Cette thèse apporte des éléments de description et d’analyse du registre littéraire que constitue l’humour noir. Elle s’appuie sur les réflexions développées par André Breton dans son Anthologie de l’humour noir (1966), tout en les resituant au sein des théories surréalistes et en démontrant que l’auteur construit un registre parfaitement adapté à la défense de ses opinions sur l’art et la modernité. La sélection effectuée par l’Anthologie peut alors être abordée sous un nouvel angle et étudiée d’un point de vue littéraire : l’humour noir peut ainsi être défini comme un registre bipolaire, reposant sur la confrontation entre deux tendances, l’une herméneutique et l’autre terroriste, mais qui interrogent toutes deux la valeur des discours tenus sur le monde. Les manifestations littéraires de l’humour noir peuvent ainsi être analysées, de même que les évolutions que connaît le registre à la suite de la Seconde Guerre mondiale. L’humour noir gagne en effet en popularité au sein des médias et les auteurs qui vont avoir recours à ce registre vont prendre en compte sa proximité avec des genres littéraires peu légitimes. Ces évolutions du registre sont étudiées à travers les œuvres de trois auteurs : Joyce Mansour, Roland Topor et Jean-Pierre Martinet. Leurs récits reposent sur des procédés similaires qui visent dans l’ensemble à déstabiliser les schémas narratifs traditionnels. Ainsi, l’humour noir interroge le lecteur sur ses habitudes de lecture et rompt le contrat passé avec l’auteur afin de remettre en cause l’idée d’une communauté possible à travers le partage – inégal – d’une culture et d’une langue communes. L’humour noir postule ainsi l’existence d’une communauté introuvable par la littérature, au sein de récits qui revendiquent leur illégitimité. / This dissertation offers new elements for the description and the analysis of the literary register that is dark humour. It is based on the considerations that André Breton developed in his Anthologie de l’humour noir (1966), and at the same time, it replaces them within the surrealist theories, in order to demonstrate that the author creates a register perfectly suited to the defence of his opinions about art and Modernity. The selection that is made in the Anthologie can henceforth be approached with a fresh eye and analyzed from a literary point of view : dark humour would then be defined as a bipolar register, built on a confrontation between two tendencies, a hermeneutic one and a terrorist one, but which both question the value of the speeches that pretend to represent reality. The literary features of dark humour can thus be analyzed, as well as its evolutions after the Second World War. Indeed, at that time, dark humour becomes more popular in the media, and the authors who use it take into account its acquaintances with literary genres that lack legitimacy. The evolutions of the register are studied through the work of three writers : Joyce Mansour, Roland Topor and Jean-Pierre Martinet. Their narratives follow similar patterns which, on the whole, aim to dismantle the traditional narrative schemes. Thus, dark humour questions the reader about his reading habits and breaks the contract entered into with the author, in order to call into question the possibility of a community unified by the – unequal – share of a common culture and language. Dark humour thereby postulates the existence of a community that cannot be found by literature, within narratives that claim their illegitimacy.

Recent census data have shown that the number of Breton speakers in Lower Brittany has continued to drop despite revitalization efforts. A problem minority languages face is struggling to maintain a place in the lives of the people who have adopted the dominant language. In this study, I assess the current problems faced by the Breton language today by examining a few select problems. First, I highlight the lack of situations in which speakers can use Breton. Even children attending immersion programs often do not live in a Breton-speaking household, nor do they have settings outside the school where they can practice the language. Secondly, I consider the ideological place of Breton in the minds of speakers. Many people feel that while Breton is important to their heritage, they do not need to actively speak it in order to associate with a Breton identity. Related to this is the opinion of many people that Breton is an outdated language with no future ahead of it, as revealed by recent research (Broudic 2009, Jones1998, Timm 2001). Finally, the creation of a new, standardized Breton known as neo-Breton adds to the problem of finding a place for the language; older speakers who use traditional Breton are marginalized, while it is the young speakers using neo- Breton. I use current census data as well as personal research conducted in Brittany in July 2010 to supplement my assessment of the current Breton situation. While progress has been slow, Breton is gaining a stronger presence in society. / text

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Ce travail a pour objet l'histoire du surréalisme pendant l'entre-deux guerres (1921-1941 ). À travers l'étude de nombreuses revues d'époque et des écrits d'André Breton, de Georges Hugnet, de David Gascoyne, il s'agit de mettre en lumière la façon dont les surréalistes se sont faits les acteurs de leur propre histoire. Cette construction mémorielle, parfois critiquée par certains surréalistes (notamment René Crevel), explique sans nul doute les tensions et les conflits qui agitent le groupe. Durant les années 1930, nombreux sont les historiens de l'art et écrivains à assister et à commenter la formation du groupe surréaliste. Le rôle de Christian Zervos, celui de René Huyghe et de Marcel Raymond est évoqué, tout comme les apports plus marginaux de Carl Einstein, de Benjamin Fondane et de Walter Benjamin. Ce processus de réification d'un mouvement qui entend écrire sa propre histoire n'a pas pour seul théâtre la France et l'Europe. Plusieurs historiens de l'art, marchands et galeristes américains ont joué un rôle capital dans la reconnaissance du surréalisme. Les écrits de James Thrall Soby, de James Johnson Sweeney tout comme les initiatives d'Alfred Barr ou de Julien Levy ont été sondés et interrogés pour bien montrer la dimension planétaire du mouvement. / This work is dedicated to the history of surrealism du ring the inter-war period (1921-1944). Through the study of many periodicals and the writings of André Breton, Georges Hugnet, David Gascoyne, it highlights how surrealists have made themselves the actors of their own history. This memorial construction, sometimes criticized by some surrealists (especially René Crevel), undoubtedly explains the tensions and conflicts that shake the group. Du ring the 1930s, many art historians and writers attended and commented on the formation of the surrealist group. The role of Christian Zervos, René Huyghe and Marcel Raymond is evoked, as are the more marginal contributions of Carl Einstein, Benjamin Fondane and Walter Benjamin. This process of commodification of a movement that intends to write its own story does not only take place in France and in Europe. Many American art historians, merchants and galleries have played a major role in recognizing surrealism. The writings of James Thrall Soby, James Johnson Sweeney, as well as Alfred Barr or Julien Levy's initiatives show the planetary dimension of the movement.

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Cette thèse présente l’idée de la mort dans le récit Kammdro an Ankou - Le tournant de la mort de l’écrivain breton Loeiz Herrieu, rédigé entre août 1914 et février 1919, et les poèmes du poète breton Yann-Ber Kalloc’h issus de son recueil Ar en Deulin – A genoux, écrits en langue bretonne au début de la Première Guerre mondiale. Elle se situe dans le champ des études de civilisation. Après avoir défini et présenté l’idée de la mort et de la guerre à partir de différentes sources et références principalement littéraires, historiques et philosophiques, qui permettent de comprendre l’état d’esprit des deux hommes et de leur époque, cette thèse étudie la manière dont Loeiz Herrieu et Yann-Ber Kalloc’h ont exprimé leur idée de la mort dans leurs œuvres. Notre observation met en lumière la nature des représentations collectives qui les ont influencées, en particulier celles provenant de l’imaginaire catholique ou nationaliste, breton et français, la façon dont le contexte inédit de la Grande guerre oblige ces deux hommes à créer de nouvelles représentations au moyen d’une création littéraire qui leur permet de conserver une part de liberté individuelle et d’expression singulière, en ce moment de transition entre la société traditionnelle et la société moderne. Transition qui annonce une véritable rupture par la progression de l’individualisme parmi les hommes des sociétés européennes. Dans ce contexte, le regard porté sur les œuvres de Loeiz Herrieu et Yann-Ber Kalloc’h permet d’améliorer notre compréhension de l’esprit des Bretons du début du vingtième siècle, et des raisons qui firent accepter aux hommes bretons de partir se sacrifier au nom de la France / The present thesis focuses on the conception of death in Breton writer Loeiz Herrieu’s story Kammdro an Ankou U – At the turn of Death, drawned from August 1914 to February 1919, as well as in Breton poet Yann-Ber Kalloc'h’s poems from his anthology Ar in Deulin – On my knees, written in Breton at the beginning of World War I. It fits within the scope of civilisation studies. First and foremost, the concepts of death and war are defined and illustrated through various sources and references, which give the reader insight into both men’s and their contemporaries’ mindsets. Besides, this thesis examines how Loeiz Herrieu and Yann-Ber Kalloc’h expressed their respective conception of death in their respective works. The critical comparison thus brings to light not only the very nature of the collective representations which influenced these works – especially those originating from the Catholic or nationalist, both Breton and French, imagination – but also to what extend the unprecedented conditions induced by the Great War forced these two men to invent new representations through their creation. Consequently, they gained a certain amount of individual freedom and a voice of their own, in this crucial moment of transition between tradition and modernity in society. Such a transition introduces the complete break of the development of individualism in European societies. In this perspective, the perception of Loeiz Herrieu and Yann-Ber Kalloc’h’s works improves the current understanding of the Breton folk’s state of mind at the beginning of the 20th century and of the reasons why Breton men accepted to go and sacrifice their lives on the battlefield in the name of France

Cape Breton, Nova Scotia has been a stronghold of active and integrated community traditions of Scotch-Gaelic music and dance since it was settled by large numbers of Scottish emigrants in the nineteenth century. Though these emigrants brought with them an extensive store of tunes common to the Highlands of Scotland, the majority of them were carried in the collective oral memory. Consequently, the traditional Scottish repertoire of Cape Breton fiddlers steadily declined as generations of fiddlers who never learned to read or write music died. In the nearly two centuries that Scots have populated the island, there have been many gifted Cape Breton tune composers. Of these, certainly the most prolific is `old style' fiddler John MacDougall. To date his output numbers over forty thousand tunes. It is not just the staggering quantity of tunes however, that makes MacDougall's composing noteworthy, but his extraordinary claim that he does not write them himself. MacDougall insists that he simply records the tunes whole as they are given to him from the spirits of Cape Bretoners who have long since passed away. This paper examines the connection between MacDougall's tune `making' and the supernatural as an extension and a Christianized revision of a traditional Scottish motif that connects music making with fairylore. It suggests that MacDougall's modernized version of this motif serves to legitimize his large body of tunes to a community of fiddlers that, following in the footsteps of their forbearers, place enormous value on tune authenticity and correctness.

Economic development in the declining Maritime Provinces has proven to be an intractable problem over the last 70 years. Efforts have ranged from capitalist industrial resource extraction to worker-owned producer co-operatives. Yet, throughout its many variations, these initiatives have done little to secure the long-term economic security of Canada’s most marginalized rural communities, such as those on the western coast of Cape Breton Island. Efforts toward this end during the closing decades of the twentieth century, up to present date, have applied market-led development strategies paralleling trends in the increasingly fluid global market economy. This local economic development approach, it is argued, reinforces economic dependency established during the last century’s staples commodity extraction, even as it attempts to reduce it and promote communities’ unique socio-cultural values, through ‘local ownership’ of integration into the market economy. An analysis of conventional approaches to economic development and ‘local ownership’, that focuses on two communities in rural western Cape Breton, demonstrates this point. Several alternatives to conventional economic development are considered, with a particular emphasis on the two Cape Breton communities.

Economic development in the declining Maritime Provinces has proven to be an intractable problem over the last 70 years. Efforts have ranged from capitalist industrial resource extraction to worker-owned producer co-operatives. Yet, throughout its many variations, these initiatives have done little to secure the long-term economic security of Canada’s most marginalized rural communities, such as those on the western coast of Cape Breton Island. Efforts toward this end during the closing decades of the twentieth century, up to present date, have applied market-led development strategies paralleling trends in the increasingly fluid global market economy. This local economic development approach, it is argued, reinforces economic dependency established during the last century’s staples commodity extraction, even as it attempts to reduce it and promote communities’ unique socio-cultural values, through ‘local ownership’ of integration into the market economy. An analysis of conventional approaches to economic development and ‘local ownership’, that focuses on two communities in rural western Cape Breton, demonstrates this point. Several alternatives to conventional economic development are considered, with a particular emphasis on the two Cape Breton communities.

Abstract The Breton lay, a genre claiming to enjoy popularity in Medieval England, often arouses critics?debate on its legitimacy of forming a distinct genre. By alluding to the remote literary form, the Anglo-Norman and Middle English author create their own Breton lays according to their social and historical context. Donovan asserts conclusively that the Breton lays are all concerned with the idea of