Thèse numérisée par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.

At the beginning of the 1990’s, after a period of momentary confusion, when Czech literature seems to have temporarily lost its way in the newly establishing democratic society which emerged after the fall of communism a number of rather interesting and important writers appeared. Holding the memories of recent communist past and experiencing the historical turning point when Czech society rejoined the capitalist West, they produced an image of cultural and political initiation. They bore witness to the arrival of chaos, associated with regime change, to a crisis of personal values and a search for new ways of existence. This thesis analyzes the literary work of two contemporary Czech writers, Emil Hakl and Jan Balabán. It explores the way the reality of their narratives is shaped. It investigates the reality these narratives reflect, the reality these narratives create and the reality that the reader of these narratives re-creates on the basis of his/her knowledge of the world. The thesis considers the value judgments which are being made by Czech society through its contemporary literature about its post-communist present. The thesis also examines the question to what extent these narratives construct an image of contemporary Czech society. The thesis deals with the complete fiction written by Emil Hakl (b. 1958) and Jan Balabán (1961-2010), two popular and critically acclaimed Czech writers. The first part of the thesis analyzes Hakl’s fiction, in particular his debut Konec světa (The End of the World), a work which opens the world of Jan Beneš (Hakl’s real name), the narrating character of this text and also the narrating character of almost all the other texts written by Emil Hakl. The second part of the thesis focuses on the constructed and deconstructed world of Jan Balabán’s fiction. It deals with themes and motifs that appear and re-appear in the lives of Balabán’s male and female characters and explores individual characters whose lives have been shaped by their own personal breakdowns as well as by changes in the social and political conditions of the external world. The thesis analyzes Hakl’s and Balabán’s narratives from a narratological point of view. The thesis uses the semiotic and narratological approach (H. Porter Abbott, Mieke Bal, Seymour Chatman, Tomáš Kubíček and Gerald Prince), the post-structuralist approach (Roland Barthes, Jacques Derrida, Julia Kristeva), the psychoanalytical approach (Jacques Lacan, Slavoj Žižek), the postmodern (Steven Connor), the theories dealing with the typology and the mythology of the novel and the city (Daniela Hodrová), the cultural approach (John Storey) and the approach of New Historicism (Louis A. Montrose, Hayden White).

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Using Belarusian as a case study of a ‘minority’ European literature, this thesis explores the role of literary translation in the negotiation and promotion of a national identity (represented by two opposing discourses of “Old/European” and “New/Soviet” ‘Belarusianness’) as accomplished through translation from a lesser-known European tongue into the current global hegemonic language. In so doing, the research provides a wide historical panorama of all known literary translations from Belarusian to English, focusing on those published in the 20th and 21st centuries. While outlining the major tendencies of the translation process, the study considers the issues of both reception (focusing on the TL literary system) and representation (focusing on the negotiation of a Belarusian identity), recognising complex ideological, historical and political processes which accompany and, in many cases, predetermine translations and translation strategies. After examining the available terminology for the description of ‘minority’ in literary theory and translation studies, this research considers Belarus’ position as an Eastern European, post-Soviet country and discusses the case for the adoption of a postcolonial approach to the interpretation of ‘Belarusianness’. Another innovative aspect of the study lies in the contribution of a non-Western perspective to the current discussion of European minority languages in translation studies (Baer 2011; Branchadell and West 2005; Cronin 1995, 2003; Tymoczko 1995, 1999). A pioneering work on the history of Belarusian-English literary translation, this research defines several periods of translation activities: the ‘early’ translations of the 1890s – 1940s which mark the discovery of Belarusian folklore; the translations of the ‘Cold War’ period (1950s – 1980s) with two opposing ‘camps’ producing works provoked by nationalist (Western-based translations) or socialist (Soviet Union) ideologies; and, finally, the current post-independence period of Belarusian-English translation (1991-2012), with an analysis of the reasons for a relative inactivity. The evidence is based on a wide range of translations published as individual books and anthologies of poetry and prose, as well as those found in periodicals. It also includes previously unpublished findings from materials located in personal and national archives in Russia, Belarus, and the UK.

This study investigates the presence of the genre of psalms in Tsvetaeva's poetry by means of Alastaire Fowler's theory of the historical persistence of literary genres throughout history. The main argument is that in her intertextual use of psalms Tsvetaeva develops further some of their typical features such as the expression of bafflement at God's passivity or an over-familiarity in addressing God; although these features are already present in psalms, they are not given a full-blown realisation because of the religious restrictions reigning at the time and context in which they were written. Chapter One presents the theoretical tools used in this research, namely the concomitant concepts of intertextuality and genre: intertextuality focuses on how texts differ from one another, while genre theory highlights the resemblance existing between a set of texts. Taken together these concepts offer a balanced and multisided approach. Chapter Two presents the psalms and outlines its importance in Russian poetry. It also discusses Tsvetaeva's spiritual outlook. Chapter Three demonstrates that the integration of the generic intertext of psalms into Tsvetaeva's poetry results in the modification of their praying function: Tsvetaeva's psalm-like praises to God contain a veiled expression of doubt that is absent from the Psalter; another change of the praying function of psalms performed in Tsvetaeva's poetry consists in the implicit denunciation of the absence of a feminine voice. Chapter Four shows that Tsvetaeva's mixture of the psalmic intertext with the genre of diary-writing, epistolary writing and folk songs create a fruitful interaction between the universal tone of the psalmist and the private concerns voiced in diary, letters or folk laments. Chapter Five shows that in her poetry Tsvetaeva develops further some typical features of psalms such as the theme of the sacred land and that of God's passivity.

This thesis analyses the influence of literate culture on the corpus of Montenegrin oral epic songs published in Vuk Karadžić’s edition of Narodne srpske pjesme from 1823 to 1833. The Introduction places the research in the scholarly context of the Parry-Lord theory of oral composition, later analyses of transitional texts that contain both oral traditional and literary characteristics, and recent interest in the entire process of transcription, edition and publication of songs belonging to the oral tradition. This is followed by an outline of facts relevant to the social and political history of Montenegro, its epic tradition and earliest textual representation. The first chapter discusses in detail the concepts of oral traditional, transitional and nontraditional texts and offers a synthetic theoretical framework for the analysis of transitional South Slavonic oral songs, based on their phraseology, style, outlook and contextual evidences about their documentation and singers. In the second chapter, this is followed by a textual analysis of five genuine oral traditional Montenegrin songs from Karadžić’s collection and a discussion of their style, themes and overall perspective. In the third chapter, two songs about contemporary Montenegrin battles from the collection are analysed and identified as proper transitional texts; they contain a number of literary elements and were influenced by the Montenegrin ruler Bishop Petar I, but also retain to some extent the characteristics of traditional oral songs. The final chapter identifies nontraditional elements in the four songs that Karadžić wrote down from a literate Montenegrin singer Đuro Milutinović Crnogorac. It is argued that these songs combine a traditional style and outlook with elements distinct from local oral tradition, which the singer had adopted during his education and under the influence of Bishop Petar. The main conclusion of the thesis is that the earliest publication of Montenegrin oral tradition already contained a number of features of literary origin; two out of eleven songs are proper transitional texts, and four others display the influence of literate culture. These texts and features did not originate in the local oral tradition; rather, they were introduced by a literate singer close to the political leadership and then incorporated in the collection of oral traditional songs during the process of its literary documentation and representation. By revealing the complex socio-political framework giving rise to the early-nineteenth century collections of South Slavonic oral songs, this thesis makes a contribution to current research in the textualisation of the oral tradition, and provides a consistent model for the analysis of transitional texts in oral studies.

This study takes one aspect of the post-conflict peace-building process in Bosnia- Herzegovina since 1995 - the recognition of three official but mutually comprehensible languages - and examines the way in which the international community's approach to it has impacted on broader peacebuilding goals for the country. The originality of this thesis lies in the fact that it views post-conflict peace-building in Bosnia-Herzegovina through the lens of the language issue. Taking the Dayton Peace Agreement (1995) as the starting point I look at the way in which its provisions have largely dictated the international community's approach to the language issue and created the political environment in which language operates. Further, applying the concept of societal security I explain how the language issue is used by domestic elites to frustrate attempts at reconciliation by the international community; I argue that the international community's approach, based on the equality of the three languages, only feeds into the divisive ethnic politics of present-day Bosnia-Herzegovina and ultimately undermines the security and stability of the country. I also look in detail at two very different but complimentary areas of ongoing post- conflict reform in Bosnia-Herzegovina and analyse the international community's approach to language in each: reform of the education system and defence reform. In the former the language issue cannot be divorced from the identity-formation goals of domestic elites in the education reform. The international community's approach to language in this regard has been counterproductive and has only bolstered attempts to maintain segregation in schools. In the area of defence reform the focus of language policy is not on issues of identity but on the translation and interpretation policy of the international military force which is guided by locally-hired interpreters and translators. I use narrative theory (Baker, 2006) to explain how they negotiate issues of identity, loyalty and ethics and argue that through their influence policy has been more flexible and able to adapt to the requirements of the defence reform. Finally I contend that the international community has tended to view language as an unimportant element of its activities in Bosnia-Herzegovina. This study argues that far from this being the case the international community's approach to language holds important lessons for future peacebuilding endeavours elsewhere.

This study seeks to show how the literary legacy of Mikhail Zoshchenko (1894-1958) can productively be understood as a sustained textual engagement with the writer's own melancholia. Drawing equally on present-day critical approaches which increasingly emphasize the unity of life and art in the works of Zoshchenko, and on a psychoanalytically-influenced model of textual melancholia, this study posits and analyzes a melancholy component of the broader comic aesthetic that typified Zoshchenko's early work and on which, to a large degree, Zoshchenko's reputation still rests today. The study then proceeds to trace the development of this textual melancholia beyond its aesthetic representation in earlier works to show an increasingly direct discursive elaboration of the condition in works written after 1927. This evolution in the textual refraction of the writer's melancholia is shown to extend into the writer's later 'medical' works where they acquire a more or less explicit therapeutic function and become a kind of culturally nuanced Soviet language of melancholia. This development is contextualised by reference to Soviet conceptions of mental illness and a Soviet medical establislunent characterized by an unusually dominant physiological understanding of the mind. Throughout, the study aims to demonstrate how a reading of the Zoshchenko oeuvre in terms of melancholia can deepen and broaden critical understandings of this enigmatic writer, opening up a hitherto neglected ideational component of Zoshchenko's art.

The thesis examines the role played by the characters in the structuring of Dostoevskii's novel Idiot. Taking into account the author's lack of a fixed plan for the novel, it assumes a future as yet uncreated and susceptible to being influenced and shaped by the characters. It identifies the concept of ‘scripting', incorporating the strategies used by the protagonists to orchestrate their own lives and those of others, and thus to take control of the text, and the impulses behind these strategies. Both aspects are used to explore two connected issues; self-other interactions, connected primarily to the strategies employed, and the questions of faith and doubt faced by the characters, which are grounded in the same impulses as scripting. The concept of presentness links both areas. By looking in detail at the hero's and heroine's ideas and actions, how they affect each other and the other protagonists, the thesis examines how they steer the direction of the narrative and their primary motivation in doing so. Widening the focus to explore the implications of this analysis on the ethical and narrational planes, the thesis draws together the strands of scripting, presentness, self-other interactivity and problems of faith and doubt in order to discuss the nature of the ethical and narrational ideals posited by the novel, and the role these themes play in creating a sense of unity in the text, despite its unusual structuring.

The aim of this thesis is twofold: to deepen existing understanding of Turgenev's impact upon late nineteenth- century English literature by a concentrated study of his meaning for George Gissing and Henry James, and to study selected examples of English language translations of Turgenev's work in both their linguistic and their cultural aspects. The first of these two lines of inquiry is undertaken in the belief that existing studies of Turgenev's influence upon English writers have, on the whole, left untouched the question of the respective cultural contexts, within which Turgenev and his devotees wrote. It is this question, and in particular the awareness of historical determinism and its relation to culture on the part of Turgenev and his English admirers, that I have tried to explore. The second of my aims has been to perform the task, hitherto neglected, of assessing the stylistic qualities and linguistic accuracy of the most significant translations of Turgenev's work into English undertaken during the nineteenth century. Additionally, I have tried to establish the importance for those translations of the English cultural context in which they were undertaken. In doing so, I hope to have shown how the nature and reception of translations from so unfamiliar a tongue as Russian in the second half of the nineteenth century may be taken as indices of shifts in English cultural and historical perspectives during that period. To these ends, I have devoted the first and fourth chapters of this thesis to a study of English traBlations from Turgenev in the eighteen-fifties and eighteen-nineties respectively, while the second and third chapters assess the significance of Turgenev for two contrasting writers of the period, Gissing and James.