Utiliser la violence verbale pour ; attaquer, rabaisser, nuire à la réputation d’autrui et diffamer, voilà comment les pamphlétaires envisagent leur prise de parole. Alors, lorsque le politique s’empare de cette force du discours et de son pouvoir de nuisance pour en faire une arme de propagande, le résultat peut parfois se révéler déroutant face à une énonciation pamphlétaire qui échappe au contrôle de ceux-là mêmes qui voulaient l’institutionnaliser et la mettre au service de leurs affrontements partisans. L’utilisation du comique dans les pamphlets des guerres de religion atteste, clairement, de cette évolution sur la voie d’une libération totale du discours de toute forme de respect quelle qu’elle soit. Le passage de la moquerie et de la raillerie plaisante, du drôle au tout simplement méchant, violent, cruel et haineux au point de se demander si nous pouvons encore parler de dimension comique, voici la que! stion qui a motivé notre recherche et c’est dans la collection pamphlétaire de Pierre de L’Estoile insérée dans son Registre-Journal du Règne de Henri III que nous avons expérimenté l’étude de l’énonciation et de la réception des libelles. La dimension propagandiste permet en apparence de donner une crédibilité voire même une légitimité au discours pamphlétaire en l’associant à un objectif politique, mais en réalité, elle ne fait que l’ancrer encore plus dans sa valeur diffamatoire et renforcer sa dimension passionnelle jusqu’à outrance pour manipuler un lecteur contraint d’entrer dans ce jeu diffamatoire. Toute la question est donc de savoir comment la brutalité comique s’exprime dans ces feuilles volantes, d’en définir l’intérêt et surtout les enjeux idéologiques ? / Use verbal violence to attack, belittle, compromise others and slander, this is how satirical tract writers voice their opinions. Thereafter, when politics seize this power of nuisance to make it a propaganda weapon, the result may sometimes seem puzzling to the very people who sought to institutionalize it and put it in the service of their partisan confrontations. The use of the comic in the pamphlets of the religious wars gives clear evidence of this evolution towards a total liberation of the speech of any form of respect whatsoever. What motivated our research was the way taunt and pleasant mockery simply turned into a miserable, violent, cruel and resentful discourse, to the point that we wonder if we can still speak about a funny dimension. It is in the collection of satirical tract writer Pierre de L'Estoile inserted in his Registre-Journal du Règne de Henri III that we studied these statements. The propagandist dimension seemingly ! allows giving credibility, or even legitimacy, to the satirical tract writer by associating him with a political objective – may it be to kill with a nib. In fact, it only anchors it all the more in its slanderous value and strengthens its passionate dimension to the point of extravagance in order to manipulate the reader. The question is thus to determine how does the funny brutality express itself in these loose sheets, to define their interest and above all their ideological stakes ?

The first browser war took place during the second half the 1990s, and Internet Explorer cameout as the winner over Netscape Navigator. Today a new browser war is being fought withmany competitors and the future is uncertain. The purpose of the thesis is to find out how theweb browser market has developed since the start of the previous conflict, and we ask ourselveshow it will continue to develop in the future. This is accomplished with, among otherthings, interviews, tests and already existing statistics. The thesis' conclusions shows that theweb browser market has developed in a positive way from several perspectives, both for theusers as well as for the web developers. The conclusions also show that the web browser market'sfuture looks stable and indicate a probability that the browser war will transition into anormal, healthy market situation with several competitors.The first browser war took place during the second half the 1990s, and Internet Explorer cameout as the winner over Netscape Navigator. Today a new browser war is being fought withmany competitors and the future is uncertain. The purpose of the thesis is to find out how theweb browser market has developed since the start of the previous conflict, and we ask ourselveshow it will continue to develop in the future. This is accomplished with, among otherthings, interviews, tests and already existing statistics. The thesis' conclusions shows that theweb browser market has developed in a positive way from several perspectives, both for theusers as well as for the web developers. The conclusions also show that the web browser market'sfuture looks stable and indicate a probability that the browser war will transition into anormal, healthy market situation with several competitors.

Dès le lendemain de la Saint-Barthélemy, chacun, selon sa foi et ses convictions, proposait une interprétation et enrichissait la légende. A chaque époque, le dossier était ré-ouvert donnant lieu à de nouvelles controverses. Les écrivains du XIXe siècle se sont principalement intéressés au XVe siècle et à la Saint-Barthélemy parce la nation était de nouveau en proie à des événements san­glants. En effet, ces deux siècles se caractérisent par une grande instabilité politique, des guerres intestines, des menaces venues de 1'étranger et des polémiques religieuses. Les auteurs ont inter­prété les événements et les situations de cette période en fonction de préoccupations politiques et sociales qui leur étaient contemporaines. Cette étude montre que le massacre, perpétré pour des motifs religieux et politiques, fut traité différemment selon les auteurs et les époques. / As soon as the day after the Saint-Barthélemy, everyone, according to his faith and political beliefs suggested an interpretation, and magnified the legend. In each epoch, the issue was reopened, giving rise to new controversies. The writers of the nineteenth century were primarily interested in the sixteenth century and the Saint-Barthélemy because the country was actually facing bloody confrontations again. Indeed, these two centuries are famous for great political turmoil, wars, threats from abroad and religions polemics. The authors interpreted the episodes and situations of this period by drawing parallels to political and social contemporary concerns. This dissertation shows that this massacre, perpetrated for religions and political reasons, was treated in different ways by miscellaneous authors in various eras.

This PhD thesis examines the status of ‘expert knowledge’ in the history of U.S. asymmetric, or ‘counterinsurgency’ (COIN), warfare during the last century. The historical rise of expert influence has so far been neglected in the study of wars within the field of International Relations and the thesis will give us an indication of the importance and utility of expert knowledge. With a specific focus on the campaigns in the Philippines (1899-1902), Vietnam (1954-75) and Iraq (2003-11), the central research question guiding the project is as follows: “What were the conditions for the evolution, the constitution and the use of ‘outside’ expert knowledge in U.S. counterinsurgency campaigns?” The thesis claims that military and academic ‘experts’ had a key role in framing and implementing the problem-sets and solutions to these conflicts. They have, in Iraq in particular, played an important part in developing the campaigns’ ex-post-facto justification of success. Within the framework of organisational knowledge production, this knowledge does not necessarily play an instrumental role for the military. Instead, it can also serve a merely symbolic function, demonstrating to the audience and stakeholders within the political environment that the organisation is willing to solve the problems the insurgents pose, but without any interest in long-term utilisation of the knowledge. This thesis argues that across time, from the beginning of the Philippine-American War in 1898 to the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq in 2011, ‘counterinsurgency’ has developed from a tactical and operational tool, used instrumentally to fight insurgencies, to a strategy or even ‘ideology’ in its own right. Whilst the methods or techniques of counterinsurgency remain basically the same, expert knowledge is increasingly used in modern – that is post-World War II – campaigns to support a politico-strategic narrative.

Fondée sur la polysémie du terme latin uates, notre thèse se propose d’étudier les rapports entre poésie et prophétie dans la Pharsale de Lucain. Depuis l’Antiquité, le prophète est à la fois celui qui annonce l’avenir et celui qui parle au nom d’un tiers, souvent d’un dieu. D’abord, nous proposons une typologie des figures de prophètes dans la Pharsale en les comparant avec les prophètes de la tradition littéraire, en particulier issue de l’épopée et de la tragédie. Trois types de prophètes apparaissent chez Lucain : les prophètes omniscients, les prophètes utilisant une discipline divinatoire (astrologie, haruspicine, enthousiasme…) et les prophètes doués d’une inspiration infernale. Ensuite, la parole prophétique des personnages est comparée à celle, oraculaire, du narrateur épique. Nous proposons une étude des prolepses narratives de l’épopée en lien avec l’histoire de Rome, et en particulier avec l’histoire des guerres civiles. Ainsi, Lucain construit une vision cyclique de l’histoire. Après avoir défini la matière prophétique dans la parole du narrateur, nous analysons son style prophétique du point du vue narratologique et stylistique. Enfin, nous passons d’une poétique à une métapoétique de la prophétie chez Lucain. En effet, les personnages de prophètes constituent des mandataires du poète dont ils sont les porte-voix, au sens étymologique de prophète. Les prophètes lucaniens sont donc chargés de délivrer un Art poétique, conformément à la vision du monde de l’auteur. Cette dernière se traduit par une esthétique de la rupture qui s’applique au macrocosme céleste, au microcosme organique et à l’hexamètre épique. / Starting from the double meaning of the latin word uates, this study aims to define the links between poetry and prophecy in Lucan’s Pharsalia. Since Antiquity indeed, the prophet has been both a soothsayer and a person speaking for somebody else, especially for a god. First, we build a typology of the prophetic figures in the Pharsalia and we compare them with literary characters from epic and tragedy. Lucan conjures three kinds of prophets : omniscient ones, prophets who use divinatory technics (e.g. astrology, haruspicy, enthusiasm) and those whose inspiration comes from the Underworld. We then look at the prophetic speeches delivered by the characters against the oracular voice of the epic narrator. We study narrative prolepses of the epic that anticipate Roman history (especially the history of the Civil Wars), and through which Lucan offers a cyclical vision of history. After defining the prophetic matter of the narrative voice, we analyse Lucan’s prophetic manner from a narratological and a stylistic perspective. Lastly, we switch from a poetic definition of prophetic voices in the Pharsalia to a metapoetic study. The prophet characters indeed serve as surrogates of the poet and literally utter his voice, thus referring to the etymology of the word. The role of Lucan’s prophets is therefore to formulate an Ars poetica, in accordance with the poet’s Weltanschauung – a vision articulated by an aesthetics of disruption which encapsulates the celestial macrocosm, the organic microcosm and the epic hexameter.

The aim of this diploma thesis is to assess (by means of the synthesis of interdisciplinary sciences) whether we could trace any changes in clothing style during a period of Hussit wars with an overlap to the years 1400-1450 on the basis of surviving fragments of historic textiles, visual and material sources with the references to literary documents. The thesis focuses more thoroughly on the earlier development of the structure of male and female pieces of clothing and their possible form in the period of Hussit wars. Specifically, it follows the evolution of the form of both male and female body linen, under garments and outer garments, and it also focuses on head coverings, hose, shoes and accessories of the particular period. The document is enriched by a large variety of pictures attached straight to the text due to better orientation within the written content. At the end there are tables and figures which widely cover the traces of individual parts of garments found in illuminated manuscripts dated back to the delimited period. Key words: clothing, archeological textiles, illumination, Bohemia, Hussite wars, late middle ages.

The diploma thesis De Stijl and Czech Avant-Garde Art of the 1920's and 1930's focuses on the Dutch art movement De Stijl (1917-1931) and the relationship of its protagonists to the Czech avant-garde scene of the inter-war era; both on the practical as well as theoretical level. The work aims to examine the as yet rather insufficiently mapped interconnection between the creative output of De Stijl's artists, led by the movement founder Theo van Doesburg, and the body of work of Czech artists active in the First Czechoslovak Republic period. The crucial part of the text is grounded in the works of Theo van Doesburg and Karel Teige, leading personalities of the inter-war art scene of the aforementioned countries. The thesis concentrates on selected thematic areas of their wide scope of interests: typography, film, Bauhaus and architecture.

In 1655 and again in 1686-1689, the Waldensians of Piedmont were massacred by the Duke of Savoy after he issued edicts forbidding the practice of their religion. The Waldensians were later followers of the medieval religious movement of the Poor of Lyons, declared heretical in 1215. The Waldensians associated with the Reformation in 1532, and thus formed a link with diverse groups of Protestants across Europe. In the periods immediately surrounding both massacres, an outpouring of publications dedicated to their plight, their history, and their religious identity appeared, a large number of which emerged in London. On both occasions, the propaganda gave rise to international sympathy and encouraged international intervention, eventually provoking the Duke to rescind the edicts that had instigated the massacres. While most contemporary scholars consider the Waldensians to have been fully absorbed into Protestantism after 1532, it is clear from the writings of both the Waldensians and their sympathizers that they considered themselves a separate entity: the inheritors of a long tradition of dissent from the Catholic Church based on their own belief in the purity of the Gospel. The Waldensian identity was based on a history of exclusion and persecution, and also on a belief that they had transmitted the true embodiment of Christianity through the centuries. The documents that were published surrounding the massacres address the legitimacy of the Waldensian identity based on centuries of practice. English and continental Protestants identified with the Waldensians, who provided ancient ties and legitimacy to their ‘new’ religion, and the Waldensians adopted that identity proudly, all the while claiming continuity. Protestants also used the Waldensians in propagandist documents, most often to justify political or religious actions and ideologies. The continuity of Waldensianism through the Reformation became crucially important for the wider umbrella of Protestantism as a legitimizing factor for the movement. This thesis investigates the claims of continuity and finds that while the Waldensians underwent a dramatic change in religious doctrine to conform to the Reformation, their belief in the continuity of their religious identity can be validated by examining religion from a socio-cultural perspective that takes aspects other than theology into consideration.

The objective of this thesis is to provide the reader with an overview of the most important factors that have influenced the development of the India-China relations. The oldest period of mutual interaction is treated, as well as the most important Sino-Indian disputes and their impact on mutual relations. Attention is also drawn to the contemporary development in the Sino-Indian relations, marked by both lingering problems and attempts at cooperation.

In recent years, the IRI has managed to increase its influence in the Middle East. The strategic use of proxy warfare has played a central role as surrounding countries have become destabilised. However, following the positivist logic of structural IR theories, the materially inferior IRI should not be a stronger player in the region’s conflicts than the US and its Arab allies. The Iranian success in proxy warfare, therefore, provides a paradox for the explanatory framework of reductionist IR theories which rely on rational and positivist epistemologies. I argue that this is because these perspectives do not endorse an adequate comprehension of the mutual embedded relations which have served the IRI a strategic advantage in proxy warfare. In a challenge to the parsimonious reductionism of structural IR and security studies, I adopt Feklyunina’s constructivist framework for analysing soft power as a relational identity. Thereby, I switch the focus from a top-down analysis of the IRI to a focus including Iraqi insurgencies’ acceptance or rejection of the IRI’s national identity and foreign policy goals. I argue that identity matter in proxy relations. Hence, I estimate the IRI’s strength in proxy warfare based on potential Iraqi insurgencies’ compatible identities. I employ a longitudinal historical research design tracing the development of collective identities within Iraq. The study finds that the Iraqi Shi’ites share important common facets of their identity with the IRI and have subsequently been willing to fight as proxies against American and Sunni forces in Iraq. However, identity and legitimacy structures in the Middle East are complex, multifaceted, constantly changing, and dependent on context. Iraqi Shi’ites still preserve some reservations and antipathy towards the Iranian regime due to a nationalist sense of community.