Cette these est une etude de la conscience morale et religieuse chez les personnages de La Comedie Humaine d'Honore de Balzac. Parmi les raisons qui ont motive le choix de ce sujet mentionnons d'abord le fait que, si nombreux que soient les ouvrages---essais, etudes critiques litteraires ou philosophiques---dont Balzac et son oeuvre ont ete l'objet, on ne trouve dans aucun une etude de la conscience dans le grand oeuvre de Balzac, La Comedie Humaine . Le sujet restait donc a prendre et il y avait la un champ vierge a explorer. Les autres motifs qui ont determine ce choix sont d'ordre moral; nous vivons une epoque faite d'instabilite, d'incertitudes et d'angoisses. Toutes les valeurs sont sans cesse remises en question. La conscience individuelle et l'imperatif social ont continuellement l'occasion de se heurter ou, a tout le moins, de se trouver en conflit. L'individu, de plus en plus lucide et conscient, refuse les etalons et le code de morale que lui legue la tradition ou que lui presentent les religions, qu'il ne les ait passes au crible de sa propre conscience. Or notre epoque est l'aboutissement crucial d'une evolution de la societe dont une des grandes etapes est precisement le moment ou vecut Balzac. Etudier la conscience morale et religieuse dans La Comedie Humaine est particulierement interessant en ce sens que cela nous permet precisement de voir comment fonctionnait la conscience dans cette societe qui voyait deja possibles, grace au progres scientifique et a l'evolution politique, la satisfaction de tous ses appetits, la realisation de tous ses desirs et de toutes ses ambitions et qui, pour justifier ce qui est le moins justifiable, trouva commode d'instituer des etalons de morale differents. L'on pourrait objecter qu'ils ont toujours existe. Sans doute, mais tenus en lisiere par la morale, les convenances sociales et, en particulier, par les religions. L'epoque ou vecut Balzac fut celle des vaincus comme celle des tigres et des requins, et celle ou le "surhomme", commencait a poindre et essayait deja ses ailes. Les actions de ce surhomme trouvaient deja justification a ses propres yeux dans cette dangereuse conception de la morale que Balzac exprime dans "l'Avant-Propos" de Modeste Mignon.

Puisque notre premier chapitre qui porte sur l'esthetique romanesque de Giraudoux sert de veritable introduction a l'investigation de sa technique psychologique, nous nous bornerons ici a signaler la raison d'etre et, dans ses lignes generales, le but de notre etude. Ce qui s'offre comme aliment a la curiosite de celui qui connait la prose narrative de Giraudoux, c'est le fait que les critiques ne sont pas du tout d'accord sur l'habilete de ce romancier dans le domaine de l'analyse psychologique. L'observation faite par R. Poulet sur cet aspect de l'art giralducien represente un pole de l'attitude de la critique: ...le chef de l'Ecole des Indifferents parait appliquer sans cesse a la realite, a la destinee, au coeur humain, une puissance d'analyse absolument vierge et ignorante. Cette opinion, partagee d'ailleurs par la grande majorite des commentateurs de Giraudoux, trouve une refutation antithetique dans le jugement de Donald Inskip: In the stories of Provinciales, in those of l'Ecole des Indifferents, in various passages from Lectures pour une Ombre it is quite obvious that the author possessed from the beginning in marked degree the power to conceive motive and depict psychological development. Deux points de vue si contradictoires semblent bien indiquer le besoin d'examiner de tres pres la methode psychologique chez Giraudoux pour en degager la quintessence et l'unicite. Cette impression est renforcee encore davantage par la remarque suivante faite par M. L. Bidal dans Giraudoux Tel qu'en Lui-Meme: On peut s'etonner que l'originalite du processus psychologique utilise dans son oeuvre ait ete rarement soulignee par la critique, mais sans doute l'humour l'ironie, le paradoxe qui la recouvrent d'un voile leger la dissimulent---ils au point de la rendre difficile a deceler. Pour souligner l'originalite et les elements dominants du processus psychologique dans l'oeuvre giralducienne, nous avons divise notre travail de la facon suivante: esquisser les principes esthetiques sur lesquels se reposent les romans de Giraudoux; faire ressortir et preciser d'abord les procedes que le romancier utilise en caracterisant ses personnages, et ensuite ceux dont il se sert pour montrer leur evolution psychologique; analyser la facon dont Giraudoux explore le domaine de l'amour; enfin, tracer l'evolution de son art dans la sphere de la technique psychologique.

Benjamin Constant's Adolphe chronicles the unhappy love affair between the title character and his mistress, Ell enore. The aspect of the liaison which receives most of the narrator's attention is the conversations and letters, between him and his lover. These communicative exchanges constitute the most important feature of the novel because they betray the narrator's overwhelming concern with language. Although recent criticism has begun to examine this facet of the work it has not articulated a theme which completely integrates the question of language with Adolphe and Ell enore's actions. Adolphe presents a theme of linguistic domination and the conflict between two individuals involved in an effort to gain communicative mastery. The protagonist aspires to attain such control and his relationship with Ell enore represents to him the means to achieve his desire. He experiences a mediated desire, as described by Ren e Girard. Adolphe's inability to terminate the affair, his insincere communication, and the stormy conflicts between the lovers all result from the influence of this triangular desire. In fighting their linguistic battle Adolphe and Ell enore use as their weapons different forms of abnormal communication. Ell enore's frequent silences cause Adolphe to make impetuous declarations of love, while Adolphe's complicated substitution of words of friendship for words of love and vague language for specific gives Ell enore a constantly shifting message. The communication psychology of Paul Watzlawick explains the processes involved in this distortion of language and the effects on those who engage in it. Together the theories of Girard and Watzlawick give a new reading of Adolphe. The protagonist's inability to end his affair, the lovers' conflict, and the tragic outcome no longer puzzle the reader. All of these apparent mysteries find explanation when analyzed in the context of the theme of linguistic conflict and domination.

El presente trabajo es el estudio de la ironia y la critica social e individual en Tiempo de silencio de Luis Martin-Santos. Para llevar a cabo la critica, se valio principalmente de la polifonia de voces, del establecimiento de analogias y el recurso a varios tipos de ironia. Mediante la ironia empleada en casi todas sus manifestaciones (analogias, descripciones, ...), el autor pudo mostrar todo lo que el mundo no es, pero permitio que el lector pensara como deberia ser. En Tiempo de silencio prevalece la ironia estable, positiva y constructiva, que lleva a la reflexion del lector sobre la identidad de los espanoles, Espana y sobre si mismo. Es por consiguiente una novela con una gran carga critica, conseguida principalmente con la ironia.

During the decade of the 1930's Marguerite Yourcenar's metaphysical thinking expressed itself through myth, an, as the writer herself affirms, many of her characters thus represent "figures of mythical magnitude." With the object of revealing this "mythical magnitude" or universal aspect of her short fiction, our study, which relies upon the theories of Mircea Eliade, Gilbert Durand and C. G. Jung, offers a symbolic reading of three of Yourcenar's early works, all originally published in the 1930's: the Nouvelles orientales, Lew Coup de Grace and "Anna, Soror dots" (Comme l'Eau qui coule). Despite the worldwide recognition the author's novels have received, these examples of her early fiction have been largely overlooked by scholars. Included in the Nouvelles orientales (1938) are ten tales which share a great deal more than an Eastern orientation and whose particular positions in the collection are far from arbitrary. Linking all of the stories is the foundation of alchemical thought and mythical symbolism upon which they are all constructed, and their placement in the work is based upon a precise pattern of solar imagery. The concluding tale, revealing the disparity between Oriental and Occidental thought, leads to our examination of two longer narratives set in Europe, Le Coup de Grace (193) and "Anna Soror dots" (1934), both of which also rely upon Alchemy and Myth in their presentation of themes which parallel those found in the Nouvelles orientales. A central element in all three works is the contrast they present between a "diurnal" and a "nocturnal" conception of time, the former represented by Western or Christian thought and the latter, by Eastern philosophy, mysticism or the hermatic sciences. In addition to disproving comments regarding the anti-feminist aspects of Yourcenar's writing, our study of her short fiction ultimately signals the fundamental originality of these early narratives and firmly establishes them as masterpieces of French literature.

El presente trabajo es un estudio sobre el arte de novelar de Miguel de Unamuno y Jugo en torno a La novela de Don Sandalio, jugador de ajedrez. Se observa que en esta novela, el autor enfatiza el proceso creativo, lo cual le permite teorizar sobre la ficcion y presentar su estetica antirrealista. Como parte de una cuidadosa y complicada estrategia para involucrar activamente al lector en este proceso creativo, la intervencion de Unamuno en la novela esta formulada, basicamente, de dos maneras: una es, implicitamente, a traves del narrador y la otra es, explicitamente, a traves de los elementos paratextuales.

In recent years the goal of many artists has changed from the desire to represent the real as perfectly as possible to the quest for non-representation. This change in conceptualization has been explained by certain academics as the result of the modernity's deconstruction of the traditional subject-artist/object-world dichotomy. Without putting into question this interpretation, I would like to propose a parallel interpretation of the deconstruction of traditional representation in terms of another duality, idealism. I believe that in both cases the active principle is the same: one desires that which perpetually escapes one's grasp; when representing one in vain seeks the perfect imitation of the real; when idealizing, one imagines a perfected vision of the real. This thesis attempts to examine the close relationship between the desire for literary representation and the desire to idealize found in certain works of French literature.

Basic to the literature and art of the rococo period style is the concept of metonymy. Whereas Patrick Brady, the leading theorist of this style, has analyzed in detail its ramifications in a variety of areas, the formal aspects of rococo poetry have been neglected. This study seeks out metonymy in the metrical organization, or lack of it, in French rococo poetry through the use of Benoit de Cornulier's theory of verse. The vehicle for this search is Brady's own thematically arranged anthology of European rococo poetry. In order to demonstrate rococo metrical innovation, Boileau's Art poetique and a selection of poetry by La Fontaine were also analyzed. An overview of the French poetry in the Rococo Anthology reveals that the isometrical form remains dominant; however, the preferred line length shifts from the alexandrine to the octosyllable. In the area of heterometrical poetry, the classical standard form combined for the most part alexandrine and octosyllabic lines. Rococo poetry typically adds decasyllables to that combination. Rococo miniaturization is expressed in the brevity of the poetry of the period. This study's discussion of the internal organization of the rococo and classical poetic line focuses on caesurae in alexandrines and decasyllables as well as the question of rhythm. Despite the claims of previous critics, an abundance of misleading commas, periods and exclamation marks camouflages the underlying regularity of internal caesurae. In rococo poetry, as well as in some of La Fontaine's poetic works, rhythm imitates meter, constituting a kind of formal immanence. The external structure of many heterometrical rococo poems appears chaotic. While traditional stanza structure is all but eliminated, the existence of highly sophisticated organizations can be discerned, consisting of mirror image structures, interlocking and contiguous subcontexts, whose metonymic extra metrical units undercut unity and wholeness. The presence of prose and the dependence on musical meter further add to the ametricality of the rococo poem. This study postulates that while classical convention was not discarded, the metonymic tendencies of the rococo poets undermine convention rhythmically and structurally.

My goal in this dissertation has been to undertake a questioning of the writing process as it unfolds in contemporary fiction. The methodological steps taken rest on a phenomenological approach applied to Marguerite Yourcenar's novel, L'oeuvre au noir. Through a reading of L'oeuvre au noir I show that the realm of alchemy serves as a metaphor for the writing process. The principles of disintegration (solve) and reintegration (coagula) at play in the practice of alchemy point to the "unreality" of phenomenological life while disclosing a "center" which represents the transcendental world. Within the framework of a pseudo-historical narrative, the central character, Zenon, undertakes a journey which leads him through various stages of perception of his own subjectivity. My argument rests on the assumption that Zenon's personal trials may be viewed as the rendering of an attempt to transcend one's own finitude. The dissertation is divided into three parts. In the first part the concepts of writing and time come sharply into focus. There I analyze the fundamental duality upon which Marguerite Yourcenar's narrative practice rests. The world of sixteenth-century Flanders which has been chosen as a setting of L'oeuvre au noir lends itself to an exploration of the opposition between political and religious chaos on the one hand and the positing of an immobile center (Ouroboros) on the other hand. The question of the subject and of its role in the narrative process constitutes the focus of the second part of the dissertation. As a character who wishes "to be more than a man" Zenon attempts to engage in a process of individuation. His suicide leaves two questions open. Does Zenon accomplish what is called by the alchemists "the work in red"? In other words does he reach a sense of absolute or should his death be interpreted as self-destruction? Through a close reading of the last chapter, I attempt to demonstrate that Marguerite Yourcenar does not answer those questions and that Zenon's challenge is also that of the writer. I engage in a discussion of L'Oeuvre au Noir within the broader context of philosophical and critical issues that are representative of our modernity. (Abstract shortened with permission of author.)

El presente trabajo es un analisis comparativo del arte narrativo en Don Quijote y Cien anos de soledad con el proposito de mostrar como la tecnica narrativa en las dos obras ha sido seminal para sus respectivas epocas. A traves del perspectivismo, el mundo arabe y la alquimia, la inmortalidad y el juego de apariencia y realidad, se destaca la metalepsis, o sea, la inversion en los niveles de la narracion. Esta inversion crea en las dos obras una perspectiva multiple y compleja que otorga al mundo literario una ambiguedad que despierta muchas interpretaciones. Las nuevas fronteras de la perspectiva multiple que Cervantes alcanzo en su obra abrieron nuevos senderos literarios en su epoca. De igual manera, Garcia Marquez demostro nuevas posibilidades narrativas en la ficcion contemporanea hispanoamericana.