Les représentations de la Bohémienne dans la littérature française du XIXe siècle sont le résultat d’une présence scénique assez ancienne en France, sous la forme des personnages de la commedia dell’arte. Les circonstances historiques et socio-culturelles des deux pays ont ajouté de nouvelles fonctions à ce personnage. Depuis les plus anciennes images des personnages des contes merveilleux et jusqu’au roman qui lui offre des perspectives diverses, la Tsigane se remarque par son exotisme, étant une figure de l’altérité. L’étrangeté de ce personnage apparaît dès qu’on analyse les ethnonymes européens, très divers et signifiant une origine supposée ou légendaire. Dans l’espace linguistique roumain il existe une variété de surnoms et de noms signifiant des métiers ou des traditions interprétées par ce peuple, certains noms représentant aussi des marques de l’ironie ou de rejet social. Nous avons considéré utile de commencer par l’étude des noms pour continuer avec une analyse par genres littéraires. Ainsi, les Bohémiennes des ballets et des romans d’aventures surprennent le lecteur par le mélange de bien et de mal dans leurs actions. Leur caractère d’initiatrices est présent dans la plupart des ballets. Les Bohémiennes interviennent dans le conflit initial, offrant une solution et leur intrusion est révélatrice pour les autres personnages. Les romans d’aventures spéculent le caractère duel du personnage, popularisant les motifs du déguisement et de l’enfant enlevé et retrouvé. La Tsigane y opère une transformation des autres personnages et impose une réflexion à la liberté et à la vérité sociale. Les personnages se déguisent en Bohémienne pour échapper aux restrictions ou aux poursuites. Nous avons analysé les images de la Tsigane dans les textes littéraires roumains du début du XIXe siècle et surtout des décennies 1830-1860. L’hypothèse d’un personnage à fonction de symbole idéologique s’en est détachée. La Tsigane y est une voix des oppressés, une image de la misère mais aussi une métaphore du changement et du progrès. Elle fait partie des manifestations d’un mouvement subversif dirigé par des intellectuels pro-occidentaux. Dans la même période où la Bohémienne est pleinement représentée dans les arts romantiques français, la Tsigane apparaît elle aussi dans les premiers textes des auteurs roumains. Elle devient peu à peu une figure de la révolte. Les images de la Tsigane-Bohémienne dans les deux littératures sont une preuve de l’influence française sur la génération des intellectuels roumains de la moitié du XIXe siècle. Elles montrent aussi une synchronisation entre les deux littératures, résultat des efforts extraordinaires de cette élite formée presque entièrement en France. / The representations of Gypsies in the French and the Romanian literature of the nineteenth century are part of a romantic cultural movement. Since the oldest images, the characters of fairy tales and the ballets, to novel that offers them various perspectives, the Gypsy is noted for its exoticism, being a figure of otherness. The literary representations of the nineteenth century are an extension of the old collective images. The characters of Romanian literature further illustrate the ancestral types of the woman blacksmith, and the mythical image of Isis exists in both literatures. The gypsy ballet and adventure novels surprise the reader by the mixture of good and evil in their actions. Their initiation function is present in most of the ballets. The Gypsy women are involved in the initial conflict, offering a solution. The adventure novels speculate the dual nature of the character, proliferating the grounds of disguise and of the children abducted and found after several years. The Gypsy also operates there a change of the other characters and places the reflection on freedom and social truth. The characters disguise themselves into Bohemians to escape the restrictions or prosecution. The images of Gypsies in the Romanian literary texts from the early nineteenth century and especially in the decades from 1830 to 1860 sustain the hypothesis of a subversive character. The Gypsy woman is chosen to speak the social truth, being a face of misery but also a symbol of change and of progress in the cultural movement led by the generations of pro-Western intellectuals. She is one of the voices of the oppressed and gradually becomes a figure of revolt. In the same period that the Gypsy is everywhere in the French romantic arts, she also appears in the first texts of the Romanian authors. This proove the French influence on the young Romanian generation. It also shows a synchronization between the two literatures, the result of the extraordinary efforts made by this elite formed almost entirely in France.

This thesis examines the recent emergence of corporeal protest art in Russia. Through analyses of cultural, social, and economic shifts in the post-Soviet Era, I observe how this corporeal turn reflects a significant cultural transition away from the literary text, which has traditionally held a role of major importance in Russian culture. Detailed analysis of the contemporary performances of Pussy Riot and Petr Pavlensky are conducted in order to elucidate the social and political causes and implications of such a shift. Manifestation of oppositional discourse on the site of the human body is understood theoretically through Giorgio Agamben’s biopolitics, Mikhail Bakhtin’s grotesque body, and Inke Arns’ and Sylvia Sasse’s theory of subversive affirmation. Interestingly, this artistic divergence has coincided with the rise of relative economic and social wellbeing in Russia – conditions that tend to foster the development of a burgeoning public sphere, now standing at odds with an increase in political repression. Oppositionists and protest artists are, therefore, exploring new and unconventional ways of expressing dissent. My study contextualizes these new methods of expression within the larger tradition of the cultural expression of political will, examining the ways in which these works are readable through Russian cultural norms and to whom they speak. / Graduate

League of Legends is one of the most popular video games in the world, and yet it is also infamously known as being filled with harassment and failure. Why do I continue to play? In this project, a critical autoethnography is used to illustrate what it is like to play in this male-dominated space as a woman. Using feminist and queer game studies as my theoretical framework, this project investigates three distinct, but interconnected concepts: hegemonic masculinity, weaponized failure, and subversive play. In chapter one, I use Raewyn Connell’s theory of hegemonic masculinity to analyze League of Legends. I argue that gameplay elements such as champion selection, communication, and role-play make it difficult to challenge hegemonic masculinity in League of Legends. However, I do acknowledge that it is possible to challenge through playing the role of support properly – by concentrating on teamwork and sacrifice. In chapter two, I use queer video game studies, including key texts by Bonnie Ruberg and Jesper Juul, to consider failure in League of Legends. While queer failure can be fun in single-player video games, I argue that failure in League of Legends can be used as a weapon to intentionally hurt your teammates. Finally, in chapter three I consider my own subversive playstyle. While some academics have argued that woman who play masculine video games using male-coded skills cannot challenge the patriarchy, I argue that embracing my femininity in League of Legends allows me to persevere and push against the patriarchy. I argue that my feminine visibility in the form of my gamertag, SJW Queen, my communication style that emphasizes positivity and mediation, and how I play League of Legends are all examples of subversive gameplay. I bring my femininity into League of Legends uncompromised and I embrace it, rather than try to escape from it.

Cette thèse s’attache à questionner l’utilisation de la pornographie dans la « broderie subversive » par les plasticiennes. Cette démarche semble a priori paradoxale. Pourquoi, les plasticiennes brodent-elles des images de femmes objectivées ? Pourquoi utiliser la broderie alors que cette pratique est considérée comme un passe-temps féminin ? Pourquoi s’emparer de la pornographie, faite par les hommes pour les hommes ? L’analyse d’un large corpus d’œuvres brodées, au prisme des « gender studies » et des « porn studies », permet de saisir les enjeux de cette démarche singulière. Les plasticiennes utilisent un médium caractérisé comme essentialiste pour déconstruire de « l'intérieur » les valeurs patriarcales transmises par la tradition du tissu, posture basée sur une succession de paradoxes. Ainsi, par la représentation brodée du sexuel, voir même de leur sexualité, les plasticiennes sont amenées à questionner leur propre identité de genre. Le sexuel brodé permet de se réapproprier son corps et son imaginaire, de s'interroger personnellement sur son identité (par l'utilisation d'un médium a priori genré). Cette construction du « moi » est soumise à un double paradoxe, tout d'abord celui de l'utilisation d'un médium féminin, subverti par le détournement artistique, et d'images objectivant les corps des femmes alors qu'il s'agit de se les réapproprier. Dans l'exploration de ces deux paradoxes, dans leur confrontation, dans cet espace, peut alors se penser l'identité (de femme et d'artiste) dans une société androcentrée. / This thesis aims to interrogate how women artists use pornography in the subversiv stitch. This reflection might seem paradoxical. Why do women artists embroider pictures of objectified women ? Why use embroidery ? And why appropriate pornography that is made by men for men ? The analysis of a large corpus of embroiedered works, though the lens of gender studies and porn studies, allows to seize the issues of this peculiar approach. Women artists use a medium defined as essentialist to decompose – from the inside – the patriarchal values inherited from the textile tradition. Through the embroidered representation of the sexual – even of their own sexuality – women artist are led to question their own gender identity. The Embroidered sexual allows one to reappropriate their body and imaginary – and to interrogate themself about their identity (through a medium primarily perceived as gendered). This construction of the self is submitted to a double paradox, hich is the use of a feminine medium – subverted by artistic hijacking – and pictures of objectified female bodies, whereas the whole purpose is actually to reappropriate those bodies. Somewhere between those paradoxes might emerge and be thought the identity – of woman and artist – in a androcentric society.

This essay analyzes the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God written by Zora Neale Hurston, 1937. The main focus is how the protagonist Janie uses her voice to subvert patriarchal oppression. In this essay my hypothesis is that she has a voice all along. However, it evolves due to her ability to engage in activities that are subversive to patriarchy. Her journey throughout the novel is a journey where the oppression from her relationships only makes her grow stronger as a woman. During her journey towards self-revelation as an empowered woman, she gradually gains her freedom and her own authentic voice by asserting control over her body and thoughts. The main theoretical terms of this essay are used in direct link to the struggles and achievements of formulating the self in a male dominated society. What I aim to achieve with this essay is to show how Janie emerges as a subject with a voice of her own in Hurston’s novel.

The aim of the thesis is to explore depictions of sexuality in popular science fiction film and television through a focus on storytelling, narrative, characters and genre. The thesis analyses science fiction as a film and television genre with a focus on the conventions, interpretations, and definitions of genre as part of larger contexts. Central to the argumentation is films and television series, from Star Wars and Star Trek, to Firefly and Torchwood. The approach allows a consideration of how the storytelling conventions of science fiction are, and have been, affected by its contexts. Through a consideration of a historical de-emphasis on narrative complexity and character formation in science fiction, the thesis displays and analyses a salient tendency towards juvenile and heteronormative narratives. This tendency is represented by a concept that I call the Star’verses, through which this dominant idea of science fiction as a juvenile, techno-centred, masculine, and heteronormative genre became firmly established. This generic cluster has remained a dominant influence on science fiction film and television since the 1980s. However, as argued, a major discursive shift took place in science fiction at the turn of the millennium. This adult turn in science fiction film, and television in particular, is attributed to contextual changes, but also to the influence of television dramaturgy. It explains why science fiction in the 21st century is not as unfamiliar with depictions of sexuality as its predecessors were. This turn does not signal a total abandonment of what the Star’verses represent; it instead contributes to a change to this dominant idea of the generic identity of science fiction. While sexuality has been disassociated from much science fiction, it is also argued that the science fiction narrative has extensive queer potential. Generic conventions, such as aliens and time travel, invite both queer readings and queer storytelling; the latter however is seldom used, especially in science fiction film. A majority of the examples of science fiction narrative that use this queer potential can be found in television. In cinema, however, this progression is remarkably slow. Therefore, the thesis analyses whether the storytelling techniques of Hollywood cinema, to which science fiction film owes much of its dramaturgy, could be considered heteronormative. A comparison is made to television dramaturgy in order to display the possibilities for the serialised, character-focused science fiction narrative. Ultimately, the thesis investigate the possibility for subversive storytelling and whether a normative use of dramaturgy needs to be overthrown in order to tell a subversive story.

O recente desenvolvimento de uma teoria crítica dos sistemas, de Gunther Teubner a Andreas Fischer-Lescano, abriu novos horizontes teóricos para aqueles que se propõe a estudar a sociedade e o sistema jurídico. A construção de uma teoria crítica sob condições sistêmicas possibilitou o uso conjunto de temas e conceitos teóricos provenientes da teoria crítica da primeira geração da Escola de Frankfurt (crítica imanente, antagonismos sociais, reificação, dialética do esclarecimento) e da teoria dos sistemas (paradoxo, sistema, sociedade mundial). Partindo disso, o sistema jurídico foi analisado nas dimensões da justiça (como fórmula contingente e transcendente) e de sua crítica imanente como atitude transcendente, especialmente em face de sua tendência em se autorreproduzir como ordem social reificada que gera injustiça pelos excessos de justiça. Para alcançar essas conclusões, este trabalho se propôs a analisar o cenário da sociedade moderna no qual nasce a teoria crítica dos sistemas (Parte 1), lançando bases para os aspectos estruturais e semânticos sobre os quais ela se apoia. Seguidamente, foram estabelecidos os pressupostos teóricos básicos da teoria crítica da Escola de Frankfurt e da teoria dos sistemas de Luhmann (Parte 2) com o fim específico de colher os elementos essenciais à construção de uma teoria crítica dos sistemas voltada para o estudo do sistema jurídico. Logrado esse ponto, focou-se a análise do sistema jurídico e de sua evolução até alcançar sua atual condição na forma de um direito global na sociedade fragmentada (Parte 3). A partir disso a justiça autossubversiva e a crítica imanente do direito foram abordadas em seus aspectos essenciais e possibilitadores de uma autotranscendência sistêmica, capaz de tornar o direito mais responsivo com relação ao seu ambiente, limitando a irracionalidade racional inerente a uma ordem social reificada. A presente dissertação propõe dar mais um passo no sentido do desenvolvimento de uma teoria crítica dos sistemas aplicada ao direito, diagnosticando os dilemas contemporâneos e ao mesmo tempo, apontando os desafios existentes numa sociedade mundial paradoxalmente marcada pela possibilidade de hipertrofia sistêmica das ordens sociais reificadas e pelos processos de constitucionalização que buscam limitar essas ordens. / The recent development of critical systems theory, from Gunther Teubner to Andreas Fischer-Lescano, opened new horizons for the theorists who propose to study the society and the legal system. The construction of a critical theory under systemic conditions allows the joint use of theoretical concepts and themes from the first generation of the Frankfurt School (immanent critique, social antagonisms, reification, Dialectic of Enlightenment) and systems theory (paradox, systems, global society). Starting from this, the legal system was analyzed in the dimensions of justice (as contingent and transcendent formula) and its immanent critique as transcendent attitude, especially against the tendency to self-reproduce as reified social order, which produces injustices because excess of the justice. To reach these conclusions, this study aims to analyze the condition of modern society in which the critical systems theory arises (Part 1), laying the foundation for structural and semantic aspects on which it stands. Subsequently was established the basic theoretical premises of critical theory of the Frankfurt School and the systems theory of Niklas Luhmann (Part 2) with the specific purpose of collecting the essential elements to build a critical systems theory facing the study of the legal system. Reached this point, focused on the analysis of the legal system and its evolution to reach its current status of a global law in a fragmented society (Part 3). Like this the self-subversive justice and the immanent critique of the law have focused on key aspects that enable a systemic self-transcendence, able to make the law more responsive regarding to its environment by limiting its rational irrationality, which implies a reified social order. This thesis proposes give a step further towards the development of a critical theory applied to the law systems, diagnosing contemporary dilemmas and at the same time, pointing out the challenges of a global society paradoxically marked by the possibility of systemic hypertrophy stemmed from reified social orders and the constitutionalization processes that seek to limit such orders.

<p>Martina Haag’s method of self-mockery used in her chronicles is characterized by her wish to live up to various ideals. This essay brings out the subversive power of self-deprecatory hu-mor expressed in her book Hemma hos Martina. The author’s strategies and kinds of humor are being studied, leading up to what this humor accomplishes. General theories on humor, by Mary Ann Rishel, Maria Ohlsson, Henri Bergson, Joannne R. Gilbert and Simon Critchley are being applied to find the essence of her craftsmanship in writing comedy. The analysis also goes more closely into the style and language, to give a deeper understanding of how she creates jokes, and also how she relates to her ideals through language. The main thrust of the analysis, though, builds on theories on self-deprecatory humor. Haag is included into Joanne R. Gilbert’s theory on self-deprecation and The Whiner within the field of stand-up comedy.</p><p>Some American feminist critics have rejected self-deprecatory humor as being anti-feminist, stating that women applying this particular kind of humor merely reinforce stereoty-pes, and put themselves down. This paper objects to those critics, leaning on Haag’s book. I wish to show that Haag is not demeaning towards herself, but towards the cultural norms and expectations in our present society. In this context, I show how Haag manages to demystify and criticize ideal representations of women, by lampooning them and revolting against them. In this way, her book turns into a satirical critique of cultural values. My essay illustrates how Haag objectifies herself, making regular use of stereotypes. This is necessary, since these two elements are essential to most humor. Haag confirms stereotypes to make people laugh. This laughter brings about awareness in the reader, making Haag’s work a social critique of current values and norms concerning women.</p>

<p>This thesis examines John Berryman’s poetry of loss together with four different theoretical perspectives. It is the purpose of the study to involve Berryman’s poetry and critical theory in a dialogue which attempts to break down the hierarchy that positions theory as the subject and literature or poetry as the object of study. Instead, by focusing on the otherness of each discourse, that is, what could be called the unconscious of Berryman’s poetry of loss and the language of theory, poetry and theory can be seen to presuppose and mutually imply each other. Those of Berryman’s poems mainly analyzed in the thesis, and which could be called his poetry of loss are “The Ball Poem,” Homage to Mistress Bradstreet, and The Dream Songs. The four theoretical perspectives consist of Martin Heidegger’s thinking concerning the word and concept departure, David S. Reynolds’s notion of the subversive in the American Renaissance, Nicolas Abraham’s psychoanalytical concept anasemia, and Maurice Blanchot’s theory of death and poetry in his book The Space of Literature. The theoretical base of the thesis is developed primarily from Shoshana Felman’s “To open the question,” an editorial introduction to a special issue of Yale French Studies entitled Literature and Psychoanalysis. The Question of Reading: Otherwise and Timothy Clark’s study Derrida, Heidegger, Blanchot.</p>

This thesis examines John Berryman’s poetry of loss together with four different theoretical perspectives. It is the purpose of the study to involve Berryman’s poetry and critical theory in a dialogue which attempts to break down the hierarchy that positions theory as the subject and literature or poetry as the object of study. Instead, by focusing on the otherness of each discourse, that is, what could be called the unconscious of Berryman’s poetry of loss and the language of theory, poetry and theory can be seen to presuppose and mutually imply each other. Those of Berryman’s poems mainly analyzed in the thesis, and which could be called his poetry of loss are “The Ball Poem,” Homage to Mistress Bradstreet, and The Dream Songs. The four theoretical perspectives consist of Martin Heidegger’s thinking concerning the word and concept departure, David S. Reynolds’s notion of the subversive in the American Renaissance, Nicolas Abraham’s psychoanalytical concept anasemia, and Maurice Blanchot’s theory of death and poetry in his book The Space of Literature. The theoretical base of the thesis is developed primarily from Shoshana Felman’s “To open the question,” an editorial introduction to a special issue of Yale French Studies entitled Literature and Psychoanalysis. The Question of Reading: Otherwise and Timothy Clark’s study Derrida, Heidegger, Blanchot.