de la mano de Judith Butler y con los estudios performativos (Performance studies) como una herramienta capaz de estudiar las performances teatrales. Sin embargo, su aplicación en los fenómenos narrativos ha sido escasa y apenas se ha desarrollado un enfoque que permita contemplar el género como performance en la novela.Partiendo de la teoría de la performatividad del género (Butler) y de las performances teatrales como modificadoras de las realidades de lxs espetadorxs, este trabajo pretende, en primer lugar, aunar ambos conceptos y establecer un marco epistemológico que permita analizar la performatividad del género en la ficción narrativa. Entre ellos destacan los conceptos antiesencialistas de Butler sobre el sexo y género, el tabú, los libretos de género y la parodia, así como los elementos propios de todo acto performativo descritos por Erika Fischer-Lichte en su teoría de la performance: la imprevisibilidad, percepción y ambivalencia.Para poner en práctica esta teoría se ha utilizado un corpus de literatura contemporánea argentina compuesto por las novelas Ganarse la muerte de Griselda Gambaro, El común olvido de Sylvia Molloy y “Letargo” de Perla Suez. Las autoras de estos textos hacen uso de una diversidad de estrategias narrativas a través de las cuales se pretende demostrar cómo se performa el género en la novela, prestando especial atención al personaje.

La présente thèse propose d’aborder l’oeuvre perecquienne sous le prisme de la mise en abyme, procédé a priori éculé de la littérature du XXe siècle, dont l’efficacité narrative semble toutefois avoir séduit un écrivain préoccupé à la fois à fonder son écriture dans un système et à entretenir le plaisir illusoire de la fiction. En raison de l’aporie d’une apparition pure du procédé, le champ d’étude est élargi aux mouvements plus amples qu’il implique : l’inclusion et la répétition. Ces deux mouvements, qui stimulent une tension entre le tout et ses parties, peuvent également servir à décrire le geste d’écriture de Perec, profondément animé par une recherche d’adhésion au monde. Un horizon narratif spécifique se profile, complété de l’imaginaire du procédé en soi. D’une part, la mise en abyme est considérée dans sa proximité avec la dimension métatextuelle des récits, aux effets souvent métaleptiques. D’autre part, par la figurabilité du procédé, lui permettant d’agir comme sujet et objet d’une réflexion, l’écriture perecquienne est appréhendée dans sa plasticité. Enfin, cet horizon narratif est confronté à l’idée que Perec formule autour d’un possible « narratème », une unité narrative minimale qui contiendrait en germe un univers de fiction. L’effet local de la mise en abyme s’ouvre à la dynamique générale des récits, entre condensation et extension. Des seuils narratifs ou textuels émergent où se négocie l’inscription de l’auteur dans ses récits : raconter et se raconter. Outre le corpus perecquien, la pertinence de cet élargissement de la mise en abyme est vérifiée au sein des oeuvres des écrivains francophones luxembourgeois : Jean Portante et Jean Sorrente. / This PHD thesis approaches Perec’s work through the prism of the mise en abyme, an a priori overused process of 20th century literature, whose narrative efficiency seems nevertheless to have attracted a writer set on basing his writing in a system and maintaining the illusory pleasure of fiction. Due to the aporia of a pure appearance of the process, the area of the study is broadened to the more wide et #8208;ranging movements it implies: inclusion and repetition. These two movements, which initiate a tension between the whole and its parts, can also be used to describe Perec’s gesture of writing, animated by the wish to be part of the world. A specific narrative horizon emerges. On the one hand, the mise en abyme is considered in its closeness to the metatextual dimension of the narratives, whose effects are often metaleptical. On the other hand, because of the process’ figurability, which enables it to act as subject as well as objet of a reflection, Perec’s writing can be apprehended in its plasticity. Finally, this narrative horizon is confronted with the idea that Perec voices about a possible “narratheme”, a minimal narrative unit that would contain the seeds of a fictional world. The local effect of the mise en abyme opens to a more general dynamic of the narratives, between condensation and extension. Narrative or textual thresholds appear, where the inclusion of the author in his writings is negotiated: to narrate and to narrate oneself. Besides the perecquian corpus, the relevance of the enlargement of the mise en abyme is demonstrated in the works of Luxembourgish authors writing in french: Jean Portante and Jean Sorrente.

This essay examines the communication made by the main characters in the novel Gilgi - eine von uns written by the german author Irmgard Keun. The purpose of the essay is to analyze what the communication between the main characters looks like and if it differs between the female and male protagonists. The hypothesis of this essay is that the communication has an impact on the life of the main character Gilgi. The methods that have been used are different communication theories, relationship aspects, literary communication, narrative text analysis and gender studies. The conclusion of this essay is that the communication differs, but more in the aspect of the personality traits of the character, not according to gender. The communication itself does not affect Gilgi’s life, it is rather the fact of getting pregnant.