Recent discussions of the state of Medieval Studies, sparked by such books as Lee Patterson’s Negotiating the Past, provide an important impetus for this thesis because they highlight the critical abyss which exists between Medieval Studies and other areas of literary studies. For one entering the field of Medieval Literary Studies this revelation is disturbing and inhibiting. However, the history of Medieval Studies cannot be ignored by those now working within the area. If Medieval Studies is to survive it must come to terms with its past and recognise the precarious position in which the discipline now stands as a result of its academic isolation. ...

Recent discussions of the state of Medieval Studies, sparked by such books as Lee Patterson’s Negotiating the Past, provide an important impetus for this thesis because they highlight the critical abyss which exists between Medieval Studies and other areas of literary studies. For one entering the field of Medieval Literary Studies this revelation is disturbing and inhibiting. However, the history of Medieval Studies cannot be ignored by those now working within the area. If Medieval Studies is to survive it must come to terms with its past and recognise the precarious position in which the discipline now stands as a result of its academic isolation. ...

Aborder le roman féminin sous l‟angle d‟un énoncé discursif nécessite raisonnablement que l‟on prenne en compte, le contexte social, culturel et linguistique de production, les stratégies d‟énonciation, le champ de signification et les instances réceptrices qui déterminent ce discours. L‟approche sociopragmatique nous autorise pour ce faire à cette lecture plurielle qui, selon nous, mène incontestablement à une lisibilité optimale des textes. D‟abord, en tant que communication, le roman féminin implique des techniques discursives basées sur un environnement culturel et linguistique qui influence incontestablement le fonctionnement des énoncés en ce qui concerne les activités de production. Ensuite, la particularité des discours que nous étudions c‟est leur langage multiforme fait de paroles, d‟actes à valeur énonciatives, et d‟autres types de manifestations communicatives. C‟est un langage allégorique par essence, fait de sous-entendus, de diverses tournures imagées et aussi de silences parlants qui permettent d‟exprimer sans vraiment dire. Cette mise en scène théâtralisée du discours confère à l‟expression romanesque féminine un statut artistique particulier où la langue s‟enrichit d‟« accessoires linguistiques » d‟origine ethnique, régionale ou nationale. Enfin, la réception elle-même est fonction d‟un ensemble d‟éléments nécessaires à sa réalisation à savoir un espace, un temps, une orientation de réception intentionnellement glissée par l‟auteur. Ces éléments mis ensemble correspondent à ce que Kleiber nomme la "mémoire discursive" de l‟énonciateur et les "savoirs partagés" entre l‟émetteur et le récepteur / Going into feminine novel in a discursive statement approach, it is necessary to consider the social, linguistic and cultural contexts of the production. The enouncing strategies, the meaning field and the rulling receiving that determine the speech, are also to be taken in account. The socio pragmatic approach allows us thus to the plural reading we consider to lead indisputably to an optimal legibility of the texts. Firstly, as communication, the feminine novel involves discursive techniques based on both cultural and linguistic contexts influencing incontestably the functioning of utterances concerning production activities. Then, the particularity of the speeches under our study is their multiform language made on lyrics, acts with enunciative values, and other sort of communicative expressions. It is essentially an allegorical language, with hidden meanings, different imagery turns and talking silences that allows expression without actually saying. This theatralized staging of the speech confers on the feminine roman expression a peculiar artistic status where the language enriches of "linguistic accessories" from national and ethnic origins. Finally, the reception itself is a function of a whole of elements required to its carrying out namely, defined space, defined time, and an orientation of reception intentionally glide by the author. These elements put together correspond to what Kleber calls the "discursive memory" of the "enunciator" and the" shared knowledges" between the issuer and the receiver

Le thème de la guerre civile au Nigéria de 1967 à 1970, aussi appelée guerre du Biafra reste un thème majeur de la littérature nigériane. Les évènements qui ont amené au conflit au lendemain de l’indépendance du pays montrent une période post-coloniale encore marquée par les maux de la construction nationale des anciennes colonies que sont le régionalisme, la religion et le problème ethnique. La fin du conflit en 1970 inaugure une ère de mutation des problèmes d’avant la guerre qui perdurent avec la succession des différents régimes au pouvoir. De plus, le conflit devient un sujet tabou à effacer des mémoires autant que de la mémoire collective nigeriane.Après la première vague des écrivains à majorité Igbo qui ont écrit sur le conflit, tels que Chukwuemeka Ike avec Sunset at Dawn (1979), Buchi Emecheta (1983), Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie reprend le thème de cette guerre sans apologie. Cette nouvelle façon d’écrire le sujet de la guerre du Biafra se veut thérapeutique et réconciliatrice.Ce travail analyse le traitement de la guerre du Biafra à travers le prisme de la Déesse Mammy Water, divinité de la cosmologie Igbo. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie appartient à la communauté Igbo. / The theme of the Nigerian civil war which lasted from 1967 to 1970, also called the Biafra war remains one of the major theme of the nigerian literature. The events that led to the war after the country’s independance point to a post-colonial period where national building is still worked up on along ethnic and religious lines. In 1970, the end of the conflict starts a new era still affected by all the issues that led to the war still visible in the different regimes leading the federation. Moreover, the conflict became a taboo topic that needed to be erased from individual as well as the nigerian collective memory.After the first wave of writers mainly from Igbo descent who wrote about the war such as Chukwuemeka Ike with Sunset at Dawn (1979), Buchi Emecheta (1983), Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie takes up the theme of the war unapologetically. Her way of writing the war ultimately wants to be the therapeutical and inclusive for all nigerians.This study analyzes the Biafran war through the prism of Mammy Water, the water goddess in the Igbo cosmology. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie belongs to the Igbo community.

The aim of this dissertation is to study postmodern historical novels, which are labeled &ldquo / historiographic metafictions&rdquo / (Hutcheon 1989: 92), in terms of their allowing for different voices and alternative, plural histories by subverting the historical documents and events that they refer to. The study analyzes texts from feminist and postcolonial literature, Jeanette Winterson&rsquo / s The Passion and Sexing the Cherry, and Salman Rushdie&rsquo / s Midnight&rsquo / s Children and Shame as examples in which the transgression of boundaries between fact and fiction is achieved. Basing its arguments on postmodern understanding of history, the thesis puts forward that historiography not only represents past events but it also gives meaning to them, as it is a signifying system, and turns historical events into historical facts. Historiography, while constructing historical facts, singles out certain past events while omitting others, for ideological reasons. This inevitably leads to the fact that marginalized groups are denied an official voice by hegemonic ideologies. Therefore, history is regarded as monologic, representing the dominant discourse. The thesis will analyze four novels by Winterson and Rushdie as double-voiced discourses where the dominant voice of history is refracted through subversion and gives way to other voices that have been suppressed. While analyzing the novels themselves, the thesis will look for the metafictional elements of the texts, stressing self-reflexivity, non-linear narrative, and parodic intention to pinpoint the refraction and the co-existence of plural voices. As a result, historiographic metafiction is proved to be a liberating genre, for feminist and postcolonial writers, that enables other histories to be verbalized.

De fortes contraintes juridiques, morales et coutumières pesaient sur les femmes de la fin du « long » 18ème siècle en Grande Bretagne. Les écrits féminins s’en ressentaient autant du point de vue des stratégies littéraires que de l’intrigue. Pour contourner les interdits et les tabous dont l’écriture féminine devait tenir compte, certaines romancières eurent recours à une satire ingénieuse qui ridiculisait les travers d’une société qui leur interdisait le sens critique. L’étude du contexte permet de faire la lumière sur le pourquoi et le comment de leurs stratégies satiriques. C’était l’époque des Lumières anglaises et écossaises, du début de la Révolution Industrielle et de la formation des classes moyennes. L’économie s’épanouissait et requérait une première « consommation de masse ». Synecdoques de la femme à vendre ou qui cherche à l’être, l’objet et l’argent sont les deux aspects d’analyse critique qui sous-tendent la structure de ce travail. La théorie de la re-création esthétique à la réception de Wolfgang Iser sert à souligner l’écart de réception possible entre le lecteur d’alors et celui de nos jours, et ensuite à susciter, investigations dans le contexte à l’appui, une émotion nouvelle à la lecture de ces ouvrages vieux de deux siècles. La théorie de la consommation de Baudrillard est choisie parce qu’elle facilite une compréhension de certains comportements autour de l’objet de personnages satirisés dans les romans. / Heavy juridical, moral and customary constraints weighed on women at the end of the « long » 18th century in Great Britain. The impact of such constraints on feminine writing touched the various literary strategies as well as the plots in the novels. In order to get round the taboos set by patriarchy - taboos that only touched the world of women – a few women writers used an ingenious kind of satire that ridiculed the faults of a society that forbade them any right to criticise. Researching the context allows us to understand the motives and the techniques of their satirical strategies. This was the time of English and Scottish Enlightenment, the beginning of the Industrial Revolution and the making of the middle classes. The economy was flourishing and led to a first wave of “mass consumption”. As synecdoches for women for sale or who wanted to be sold, objects and money are the two sides to the critical analysis that underlies the structure of this thesis. Wolfgang Iser’s theory of aesthetic re-creation by the reader is used to underline the possible gap in reception between at least two communities of readers and then, through investigation in the context, to arouse new interest for the works by Burney, Austen and Ferrier, some of them really unknown to most. Baudrillard’s theory of consumption has been chosen because it facilitates the reader’s understanding of the characters’ behaviour with respect to objects when the characters in question are the target of satire.

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