Este estudo toma como base uma obra literária para levantar considerações sobre aspectos característicos da cultura do Rio Grande do Sul em relação ao Brasil. A partir da leitura do romance histórico O Continente, de Erico Verissimo, surge a hipótese de trabalho de que a religião teve um papel diferenciado na formação dessa peculiar região brasileira. Isso repercute na estrutura de valores que caracteriza a sociedade gaúcha, destacando o livrearbítrio e a ação política. Busca-se estabelecer não um perfil religioso atual do Estado, mas um panorama qualitativo do quanto uma fraca religiosidade influenciou na construção de um etos gaúcho e do quanto este se diferencia do etos brasileiro pelo viés mítico. A pesquisa tem caráter interdisciplinar e está apoiada em dados e teorias da antropologia, da história, da sociologia, da filosofia e da psicologia, além da teologia cristã. / This study was based on a literary work so as to raise considerations about peculiar aspects of the culture of the state of Rio Grande do Sul in relation to Brazil. From reading on the historical novel O Continente, written by Erico Verissimo, arises the work hypothesis that religion had a different role in the development of this specific Brazilian province. It has reflections on the structure of the values that characterize this society, with emphasis on free will and political action. This research aims at giving not a present religious outline of the province, but a qualitative panorama of how such thin religiosity influenced the construction of a gaucho ethos and how much this mythic view has made it distinguished from the Brazilian ethos. The research, which has interdisciplinary character, is supported by the data and theories of Anthropology, History, Sociology, Philosophy and Psychology, besides the Christian theology.

Myths are intimately connected with emotions, but what the nature of the relationship really means, what it is, and how it functions are in many ways vague and unspecified. This is an examination of how, when and where emotions are referenced in theories of myth. The purpose is to point in a direction of possible new questions for future research on emotions and myth. Three major themes, centered around three major theorists of myth, are examined. The first treats perspectives of, and inspired by, Lucien Lévy-Bruhl. It is a theme based around views of myth as creating collective emotions. The second theme, centered around Bronislaw Malinowski, examines theories understanding myth as handling difficult emotions. The third theme deals with perspectives from Claude Lévi-Strauss’s structuralist theory of myth, where myth is seen as mediating contradictions, and thereby also mediating emotions of the contradictions. The three themes are then examined in relation to theories from the burgeoning history of emotions. New theoretical positions, such as the bodily and moral aspects of emotions, are examined and the result suggests that the central connection between myth and emotions could be found in humankind’s ever present concern to regulate, to discipline, and to form expressions of emotions.

The purpose of the study is to review the short stories of S M Mofokeng and M P Pelo critically in an attempt to interrogate their skills and techniques with a view to establishing how they complement each other. Furthermore the approach to the study will be informed by an integrated comparison and contrasting process. In the main, this study deals with how the authors who wrote at different time periods differ in style, albeit on the same discipline, the short story. The study comprises the introductory section, which includes the aims, method of approach, forerunners of the short stories, biographical sketches of the authors and organisation of the study. The setting, functions of the setting and definitions of keywords are also discussed. Characterization and the method of presenting characters is explained and the elements of style are identified and dealt with. A summary of the findings as well as the conclusion of the study is provided. / African Languages / M.A. (African Languages)

Cette thèse s’inscrit dans le champ des études sur les fictions de la fin du monde. J’y explore la question suivante : pourquoi existe-t-il autant de romans et de films racontant la fin d’un monde, et si peu la fin du monde ? En effet, la plupart des fictions dites de « fin du monde » mettent en scène la menace d’une catastrophe évitée, ou une destruction partielle, ou encore un univers post-apocalyptique habité de survivants. L’anéantissement total et définitif de l’espèce humaine, quant à lui, constitue rarement le dénouement de ce type d’œuvres. Ce déséquilibre s’explique en partie par le fait que ces œuvres représentent davantage le renouvellement du monde que sa disparition. Mon hypothèse est que nombre de ces récits de la fin héritent d’un imaginaire, d’une structure, de thèmes, de motifs, etc., provenant du mythe du déluge tel qu’il s’est développé dans l’Antiquité (entre autres dans sa version biblique), lequel symbolise la refondation et la transmission, et non l’anéantissement. Dans le premier chapitre, je propose une exploration de différents concepts et théories permettant de mieux définir les romans et les films de la fin du monde : les dispositif et contre-dispositif de Giorgio Agamben ; la conception des mythes de René Girard (principalement pour les notions d’indifférenciation et de bouc émissaire) ; le décalage prométhéen de Gunther Anders ; le catastrophisme éclairé de Jean-Pierre Dupuy ; les deux raisonnements mythologiques opposés identifiés dans les récits antiques de la fin du monde par Christine Reungoat-Dumas. Dans le deuxième chapitre, j’étudie d’abord comment le thème de la transmission s’articule dans quelques mythes antiques du déluge, avant de proposer un canevas général des mythèmes constituants. À partir de cette délimitation, je procède ensuite à l’analyse de trois mythèmes (la crise indifférenciatrice ; l’abri ; le lâcher d’oiseaux) dans un corpus de romans et de films des 20e et 21e siècles. Cette analyse permet de faire ressortir l’importance du thème de la transmission (de gènes et de mèmes, donc de réplicateurs). La transmission reflète un besoin de transcendance qui définit, oriente, ou du moins colore, pratiquement toutes les œuvres de la fin du monde. Dans ce contexte, la littérature, objet de transmission, peut être appréhendée comme une « arche métaphorique ». Le troisième chapitre se concentre sur l’analyse d’une œuvre, la trilogie MaddAddam (Oryx and Crake ; The Year of the Flood ; MaddAddam) de Margaret Atwood. J’y avance que cette œuvre prend la forme d’une épopée, dans laquelle on assiste à la mise en scène de sa propre écriture. Cette mise en abyme démontre bien que la trilogie, tout en étant une œuvre de fin du monde, raconte également la naissance d’un nouveau monde : l’épopée intradiégétique qui s’y compose tente d’immortaliser une partie du passé et d’orienter le futur. La littérature, sous la forme de cette épopée, figure ainsi une arche qui relie les mondes pré-apocalyptique et post-apocalytique de l’œuvre d’Atwood. / This thesis falls within the field of studies pertaining to end-of-the-world works of fiction. In it, I examine the following question: why are there so many novels and films about the end of a world, and so few about the end of the world? Indeed, most of the so-called end-of-the-world fiction portrays the threat of averted catastrophe, a partial destruction, or a post-apocalyptic universe inhabited by survivors. The total and final annihilation of the human species, on the other hand, is seldom the outcome of this type of work. This imbalance is partly explained by the fact that these works represent the renewal of the world rather than its disappearance. My hypothesis is that many of these stories inherit their imagery, structure, themes, motifs, etc., from the flood myth as it developed in antiquity (notably in the biblical version), which symbolize refoundation and transmission, rather than annihilation. In the first chapter, I offer an exploration of different concepts and theories allowing to better define the novels and films dealing with the end of the world: the apparatus and counter-apparatus of Giorgio Agamben; the conception of myths by René Girard (mainly, the notions of indifferentiation and scapegoating); the Promethean shift of Gunther Anders; the enlightened catastrophism of Jean-Pierre Dupuy; the two opposing mythological reasonings identified in ancient end-of-the-world narratives by Christine Reungoat-Dumas. In the second chapter, I begin by studying how the theme of transmission is elaborated in some ancient flood myths, before presenting a general outline of constituent mythemes. I then proceed to analyze three mythemes (the crisis of indifferentiation; the shelter; the release of birds) in a body of novels and films from the 20th and 21st centuries. This analysis highlights the importance of the theme of transmission (of genes and memes, and therefore of replicators). The transmission reflects a need for transcendence which defines, orients, or at least colors, practically all the works dealing with the end of the world. In this context, literature, an object of transmission, can be understood as a “metaphorical ark”. The third chapter focuses on the analysis of the MaddAddam trilogy (Oryx and Crake; The Year of the Flood; MaddAddam) by Margaret Atwood. I suggest that this work takes the form of an epic, in which we witness the staging of its own writing. This mise en abyme clearly shows that the trilogy, while being a work about the end of the world, also tells the birth of a new world: the intradiegetic epic composed therein attempts to immortalize a part of the past and to shape the future. Literature, in the form of this epic, thus symbolizes an ark that connects the pre-apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic worlds of Atwood’s narrative.

D'Annunzio e Pirandello come uomini e come artisti si pongono agli antipodi della scena culturale del loro tempo, eppure e nel mito, inteso come categoria psichica oltre che artistica, che la loro antitetica opera trova un punto d'incontro. In questo studio si analizza, dunque, il mito nelle tre tragedie dannunziane in cui l'elemento mitico si manifesta nel modo piu palese (La citta morta, La figlia di Iorio e Fedra) e nella trilogia dei miti pirandelliana, summa e approdo finale di tutta la sua opera. Per entrambi la necessita di mito nasce dalla sofferta consapevolezza della crisi moderna: valori relativi, personalita atemporale scissa, e fuori nessun dello l'aspirazione alla totalita. sen so spazio di direzione. del mito e Nella ancora dimensione possibile La teoria junghiana degli archetipi dell'inconscio collettivo, di cui i miti sarebbero le manifestazioni culturali, si e rivelata un importante ausilio analitico che consente, tramite uno scavo in profondita oltre le scorze e le sovrastrutture culturali e storiche, di cogliere la sapiente orditura di immagini e motivi archetipici nelle opere, confermando l'idea dell'artista anche come uomo collettivo oltre che come individuo. In tale prospettiva il confronto tra le opere ha portato ad importanti conclusioni, che non solo chiariscono la loro opera di scrittori, ma anche la loro funzione all'interno della societa in cui sono vissuti e, per esteso, della nostra. Per entrambi recuperare il mito e ridargli una veste moderna, pur nei rispettivi distinti modi, significa essenzialmente cercare di superare il relativo, la frammentarieta e la mediocrita del mondo contemporaneo. Nel processo di recupero, tuttavia, il mito stesso viene modificato e, facendosi specchio della condizione psichica moderna, non solo ne interpreta le piu profonde istanze, ma giunge anche a precorrerne quelle future. La posizione centrale nelle opere dei due scrittori dell'inconscio, il grande rimosso dell'Io raziocinante moderno, emergente nella possente figura della Grande Madre primordiale, rivela la direzione della futura coscienza umana nella necessita di riaccedere alle fonti piu profonde della psiche da cui nasca l'incontro e la fusione degli opposti, inconscio e coscienza, l'elemento ctonio, fertile e generatore, e quello uranico, spirituale e trascendente. / D'Annunzio and Pirandello both as men and as artists can only be placed at the opposite ends of the cultural scene of their times. Yet, it is in myth that their antithetical works finally converge. This study, therefore, analyzes myth in three of D'Annunzio's tragedies where the mythical dimension is more apparent (The dead city, Iorio/s daughter and Fedra) and in the trilogy of myths by Pirandello, which brings his work to its ultimate expression. For both authors the need for myth is born of the painful awareness of modern man's crisis: relative values, a divided personality and no sense of direction. In the timeless and universal dimension of myth it is still possible to achieve totality. The Junghian theory of the archetypes of the collective unconscious, of which myths are cultural manifestations, has proved to be an analytical tool of great importance. By giving access to the deepest level of the texts beyond their cultural and historical layers, it brings to light the otherwise elusive meaning of archetypal images and motives, revealing the true nature of art to be not just the work of an individual but also of collective man. The works, different as they may be, when compared in this perspective have nevertheless yielded some important common conclusions, not only on D'Annunzio and Pirandello as writers but also on their role within the society they lived in and, by extension, our own. For both of them myth, even in a modern context, means essentially the overcoming of the fragmentation, the relativity and the mediocrity of contemporary life. However, in the process of recapturing this mythical dimension, myth itself is bound to be modified. Because it mirrors the modern psyche, it not only interprets its deepest present needs, but also points to its future ones. The central position occupied in their works by the subconscious, emerging from behind the powerful image of the primordial Great Mother, points the way to future psychological development and to the need to regain access to the deepest levels of the human psyche so that its opposing forces, subconscious and consciousness, can meet and be reconciled. / Classics & Modern European Languages / D. Litt. et Phil. (Italian)

神話教學是華德福教育獨有的教學活動，其主張適時地接觸神話有助於兒童的發展。本研究即在人智學的理論基礎上，探討該教學活動，冀揭露其蘊義。具體地說，本研究探討以下問題： 1.人智學觀點下的神話為何？（what） 2.神話何以（why）有助兒童之發展？ 3.神話如何（how）促進兒童之發展？ 本研究採德國學者Danner的「教育詮釋學」為研究方法，首先闡明神話學中各重要學派的神話觀，與人智學人類圖像的「四體」，進而分析Rudolf Steiner的神話觀點及其教育意涵，以回應前列問題。準此，本研究提出四項結論： 1.Steiner的人智學視神話為作為小宇宙的人類與大宇宙之連結。 2.人類身心靈發展的精神意義可從神話中追溯。 3.接觸神話對人類身心靈的發展有直接的促進作用 4.神話使人再度連結於世界、重拾生命的精神意義，此為華德福教育所欲達致者。 最後，由對本研究的省思出發，提出後續研究的建議。 / Myth education is a perculiar educational activity by Waldorf Pedagogy. It suggests that accessing myths at the right time is helpful to the development of children. Base on the theory of Anthroposophy, this study explores this educational activity to expose its significance. To be specific, the study explores following questions: 1.What is the myth from the viewpoint of Anthroposophy? 2.Why is the myth helpful to the development of children? 3.How does the myth facilitate the development of children? Taking the German Scholar Danner’s “Pedagogic Hermeneutic” as reschearch method, this study illuminates the viewpoints of myth of various important schools of mythology and the “four bodies” in the human picture of Anthroposophy at first. Futhermore, this study analizes Rudolf Steiner’s viewpoint of myth and its educational meaning to answer the questions listed above. Accordingly, four conclusions are put forward: 1.The myth is taken as the connection between human beings as a small cosmos and the big cosmos according to Steiner’s Anthroposophy. 2.The spiritual meaning of the development of the body, the spirit, and the soul of human being could be traced in the myth. 3.The myth could affect the development of the body, the spirit, and the soul of human directly . 4.The myth makes man reconnected to the world and regain the spiritual meaning of life. It is what Waldorf Pedagogy attempts to achieve. Finally, according to the reflection on this study, the researcher makes some suggestions for follow-up researches.

This dissertation explores the role and significance of the ancient Greek myth of Prometheus in Western philosophy from Antiquity to today. Paying particular attention to its moral and existential meanings, an analysis of this in-depth investigation produces an overview of the exceptional array of the myth’s functions and themes. It demonstrates that the most significant functions of the Prometheus myth are its social, epistemic, ontological and moral functions and that the myth’s most significant themes are fire, rebellion, creation, human nature and ambiguity. The dissertation argues that this analysis brings to light meaningful information on two sides of a reference to the Prometheus myth: it reveals the nature, functions, themes and connotations of the myth, while information about these functions and themes provides access to fundamental meanings, moral statements and ontological concepts of the studied author. Based on its findings this work claims that, as in history, first, the Prometheus myth will still be meaningful in philosophy today; and second, that the analysis of the myth’s functions and themes will provide access to essential ideas underlying contemporary references to the myth. To prove the validity of these claims this thesis examines the contemporary debate on ‘human enhancement’. Advocates as well as opponents of enhancement make use of the Prometheus myth in order to support their arguments. Employing the acquired knowledge about the myth’s functions and themes, the dissertation analyses the references encountered. The results of this analysis confirm that the Prometheus myth still has a significant role in a contemporary philosophical context. They improve our understanding of the philosophical argument, ontological framework and ethics of the debate’s participants; and thus demonstrate that the information about the Prometheus myth acquired in this thesis is a useful means to reveal fundamental ideas and conceptualisations underlying contemporary (and possibly future) references to the myth.

Cette thèse propose une approche de la communauté dans l’œuvre de William Faulkner éclairée notamment par la notion bakhtinienne de dialogisme et de la réflexion contemporaine sur le figural. La communauté chez Faulkner s’avère une présence d’autant plus marquante qu’elle n’existe pas comme objet mais comme effet de discours au niveau de la diégèse comme au niveau du texte. Il s’agit d’abord d’examiner comment au cœur de la démarche faulknérienne l’écriture procède à une réinvention de la communauté. En un second temps la thèse explore les diverses stratégies grâce auxquelles le texte faulknérien se fait le lieu d’une élaboration avec le lecteur produisant une communauté esthétique exigeante. Les lectures de l’espace romanesques montrent ensuite les rapports étroits existant entre l’espace du texte et l’espace représenté et mettent à jour des jeux de mise en abyme qui, du reste, rendent difficile, voire impossible toute distinction entre l’un et l’autre. Enfin le corps est examiné comme enjeu d’inscription idéologique. La thèse met en lumière deux stratégies de représentation différentes, correspondant à deux types de rapport au langage. / This thesis addresses the issue of community in William Faulkner’s work in the light of Bakhtine’s theory of dialogism and of the contemporary reflection on the figural. In Faulkner’s work the community is all the more prominent as it does not exist as an object but as a discursive effect on the level of diegesis and on the level of the text. Our thesis first examines the place of community in relation to the ways in which Faulkner conceives his writing project, and to the creation of a « cosmos of his own ». Then it investigates the various strategies which define the Faulknerian text as the locus of a collaboration with the reader resulting in an esthetic community. The third section explores the space of the novel and shows the close relationship between diegetic (or passive) and textual (active) spaces. Eventually the issue of the body as a basic for ideological inscription is examined, and the thesis identifies two distinct strategies of representation related to two ways of approaching language.

This thesis examines feminist rewritings of the Penelope myth and the intersections between poetry, myth, and feminist theory. The theoretical framework develops from Rosi Braidotti’s theory of memory and subjectivity which has its roots in the work of Michel Foucault. In Braidotti’s understanding, subjectivity is constructed through narratives of the past including myth. In order to support new, minority, and dissident subjectivities, a re-remembering of mythical narratives needs to happen. This process is linked to Judith Butler’s recent work on narrating the self and to Adrienne Rich’s idea of “Re-vision”. What Butler’s theory adds to Braidotti’s is the notion of dispossession: that as subjects we do not own our identities. We are, instead, dependent on others for recognition. This co-dependence based notion of subjectivity has ethical implications for how we interact with one another and what kind of narratives we iterate and reiterate. The writers discussed in this thesis, namely, Francisca Aguirre, Katerina Anghelaki-Rooke, Gail Holst-Warhaft, and Margaret Atwood, not only rewrite Penelope, but perform Re-visions of the myth. They look back at it with a critical eye and remake it. This thesis further contends that Re-vision provides contemporary feminist writers with a reading and writing strategy that allows them to engage with myth in a way that parallels feminist theory’s efforts to construct new forms of subjectivity. Chapter 1 frames feminist appropriations of myth in a contemporary context and discusses Adrienne Rich’s theory of Re- vision. The next four chapters focus on specific writers who carry out a sustained dialogue with Penelope; they each take an element of the myth and tease it out towards a modern relevance. In looking at how Penelope is revised, this thesis demonstrates that women writers are engaged in a process of remaking canonical, mythic texts in such a way that speaks to contemporary issues of ethical subjectivity and self-making.

Critical reactions to the religious experiences contained in William Faulkner's fiction have tended to fall within the context of traditional Christian belief systems. In most instances, the characters' beliefs have been judged by the tenets of belief systems or religions that are not necessarily those on which the characters base their lives. There has been no effort to understand the characters' spirituality as the basis of an independent religious belief system. Mircea Eliade's methods and models in the study of comparative religion, in particular his explanation of the interaction of the sacred and the profane during a hierophany (the manifestation of the sacred), can be applied to the belief systems of Faulkner's characters to reveal the theologies of the characters' religions, the nature of the belief systems on which they base their lives. Identification of those stories associated with hierophanies in Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha fiction enables the isolation and analysis of the sacred stories and sacraments of Yoknapatawpha County's civil religion. The storytellings examined appear in Flags in the Dust, "A Justice," and Absalom, Absalom!. The storytellers and the audiences are all a part of the Yoknapatawpha community, and the stories are drawn from a common history. The sacralization and use of particular stories to explain certain events reflects the faith life of the community as a whole, as well as that of the individual participating in the ritual. The explication of the profane experiences the myths are meant to sanctify will reveal that the individuals, and consequently, the community, are in the process of discarding their old, civil religion. As a result, they have lost the ability to adapt their ancestral myths to fit the existential crises they presently face. Unable to infuse the present with the sacred, Yoknapatawpha1s younger generation is overwhelmed by the chaos that surrounds it.