This thesis examines Dickens's uses of images of the river throughout his fiction, and also in the early sketches, the reprinted pieces from Household Words and The Uncommercial Traveller. The river concerned is usually but not exclusively the Thames, usually but not exclusively in London. The thesis offers some practical evidence to account for the powerful influence of the Thames upon Dickens's imagination and shows how he conceives of it both within existing frames of reference and in some distinctively Dickensian ways. It considers how Dickens's representations of the river play into the cult of the picturesque which emerged at the end of the eighteenth century, and into the tradition which sees it as a symbolic conduit of the empire. It goes on to consider his use of the river as a boundary, the consequent importance of river crossings in his work, and his conception of the riparian space as a liminal one. It then explores a distinctive scheme of discourse which uses the river to represent rebellious forces beyond the control of human agency and shows how this reflects the sense of spiritual threat which is to be found in some of the other, albeit rare, depictions of nature to be found in his writing. It then shows how Dickens uses the river symbolically to express ideas about death and rebirth, together with the loss of and changes in identity, and how he draws on a scheme of distinctively Christian iconography to do so. Finally it shows how he uses it to create and represent an underworld for London, using tropes of epic founded on classical models. The thesis concludes that, in its use of natural forces to signify social ones, Dickens's writing about the river serves to amplify his conception of stratification in Victorian society and adds weight to the socially conservative political stance which is known to be present in his world view.

Cette thèse porte sur l’étude des frontières et des limites qui marquent les rapports entre les morts et les vivants dans la ville en général, et plus particulièrement à Beyrouth, ville multiconfessionnelle. Elle pose la question de la nature des espaces, places et territoire de la mort, inscrite dans ses formes les plus concrètes : les cimetières, et les limites qu’ils entretiennent entre eux d’une part et avec la ville, d’autre part. Elle décrit leur impact sur l’organisation spatiale au sein de la ville tout en interrogeant les stratégies et les enjeux adoptés par chaque groupe pour affirmer sa présence face aux autres.Notre choix s'est porté sur la ville de Beyrouth parce que cette dernière présente une histoire sociale, culturelle, religieuse et urbaine riche et particulière, et a subi des changements démographiques, urbanistiques et paysagers radicaux au cours de l’Histoire et surtout durant les dernières années de guerre (1975-1990) et de l’après-guerre. Après les différents conflits, les espaces de la mort, par leur emplacement et les limites qu’ils entretiennent entre eux et avec la ville, constituent une véritable césure physique et symbolique, conditionnée par les appartenances politiques, sociales ou religieuses. Ces espaces semblent être instrumentés par les vivants pour justifier leurs positions spatiales ou s’arroger le droit d’occuper tel lieu. Dans ce cas, les cimetières constitueraient de véritables enjeux, aux implications diverses, qui peuvent aller jusqu'à fragmenter et restructurer le paysage urbain d’une ville. À Beyrouth, suite aux différentes guerres, le lien est manifeste entre la géographie de la mort et la géopolitique. / This thesis focuses on the study of borders and boundaries that mark the relations between the dead and the living in multiconfessional cities in general, and particularly Beirut. It raises the question of the nature of spaces, places and territories of death in its most concrete forms: the cemeteries, and the limits between them on one hand and with the city on the other. It describes their impact on the spatial organization of the city while questioning the strategies and challenges of each group to assert its presence against the other. Our choice focuses on the city of Beirut because of its social, cultural, religious and urban structure. It has undergone demographic changes through history, especially during the last years of the civil war (1975-1990) and the post-war period. After these conflicts, the spaces of death, their location and their boundaries, have created real physical and symbolic schisms, conditioned by political, social or religious affiliations. These spaces appear to be instrumented by the living to justify their positions in space or to assume the right to occupy such a place. In this case, the cemeteries constitute real challenges for research and entail consequences on space, which can be fragmented and restructured along with the urban landscape.