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This study deals, with Edith Wharton's literary attitude toward woman's limited place in society and her opportunities for happiness in acceptance of or rebellion against conventional standards. Wharton's works, specifically her novels, contain recurrent character types functioning in recurrent situations. Similarity in the themes of Wharton's various works illustrates her basic idea: woman, lacking independence and identity, needs the security of tradition's order.

This thesis is an attempt to grasp the phenomenon of the national hero behind the facade of national identity. Three smaller nations from the northern quarters of Europe - Scotland, Norway and Lithuania - are examined separately and within a comparative framework. Thus, the study is built on three different layers representing differences rather than common features among the three case studies. The key question underlying the thesis is this: what is the relation if any between the heroic traditions and national identity? Since the latter has been widely seen by scholars as an entity caught up in a perpetual cycle of human evolution, whether monitoring or constructing the world we live in, it was deemed appropriate to investigate the most permanent feature of national identity, that is heroic traditions - the prevailing popular trends in situating the national hero in history. The thesis argues that heroic traditions came about in connection with the emergence of the nation state in early modern history. The common ground for selecting the three otherwise different countries for this study was found in the fact that all had been exposed to unionism for a greater part of their national history, hence national heroes were formulated in the language of separatism and longing for statehood. Yet, as the thesis attempts to demonstrate, both the heroic and the modern state had been conceived with a Neostoic mindset which envisioned a close relationship between the ethical values and political interests of the citizen. The confluence of political theory and Realpolitik gave birth to three types of national identity, namely civitas popularis (democracy), regnum (kingship), and optimatium (aristocracy) as found in Scotland, Norway and Lithuania respectively. The study has shown the persistence of these key models of state-formation in the development of national identity from patriotism to territorial and ethnic nationalism. The abundance of the heroic in the Scottish case is explained as a vestige of the legacy of civic humanism, the traditional emphasis on the king-lines in the Norwegian case is a result of absolutism, while the lack of both in Lithuania is interpreted within an aristocratic model of national identity.

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A Madagascar, pendant longtemps les zones rurales malgaches présentaient toutes les caractéristiques favorables à une forte fécondité. Récemment encore l’idée que les enfants génèrent pour les parents des bénéfices supérieurs aux coûts était largement partagée par tous. Les enquêtes démographiques montrent bien que si la fécondité en milieu rural reste plus élevée qu’en milieu urbain (en 2003, l’ISF y était de 5,7 enfants par femme en milieu rural et de 4,0 enfants en milieu urbain), elles montrent aussi que la fécondité en milieu rural malgache commence à diminuer. L’indice synthétique de fécondité du milieu rural est passé de 6,7 enfants par femme en 1997 à 5,7 enfants par femme en 2003. Cette baisse de la fécondité est observée sans changement socio-économique important. La pauvreté rurale reste élevée et elle a progressé plus vite que la pauvreté urbaine.Cette thèse se propose de présenter les modèles des transitions démographiques en milieu rural malgache, en replaçant la recherche dans le débat sur le lien entre développement économique et baisse de la fécondité qui a été remis en cause notamment dans les pays du Sud.L’analyse montre que si dans certaines provinces, le primat de l’économique est fort et que c’est bien la modernisation qui a permis la baisse de la fécondité, il existe des provinces où malgré une pauvreté persistante, voire même une aggravation de celle-ci, d’autres facteurs ont permis malgré tout des changements de fécondité. Parmi ces facteurs, l’un des plus importants est le système social qui repose sur des traditions culturelles influençant les situations démographiques. / In Madagascar, rural areas used to present all the favorable characteristics to a strong fertility. Even recently the idea that children generate superior profits than costs was widely shared. Demographic surveys show that if the fertility in rural areas stays higher than in urban areas (in 2003, ISF was 5.7 children by woman in rural areas and 4.0 children in urban areas), fertility in rural areas begins to decrease. The ISF of rural areas fell from 6.7 children by woman in 1997 to 5.7 children by woman in 2003. This fertility decline is noticed without important socioeconomic change. Poverty in rural areas remains high and even increased quicker than urban poverty.This thesis proposes to introduce demographic transitions models in Malagasy rural areas by focusing on the debate on the link between economic development and fertility decline which was notably questioned in Southern countries.The analysis shows that if in certain provinces, the central role of the economy is strong and that it’s definitely the modernization process that allowed the reduction of fertility, there are provinces where in spite of a persistent poverty and even a worsening of it, other factors allowed fertility changes. Among them, one of the most important is the social system which is based on cultural traditions influencing demographic situations.

La problématique de ma recherche vise à articuler trois axes principaux : Tradition, Culture et Transmissions Intergénérationnelle, ceci à travers l’exemple de l’étude d’une tradition fortement ancrée dans la culture marocaine, le Moussem de la Procession des cierges de Salé, qui a lieu une fois par an lors de l’anniversaire du Prophète Mohammed (sws).Cette recherche s’enrichit de comparaisons nationales et internationales, de manière à questionner à la fois la singularité de cette pratique et ses liens avec d’autres traditions. Elle s’est appuyée sur l’étude d’archives, articles et ouvrages historiques, ainsi des déplacements au Maroc pour recueillir, sur place, des données sous forme d’entretiens auprès des participants actuels à cette tradition : comment est-elle parvenue jusqu’à eux, pourquoi la mettent-ils toujours en œuvre, avec quels éventuels aménagements en lien avec l’époque actuelle ? / Memories, traditions and Intergenerational transmissions are dealt with in this research through a case study: The Moussem of candles of Salé. By giving voice to the people concerned through interviews and experience story. The candle procession is a slaoui intangible heritage that not only presents an individual memory of each member of the Hassouni and Bellakbir families, but also a collective memory of each Siaoui and even of each Moroccan accustomed to come to witness the candle procession. The results of this research are divided into three chapters, the first being reserved for the men of the Hassouni and Bellakbir families, the second for the women Hassouni family only. And the third part is reserved to the artisans and the professional of the intangible cultural heritage. Transmission and traditions are definded by each member of the family share the same aspirations, knowledge and beliefs while having a collective conscience. This thesis shows the advantage of carrying out a case study on the Moussem of candles. We have analyzed this study in a plural way in order to show that this Moussem is not just a party but a collective history and a knowledge deserving to be preserved and perpetuated to the following generations.

This study concerns an investigation of the oral traditions of the contemporary child in southern France, and sets out to disprove the widely held belief that such traditions have disappeared as a result of the levelling influence of the media upon today's children. Attention is focused upon the child of eight to ten years of age, investigating that part of his world normally ignored, even denied, by adults: that is, those games and rhymes passed down by word of mouth from the older child to the younger, generation after generation. Unlike any previous detailed study of juvenile lore in twentieth-century France, this thesis considers the entire spectrum of traditional play in the context of the 'child-to-child complex'. The study has involved extensive fieldwork in the Midi, recording and transcribing the language and lore of children at play. This practical work has been backed up by detailed historical research into the documentation of child lore in France from the thirteenth century until the present day. Account has been taken both of literary references to children's games, which provide important data for historical and comparative analysis, and of the various manuals and collections of games which exist in France. From the vast range of materials amassed, common characteristics and clear divisions between the various play activities recorded have been identified, enabling a detailed classification to be made of the data collected. Such a classification has not hitherto been achieved in France. Through an investigation of the closed and mysterious world of the playground, a world where children gather among themselves, this study aims to present an autonomous society, regulated by the jurisdictions of its own code, where rhymes and games are communicated from one child to the next, away from the restrictive eye of the adult.