Pour Albert Camus, la littérature était à la fois une activité essentielle à son bonheur et un objet de réflexion. Afin de saisir quelle conception de la littérature et quelle vision du rôle de l’écrivain se dégagent de son oeuvre, ce mémoire aborde dans un même mouvement ses deux principaux essais, Le Mythe de Sisyphe et L’Homme révolté, et une pièce de théâtre, Caligula. Notre premier chapitre consiste dans la recherche de ce qui, pour Camus, fait de la création artistique une activité privilégiée dans l’horizon de la pensée de l’absurde et de la révolte. Dans le deuxième chapitre, les différents commentaires émis par la critique à propos de Caligula seront examinés. La pièce, malgré l’opinion dominante, ne raconte pas l’histoire d’un empereur absurde qui se révolte contre son destin. L’importance du thème de la création littéraire dans cette pièce a également été grandement sous-estimée. Enfin, le troisième chapitre de ce mémoire présente notre propre analyse de la pièce. La confrontation de la fiction avec la théorie révèle une grande concordance entre les deux aspects de l’oeuvre de Camus. L’accord n’est cependant pas parfait, et l’étude des points de friction découverts permet d’apporter des éclaircissements sur un des points les plus obscurs des essais de Camus : l’éthique du créateur placé dans une situation où il doit choisir entre tuer et mourir. / For Albert Camus, literature was both an activity crucial to his happiness and a study object. In order to understand what conception of literature can be found in Camus’ writings and the responsibilities of the writer that this definition implies, this memoir studies his two main essays, The Myth of Sisyphus and The Rebel, and one play, Caligula. Our first chapter consist in a research of what makes artistic creation an exceptional activity in the light of Camus’ thoughts on absurd on revolt. In our second chapter, the critics’ various commentaries about Caligula are examined. In spite of what is still the opinion of a majority of critics, the play is not the tale of an absurd emperor who would revolt against his destiny. Also, the theme of literary creation has not been sufficiently studied in that play, in which it plays a determinant role. Finally, the third chapter of this memoir presents our own analysis of the play. The confrontation of fiction and theory reveals a great similarity between the two aspects of Camus’ writings. However, the match is never perfect, and the study of the friction points allows us to shed light on one of the most obscure part of Camus’ essays: the ethic of the creator placed in a situation where he must kill or be killed.

Les trois paradigmes majeurs à partir desquels s’oriente l’analyse du voile dans Sordidissimes de Pascal Quignard sont les vêtements et la nudité, les « sordes » et le linceul, la toile et le regard. C’est à l’aide de l’analyse thématique et de la psychanalyse que la relation du voile au corps, à la mort et à l’art, est interprétée. Ce que l’on souhaite mettre en évidence est que le voile tient lieu de l’ambivalence. Il se trouve perpétuellement tendu par la volonté du sujet qui l’utilise tour à tour pour recouvrir ou révéler l’objet de ses désirs ou de ses peurs. Le voile incarne ainsi la frontière d’où s’origine la fascination, qu’elle soit morbide ou sexuelle. / The bases of our analysis of the veil in Pascal Quignard’s Sordidissimes are the three following paradigms : clothing and nudity, sordes and shroud, and canvas and gaze. Thematic analysis as elaborated by Jean-Pierre Richard and psychoanalysis will guide our interpretation of the relation of the veil to the body, death and arts. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate the constant movement of the veil. It is not static; the breeze that is the willpower of the self always moves the veil without ever tearing it off. What the veil is hiding or partially revealing is the origin of the fascination – bet it morbid or sexual.

Au 20e siècle en France et en Allemagne, l’art moderne prend son essor. Certains, comme Francastel, qualifient cet art de destruction d’un espace plastique classique. Cette destruction devient un vecteur de création chez plusieurs artistes qui, suite aux deux grandes guerres, remettent en question leur état « civilisé » et se tournent vers le « primitif » pour offrir une autre voie, loin de tout processus civilisateur. Cette admiration pour les peuples primitifs ainsi que pour les productions artistiques d’enfants, d’amateurs et de « fous » est visible chez plusieurs collectionneurs d’art. En constituant des collections d’art marginal, ces derniers défendaient une idéologie qui propose une autre forme de culture en remplacement d’une civilisation dépassée. Grâce à leurs collections, la libre expression se positionna contre le rationalisme occidental. On compte, parmi ces collectionneurs, le psychiatre Hans Prinzhorn, le marchand d’art Wilhelm Udhe et les artistes André Breton, Jean Dubuffet et Arnulf Rainer. Chacun d’eux a eu un impact sur la construction du récit de l’art moderne et de l’art contemporain. Leurs collections ont chacune sa spécificité et offrent des vocabulaires différents pour parler de productions artistiques marginales, c’est-à-dire se développant « hors culture ». C’est par l’analyse des terminologies employées par les collectionneurs, principalement la dénomination d’art pathologique, que nous tracerons un portrait de la construction historique de l’art marginal en lien avec l’art moderne / Modern art began its rise at the beginning of the twentieth century in both France and Germany. Somme art theorists like Francastel, propose an identifying characteristic of modern art is the deconstruction of the classic plastic space. During the two World Wars, many artists used this deconstructive process, thus reinvigorating art with ‘‘primitive’’ styles which challenged the ‘‘civilized’’ art of the day. This fascination with the ‘‘primitive’’, including art from children, amateurs, and the ‘‘mentally ill’’, is apparent in many art collections of the time. By collecting these forms of art, the collectors were supporting this new ideology in opposition to occidental rationalism. The psychiatrist Hans Prinzhorn, along with the art sellers Wilhelm Udhe and the artists Andre Breton, Jean Dubuffet and Arnulf Rainer, are a few of the notable collectors. They each influenced the progress of Modern Art; the impact of which is now evident in contemporary art. The individuality of their unique collections offers different interpretations of the marginalized ‘‘outsider art’’. By analyzing the terminologies employed by these collectors, particularly in regards to ‘‘pathological art’’, we may outline a portrait of the development of ‘‘outsider art’’ as it progressed along side modern art.

The dissertation involves a threefold investigation of sculpture. Firstly, the interpretations are focused on particular artworks by three British sculptors: Antony Gormley (b. 1950), Anish Kapoor (b. 1954), and Rachel Whiteread (b. 1963), respectively. The notion of applied minimalism is tentatively applied to their sculptures. A primary argument is that these works are idiomatically, thematically, and theoretically founded on the heritage of American Minimalism from the 1960s. The sculptures by these three artists are seen as readings and transformations in themselves of the Minimalist sculptural idiom. Secondly, the dissertation aims at an investigation of the notion of sculpture, which is explored as a discursive term, i.e. as a working notion. Therefore, each specific sculpture in the study is analysed in terms of the means it is manifested as such. Thirdly, interpretation per se is recognised as a performative act inscribed and restricted by specific contextual features. The constituent aspects are acknowledged and employed in terms of the white cube gallery locality, minimalist theory, sign theory, sculpture as staged, and the crucial recognition of a/the corporeal viewer's own presence and movements within the gallery space. Especially pertinent to the interpretations are Michael Fried's notion of theatricality, notions of performativity, and meaning as site-specific, respectively. The dissertation argues that the notion of sculpture, specifically in the wake of Minimal sculpture and the artworks inscribed by that category in art critical discourse, relies on the imperative of a corporeal acknowledged viewer/interpreter and that significant relations as regards the notion of sculpture are therefore external to a high degree.

Composer Isang Yun developed an idiosyncratic musical language that blends Eastern-Asian and Western-European art traditions. Exiled from Korea due to political conflict, he continued his compositional career in Germany, where his music is renowned for its use of the Hauptton (“main-tone”) technique. Yun was the first to discuss this technique, which he interprets as a process rooted in East-Asian musical traditions, including Taoism philosophy. His music is remarkable in that it fuses this process within the context of Western formal structures. I combine Straus’s associational model with Yun’s Hauptton theory to analyse the second movement of Duo für Violoncello und Harfe (1984) in order to show the inclusion of Eastern-Asian and Western-European musical elements in Yun’s music. I begin by analysing several Haupttöne at the surface level through associational relationships, followed by a large-scale analysis of the entire movement with one fundamental Hauptton.

This dissertation engages a number of currents of environmental criticism and rhetoric in an analysis of the poetry, fiction, and non-fiction of the southeastern United States. I examine conceptions of genitive relationships with the environment as portrayed in the work of diverse writers, primarily William Faulkner, Robert Penn Warren, W.E.B. Du Bois, Zora Neal Hurston, and Elizabeth Madox Roberts. Southern literature is rarely addressed in ecocritical studies, and to date no work offers an intensive and focused examination of the rhetoric employed in conceptions of environmental ownership. However, southern literature and culture provides fertile ground to trace the creation, development, and communication of environmental values because of its history of agrarianism, slavery, and a literary tradition committed to a sense of place. I argue that the concerns of the two main distinctive threads of environmental literary scholarship - ecopoetics and environmentalism of the poor - neatly overlap in the literature of the South. I employ rhetorical theory and phenomenology to argue that southern authors call into question traditional forms of writing about nature - such as pastoral, the sublime, and wilderness narratives - to reinvent and revitalize those forms in order to develop and communicate modes of reciprocal ownership of natural and cultural environments. These writers not only imagine models of personal and communal coexistence with the environment, but also provide new ways of thinking about environmental justice. The intersection of individual and social relationships with history and nature in Southern literature provides new models for thinking about environmental relationships and how they are communicated. I argue that expressions of environmental ownership and belonging suggest how individuals and groups can better understand their distance and proximity to their environments, which may result in new valuations of personal and social environmental relationships.

En esta tesis se estudian los aspectos de la poesía de Juan Larrea (1895-1980) relacionados con la traducción. Se presenta un corpus exhaustivo de las traducciones de Gerardo Diego (1896-1987) de poemas de Juan Larrea constituido a partir de textos publicados y textos conservados en el archivo personal de Diego. Se analizan los mecanismos de la escritura francesa de Larrea intervenidos por la doble presencia del francés y el español y los aspectos de la misma que representan una especial dificultad en traducción, y se ofrece asimismo un análisis de las traducciones de Gerardo Diego y una aproximación a los presupuestos de la teoría creacionista vinculados con la traducción poética. Se dedica un estudio al ultraísmo con el objetivo de contextualizar los comienzos poéticos de Juan Larrea y Gerardo Diego en la poesía de vanguardia y reconocer la naturaleza renovadora de esta en el panorama poético español de los años veinte. Igualmente, se ofrece un estudio sobre la experiencia universitaria de Juan Larrea en Córdoba (Argentina) como parte del análisis de su poesía.

Thesis (M.A.)--Miami University, Dept. of History, 2009. / Title from first page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 49-52).

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