The research examines the interface of history and fiction. It predominantly focuses on historical fiction on the Zimbabwean liberation war written in Shona, Ndebele and English and published after the attainment of political independence in 1980. Historical fiction on the liberation war is both biographical and autobiographical. Consequently, the study comes to the conclusion that historical fiction is a veritable stakeholder in the history issue in Zimbabwe. It becomes another type or source of history that cannot be papered over when dealing with the nation’s history. In a nation where liberation war history is not only taken seriously, but is also a vigorously contested terrain, historical fiction becomes part of those discursive contestations, particularly on nation and nationalism. It is in this regard that the study problematises the interface of history and fiction by reasoning that historical fiction published in the early 1980s largely advances a state-centered perspective which views history, nation and nationalism in positive terms. This discourse uses history in order to argue for a single nation that derives its identity from the heroic and symbolic guerrilla characters. Nationalism is exclusively presented as humanising and as being the sole legitimate political brand capable of leading the nation. On the other hand, historical fiction written in English and published in the late 1980s onwards represents alternative historical truths that contest nationalism and debunk official definitions of nation. This discourse leads to the pluralisation of perspectives on nation and nationalism. The focus on historical fiction published in three languages used in Zimbabwe is a conscious attempt to transcend ethnicity in critical scholarship. Discussing novels in Shona, Ndebele and English, which are the three main languages in Zimbabwe, makes it possible for the study to draw reasoned conclusions on the bearing of time, language, region and background among others on historical representation. This undertaking brings to the fore how literature responding to similar historical processes appears moderately conjunctive and principally disjunctive. Correspondingly, it also shows various trends in the development of liberation war fiction in Zimbabwe. / African Languages / D. Litt. et Phil. (African Languages)

«Expériences aberrantes» : Une lecture de la société dans les romans expérimentaux de la Grande-Bretagne et de la France entre 1945 et 1975, conteste l’idée d’un rôle secondaire du roman expérimental dans le contexte socio-culturel d'après-guerre. Ma thèse resitue le roman expérimental britannique et français de cette période dans un espace de correspondances critiques ce qui permet de remettre en cause un certain nombre d’affirmations qui perdurent à son sujet et de proposer une nouvelle approche critique de ce corpus.Je soutiens qu’un regard aveugle, ou appropriatif, tourné vers ces textes, les a dépouillés de leur reflet du social ; c’est ce qui m’a poussé à tenter de les restituer dans leur contexte d'origine. C’est dans ce but que, à quelques exceptions près, je relie le roman expérimental à ses principes originels, tel qu’ils furent exposés par Émile Zola dans Le Roman expérimental (1880), à savoir une « cellule blanche » au sein du « circulus social », qui recèle le potentiel de « guérir » la société de ses délires. C’est à cette fin que cette thèse vient imiter les procédés de la médecine expérimentale ; avec trois étapes, chacune constituant un stade du traitement expérimental d’une maladie sociale. De ce fait, la première partie aborde la perception de la maladie, où j’observe le reflet des relations sociales et de la présence culturelle dans le roman expérimental. Je présente aussi les symptômes de cette maladie, décrits comme des problématiques d'histoire, de la culture dominante, et de l’exercice même de la critique. La deuxième partie conduit cette étude à sa phase de diagnostic de la maladie qui est dressé à travers l’étude du contenu des romans expérimentaux. La troisième partie, enfin, tente d’étudier les outils expérimentaux employés afin de déconstruire ces délires ; donc de manifestement essayer de ‘guérir la société’ de la maladie décrite dans les parties précédentes. / “Aberrant experiments”: reading society in the novel experiments of Britain and France 1945-1975 contests the reduced position of the experimental novel in the post-war socio-cultural sphere. My thesis situates the experimental novel of the period in Britain and France in a space of critical connectivity that both challenges a number of prevailing critical orthodoxies, and potentially offers new avenues of critical attention within the subject. I also argue that the blind, or appropriative, eye turned to these texts has acted to disjoint them from their potential social reflections, and here try to reposition them within their native atmosphere; thus refind this ground. To such an end, I, with some exceptions, return the experimental novel to its original tenets as set out in 1880 by Émile Zola in Le Roman expérimental as a ‘white cell’ within the ‘social circulus’ that harbours the potential to ‘cure’ society of its ‘delusions’, and develop this schema further. As such, this thesis mimics the processes of experimental medicine; in which its three partitions deal each with a different stage of the experimental treatment of a social illness. In such, the first partition approaches the perception of sickness; where I observe depictions of social relation and cultural presence in the experimental novel, and the symptoms of illness there-in described as issues of history, dominant culture; and indeed the field of critique itself. Following this, the second partition brings the study into the phase of diagnosis of sickness; where the illness itself is diagnosed through a content study of the experimental novel. This then follows to the third and final partition, which attempts to view the experimental techniques employed in order to ‘break down’ these delusions; in essence attempt to indeed ‘cure society’ of the sickness described in the preceding partitions.

La thèse, intitulée « L’Avant-Postman: James Joyce, L’Avant-Garde et le Postmoderne », s’efforce de construire une généalogie littéraire post-joycienne, centrée sur les notions de l’avant-garde joycienne et de l’expérimentation littéraire, et prend les deux dernières œuvres de Joyce, Ulysses et Finnegans Wake, pour points de départ des avant-gardes d’après la seconde guerre mondiale, une époque généralement appelée « postmoderne », en Grande-Bretagne, aux États-Unis, et en France.L’Introduction identifie la notion d’une avant-garde joycienne à l'exploration, par Joyce, de la matérialité du langage et l’identification de sa dernière œuvre, le « Work in Progress », à la « Révolution du mot », défendue par Eugène Jolas dans sa revue transition. L’exploration joycienne de la matérialité du langage se comprend selon trois orientations : l'écriture conçue comme une trace physique, susceptible d’être distordue ou effacée ; le lan-gage littéraire compris comme une forgerie des mots des autres ; le projet de la création d’un idiome personnel, défini comme un langage « autonome », qui doit être caractéristique de la littérature vraiment moderne.La thèse est divisée en huit chapitres, deux pour la Grande-Bretagne (de B.S. Johnson, Brooke-Rose à Iain Sinclair), deux pour les États-Unis (de Burroughs et Gass à Acker et Sorrentino) et trois pour la France (le nouveau roman, l’Oulipo, et la groupe Tel Quel). Le Chapitre VIII retrace l’héritage joycien pour la littérature après 2000 dans ces trois espaces na-tionaux. La conclusion définit l’avant-garde joycienne, telle qu'elle est thématisée après la seconde guerre mondiale, comme un défi adressé à la notion de « postmoderne ». / The thesis, entitled “The Avant-Postman: James Joyce, the Avant-Garde and Postmodern-ism,” attempts to construct a post-Joycean literary genealogy centred around the notions of a Joycean avant-garde and literary experimentation written in its wake. It considers the last two works by Joyce, Ulysses and Finnegans Wake, as points of departure for the post-war literary avant-gardes in Great Britain, the USA, and France, in a period generally called “postmodern.”The introduction bases the notion of a Joycean avant-garde upon Joyce’s sustained explora-tion of the materiality of language and upon the appropriation of his last work, his “Work in Progress,” for the cause of the “Revolution of the word” conducted by Eugene Jolas in his transition magazine. The Joycean exploration of the materiality of language is considered as comprising three stimuli: the conception of writing as physical trace, susceptible to distortion or effacement; the understanding of literary language as a forgery of the words of others; and the project of creating a personal idiom as an “autonomous” language for a truly modern literature.The material is divided into eight chapters, two for Great Britain (from B.S. Johnson via Brooke-Rose to Iain Sinclair), two for the U.S. (from Burroughs and Gass to Acker and Sorrentino) and three for France (the nouveau roman, Oulipo, and the Tel Quel group). Chapter Eight traces the Joycean heritage within the literature after 2000 of the three national literary spaces. The conclusion contextualises the theme of the Joycean post-war avant-garde as a challenge to the notion of “postmodernism.”

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This dissertation undertakes a comparative study of certain works of literature concerning Vietnamese and American troops during the United States’ involvement in Southeast Asia in the 1960s and 1970s. My assumption was that during war it is possible to conclude that enemy forces behave in the same manner in order to reach the identical goal, that of victory over the ‘other’ side. I sought to ascertain how under the selfsame conditions they could be considered as enemies. Divided only by the 17th Parallel: A Study of Similarities Between American and Vietnamese Soldiers in Selected Works By close reading of six texts, three from Vietnamese and three from American perspectives, I have attempted to extract their similar views from each in order to create a context in which the likeness of each side is demonstrated. This was achieved by exploring four themes: those of landscape, time, conflict and ghosts. It was discovered that the protagonists’ behaviour was the same and that rather than being the others’ adversary their true enemies were found within their own ranks. The results indicate that a wider perspective should be adopted on war than one which regards it as a simplistic binary consisting of two opposing sides. Contrary to any supposition that enemies must remain separated, there is more than enough evidence for one to conclude that they actually occupied mutual psychological territory. Key Terms: Landscape, time, ghosts, psychological damage, Reader Response, CSR, PTSD, New Historicism, dehumanisation, conditions of war, 1954 Geneva Agreement, ideology, war literature. / English Literature / M.A. (English Literature)

This dissertation undertakes a comparative study of certain works of literature concerning Vietnamese and American troops during the United States’ involvement in Southeast Asia in the 1960s and 1970s. My assumption was that during war it is possible to conclude that enemy forces behave in the same manner in order to reach the identical goal, that of victory over the ‘other’ side. I sought to ascertain how under the selfsame conditions they could be considered as enemies. Divided only by the 17th Parallel: A Study of Similarities Between American and Vietnamese Soldiers in Selected Works By close reading of six texts, three from Vietnamese and three from American perspectives, I have attempted to extract their similar views from each in order to create a context in which the likeness of each side is demonstrated. This was achieved by exploring four themes: those of landscape, time, conflict and ghosts. It was discovered that the protagonists’ behaviour was the same and that rather than being the others’ adversary their true enemies were found within their own ranks. The results indicate that a wider perspective should be adopted on war than one which regards it as a simplistic binary consisting of two opposing sides. Contrary to any supposition that enemies must remain separated, there is more than enough evidence for one to conclude that they actually occupied mutual psychological territory. Key Terms: Landscape, time, ghosts, psychological damage, Reader Response, CSR, PTSD, New Historicism, dehumanisation, conditions of war, 1954 Geneva Agreement, ideology, war literature. / English Literature / M.A. (English Literature)

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / This thesis examines the literary journal Horizon, its editor Cyril Connolly, and a selection of its editorial articles, poems, short stories and essays in the context of the Second World War, from 1939-45. Analyses of these works, their representation of wartime experience, and their artistic merit, serve as evidence of a shared and sustained literary engagement with the war. Collectively, they demonstrate Horizon’s role as one of the primary outlets for British literature and cultural discourse during the conflict. Previous assessments of the magazine as an apolitical organ with purely aesthetic concerns have led to enduring critical neglect and misappraisal. This thesis shows that, contrary to the commonly held view, Horizon consistently offered space for political debate, innovative criticism, and war-relevant content. It argues that Horizon’s wartime writing is indicative of the many varied types of literary response to a war that was all but incomprehensible for those who experienced it. These poems, stories and essays offer a distinctive and illuminating insight into the war and are proof that a viable literary culture thrived during the war years. This thesis also argues that Horizon, as a periodical, should be considered as a creative entity in and of itself, and is worthy of being studied in this light. The magazine’s constituent parts, interesting enough when considered separately, are shaped, informed, and granted new shades of meaning by their position alongside other works in Horizon. Chapters in the thesis cover editorials and editing, poetry, short stories, political essays, and critical essays respectively. Analyses of individual works are situated in the context of larger concerns in order to demonstrate the coherence of debate and discourse that characterised Horizon’s wartime run. In arguing that Horizon is a singular creative entity worthy of consideration in its own right, this thesis locates itself within the emerging field of periodical studies. Further, by arguing that the magazine demonstrates the value of Second World War literature, it articulates with other recent attempts to reassess the scope and quality of that literature. More specifically, this thesis offers the first focused and in-depth analysis of Horizon’s formative years.

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / This thesis examines the literary journal Horizon, its editor Cyril Connolly, and a selection of its editorial articles, poems, short stories and essays in the context of the Second World War, from 1939-45. Analyses of these works, their representation of wartime experience, and their artistic merit, serve as evidence of a shared and sustained literary engagement with the war. Collectively, they demonstrate Horizon’s role as one of the primary outlets for British literature and cultural discourse during the conflict. Previous assessments of the magazine as an apolitical organ with purely aesthetic concerns have led to enduring critical neglect and misappraisal. This thesis shows that, contrary to the commonly held view, Horizon consistently offered space for political debate, innovative criticism, and war-relevant content. It argues that Horizon’s wartime writing is indicative of the many varied types of literary response to a war that was all but incomprehensible for those who experienced it. These poems, stories and essays offer a distinctive and illuminating insight into the war and are proof that a viable literary culture thrived during the war years. This thesis also argues that Horizon, as a periodical, should be considered as a creative entity in and of itself, and is worthy of being studied in this light. The magazine’s constituent parts, interesting enough when considered separately, are shaped, informed, and granted new shades of meaning by their position alongside other works in Horizon. Chapters in the thesis cover editorials and editing, poetry, short stories, political essays, and critical essays respectively. Analyses of individual works are situated in the context of larger concerns in order to demonstrate the coherence of debate and discourse that characterised Horizon’s wartime run. In arguing that Horizon is a singular creative entity worthy of consideration in its own right, this thesis locates itself within the emerging field of periodical studies. Further, by arguing that the magazine demonstrates the value of Second World War literature, it articulates with other recent attempts to reassess the scope and quality of that literature. More specifically, this thesis offers the first focused and in-depth analysis of Horizon’s formative years.