This dissertation analyzes seventeenth- and eighteenth-century French perceptions of the bodies of Indians in New France and Louisiana. It reveals that all French authors who visited New France in the early seventeenth century believed that human differences were mutable and, with instruction and land cultivation, Indians would physically and culturally assimilate into French colonial society---if Europeans did not degenerate from life in the wilderness first. Beginning in the late seventeenth century, missionary disillusionment, colonial projections of order and later Enlightenment concepts of natural rights and systems of nature prompted authors to reformulate these early perceptions. As Indians appeared unwilling or unable to adopt civilized manners, some authors concluded that natives did not possess the reason needed to do so. By the late eighteenth century, some colonial officials and European naturalists suggested that the physique and morals of North American Indians were not mutable but, instead, that Indians in French North America were permanently and essentially incapable of "improving" either their bodies or their minds. / Historians studying seventeenth- and eighteenth-century colonial perceptions of North American Indians have generally analyzed European depictions of Indians with twentieth-century understandings of human difference. By examining French perceptions of Indians with early modern understandings of the body, this thesis seeks to see natives through the eyes of the authors who described them. / The sources for this study include French travelogues and missionary accounts from New France and Louisiana which were published contemporaneously, correspondence and memoirs which have since been published and archived letters from colonial administrators writing from Canada and Louisiana.

This thesis investigates the ways in which British and French imperial heroes involved in the exploration, conquest or administration of Mrica between 1870 and 1939 were selected, packaged and promoted to the various sections of the public of their respective countries. It seeks to unveil the commercial, political and personal interests that lay behind the imperial hero-making business. This research analyses the hidden mechanisms, as well as the reasons that led to the appearance of a new type of hero in the context of the 'new' T Imperialism and the 'Scramble for Mrica': private connections, political lobbies (especially colonial advocates and nationalists), commercial interests (journalists, writers, biographers, hagiographers, publishers, film-makers) and personal ambition, the combination of which underpinned the creation and success ofheroic reputations. The first part of the thesis investigates the process through which imperial heroes progressively became widely known in their homelands, and how it was facilitated by the technical and social improvements of the Second Industrial Revolution. Drawing upon a wide variety of printed and manuscript sources, it shows the ever-increasing commercial success of imperial heroes throughout the period, analyses how they could serve political ends, and explains the values for which 'they were held up as examples. The second part examines the case studies of two military commanders in times of Anglo-French rivalry in Africa (the Sirdar Kitchener and Major Marchand before, during and after the Fashoda confrontation of 1898), in order to compare the modalities of the development of these legends, and the different backdrops against which they took shape. This thesis is the first to combine quantitative evidence (such as print run figures) and qualitative sources (such as police records) to demonstrate conclusively the prevalence and complexity of the hero-making process brought about by the conquest of Mrica, and to evaluate the reception of these heroic myths among the public.

No description available.

Doctorat en philosophie et lettres, Orientation histoire de l'art et archéologie / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Cette thèse constitue une analyse de contenu des critiques contre l'Union européenne exprimées par plusieurs acteurs politiques et sociaux de gauche en France et en Allemagne, au cours des débats sur le projet de Constitution européenne. Elle s'intéresse plus particulièrement aux idéologies sous-jacentes à ces critiques. Pour comprendre le sens de ces arguments, les comparer entre eux et les classer, certains idéaux-types ont été élaborés sur quatre dimensions (politique, socio-économique, identitaire et stratégique). Cette recherche a permis de combler une lacune importante dans l'analyse des acteurs dits "eurosceptiques", à savoir, l'étude des idéologies animant ces courants. L'essentiel de la littérature se concentre en effet surtout sur l'explication de l'euroscepticisme et, lorsqu'elle aborde leur idéologie, c'est pour construire des taxinomies excessivement globales. La thèse explore aussi en conclusion certaines pistes d'explications de ces résistances à l'UE en essayant d'aller au-delà des visions stratégiques, culturalistes et institutionnalistes, dominantes dans ce domaine, et en insistant davantage sur les dimensions idéelles et structurelles.<p><p>//<p>This doctoral dissertation analyses the content of the critiques made by some left-wing social and political actors in France and Germany against the current EU. The study focuses on the debates that surrounded the project of European Constitution and more specifically on the more general ideologies underlying these arguments. In order to understand, compare and classify these critiques, idealtypes have been elaborated on four dimensions (socio-economic, political, identity-related and strategic). This research fills a gap in the literature analysing so-called "eurosceptic" actors by concentrating on the ideas conveyed by these currents. Indeed, most of this literature mostly tries to explain this phenomenon. And when it addresses the issue of ideology, it is only to build too far-reaching categories. The conclusion also aims at exploring possible explanations of theses resistances to the EU beyond the traditional theories, based on strategic agency, culturalism and institutionalism, and insisting more on the role of ideas and material structures.<p> / Doctorat en Sciences politiques et sociales / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished