Uma das três obras que influenciaram profundamente gerações de escritores e leitores de quadrinhos no ano de 1986, junto a O Cavaleiro das Trevas, de Frank Miller e Maus, de Art Spiegelman, Watchmen, de Alan Moore e Dave Gibbons, é o mais próximo que se pode chegar de um cânone dos quadrinhos. A obra venceu o Prêmio Hugo de Ficção Científica de 1988, na categoria Outras Formas, e é considerada um dos melhores romances de todos os tempos pela revista Time. Um dos primeiros quadrinhos a sair da esfera das publicações especializadas e receber atenção de outras mídias, Watchmen é menção obrigatória para se entender a história do meio. Ainda assim, só começou a ser estudado com profundidade recentemente. A maior parte dos trabalhos sobre o quadrinho é centrada em suas propriedades históricas, a psicologia das personagens ou de que maneira estes se relacionam com a Filosofia – diferentes aspectos de uma obra meritória, que ao longo de muitos anos atingiu um grande público. O que esses estudos têm em comum é que, ao focar sua atenção nos detalhes, esquecem da narrativa – a estória que a obra conta. Esta dissertação enfoca o quadrinho como um todo; sua história e a maneira como é construída, através da teoria narrativa, considerada apropriada para este fim. A teoria narrativa é o foco da primeira parte do trabalho, junto à introdução por razões de espaço. Os trabalhos mais significativos na área são revisados e comentados. A linguagem dos quadrinhos e suas especificidades são o tema da segunda parte, também apresentando uma leitura das principais obras sobre o assunto. A terceira parte é dedicada às poucas tentativas realizadas com o intuito de conciliar ambas as linhas teóricas. A análise de Watchmen acontece na quarta seção. Além de listar os diferentes componentes narrativos, como eventos, cenário, tempo (dividido em ordem, duração e frequência), narrativa e focalização, também há uma extensa análise do estilo e das cores do traço, apresentada como um passo necessário na compreensão do tom e visão do narrador, dividido aqui entre meganarrador, monstrador e recitador. Na última parte, dedicada às considerações finais sobre o trabalho e que fins atingiu, se apresenta também uma interpretação do quadrinho, baseada em uma leitura pessoal. / One of three books that deeply influenced generations of comics writers and readers in 1986, together with Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns and Art Spiegelman’s Maus, Watchmen, by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, is as close to a canonic work as one could get, regarding comics. It won the 1988 Hugo Award, for science fiction books, in the Other Forms category, and was mentioned as one of the hundred best novels by Time magazine. One of the first comics to break out of the sphere of specialized reviews and receive acknowledgement from other media, it is an obligatory mention whenever one attempts to understand the History of the medium. And yet, it has not been thoroughly studied until recently. Most works dealing with the comic focus on its historical properties, the psychology of its characters or how they relate to Philosophy – different aspects of a merited novel which has achieved a large public throughout the years. But what these studies have in common is that, focusing on the detail, they overlook the narrative – the story presented in the work. This work focuses on the comic as a whole, its story and the way it is construed, through narrative theory – a theory based on the understanding of narratives and their constitutive parts, and, as such, clearly appropriate for the task. Narrative theory is the focus of the first part of the work, put together with the introduction for economy reasons. The most prominent works on the subject are reviewed and commented. The language of comics and its specificities are the theme of the second part of the work, also with reviews of its most significant works. The third part is dedicated to a few attempts of conciliation between both theoretical frameworks already developed. The analysis of Watchmen takes place in the fourth chapter. Besides listing the comic’s different narrative components, such as events, setting, time (divided in order, duration and frequency), narrative and focalization; there is also an extensive analysis of style and colors, presented as a necessary step in understanding the tone and views of the narrator, here divided into meganarrator, monstrator and reciter. In the final part, dedicated to considerations about the research and what it may have achieved, an interpretation of the novel is also presented, based on a personal reading.

Cette thèse s’inscrit dans le champ des études sur les fictions de la fin du monde. J’y explore la question suivante : pourquoi existe-t-il autant de romans et de films racontant la fin d’un monde, et si peu la fin du monde ? En effet, la plupart des fictions dites de « fin du monde » mettent en scène la menace d’une catastrophe évitée, ou une destruction partielle, ou encore un univers post-apocalyptique habité de survivants. L’anéantissement total et définitif de l’espèce humaine, quant à lui, constitue rarement le dénouement de ce type d’œuvres. Ce déséquilibre s’explique en partie par le fait que ces œuvres représentent davantage le renouvellement du monde que sa disparition. Mon hypothèse est que nombre de ces récits de la fin héritent d’un imaginaire, d’une structure, de thèmes, de motifs, etc., provenant du mythe du déluge tel qu’il s’est développé dans l’Antiquité (entre autres dans sa version biblique), lequel symbolise la refondation et la transmission, et non l’anéantissement. Dans le premier chapitre, je propose une exploration de différents concepts et théories permettant de mieux définir les romans et les films de la fin du monde : les dispositif et contre-dispositif de Giorgio Agamben ; la conception des mythes de René Girard (principalement pour les notions d’indifférenciation et de bouc émissaire) ; le décalage prométhéen de Gunther Anders ; le catastrophisme éclairé de Jean-Pierre Dupuy ; les deux raisonnements mythologiques opposés identifiés dans les récits antiques de la fin du monde par Christine Reungoat-Dumas. Dans le deuxième chapitre, j’étudie d’abord comment le thème de la transmission s’articule dans quelques mythes antiques du déluge, avant de proposer un canevas général des mythèmes constituants. À partir de cette délimitation, je procède ensuite à l’analyse de trois mythèmes (la crise indifférenciatrice ; l’abri ; le lâcher d’oiseaux) dans un corpus de romans et de films des 20e et 21e siècles. Cette analyse permet de faire ressortir l’importance du thème de la transmission (de gènes et de mèmes, donc de réplicateurs). La transmission reflète un besoin de transcendance qui définit, oriente, ou du moins colore, pratiquement toutes les œuvres de la fin du monde. Dans ce contexte, la littérature, objet de transmission, peut être appréhendée comme une « arche métaphorique ». Le troisième chapitre se concentre sur l’analyse d’une œuvre, la trilogie MaddAddam (Oryx and Crake ; The Year of the Flood ; MaddAddam) de Margaret Atwood. J’y avance que cette œuvre prend la forme d’une épopée, dans laquelle on assiste à la mise en scène de sa propre écriture. Cette mise en abyme démontre bien que la trilogie, tout en étant une œuvre de fin du monde, raconte également la naissance d’un nouveau monde : l’épopée intradiégétique qui s’y compose tente d’immortaliser une partie du passé et d’orienter le futur. La littérature, sous la forme de cette épopée, figure ainsi une arche qui relie les mondes pré-apocalyptique et post-apocalytique de l’œuvre d’Atwood. / This thesis falls within the field of studies pertaining to end-of-the-world works of fiction. In it, I examine the following question: why are there so many novels and films about the end of a world, and so few about the end of the world? Indeed, most of the so-called end-of-the-world fiction portrays the threat of averted catastrophe, a partial destruction, or a post-apocalyptic universe inhabited by survivors. The total and final annihilation of the human species, on the other hand, is seldom the outcome of this type of work. This imbalance is partly explained by the fact that these works represent the renewal of the world rather than its disappearance. My hypothesis is that many of these stories inherit their imagery, structure, themes, motifs, etc., from the flood myth as it developed in antiquity (notably in the biblical version), which symbolize refoundation and transmission, rather than annihilation. In the first chapter, I offer an exploration of different concepts and theories allowing to better define the novels and films dealing with the end of the world: the apparatus and counter-apparatus of Giorgio Agamben; the conception of myths by René Girard (mainly, the notions of indifferentiation and scapegoating); the Promethean shift of Gunther Anders; the enlightened catastrophism of Jean-Pierre Dupuy; the two opposing mythological reasonings identified in ancient end-of-the-world narratives by Christine Reungoat-Dumas. In the second chapter, I begin by studying how the theme of transmission is elaborated in some ancient flood myths, before presenting a general outline of constituent mythemes. I then proceed to analyze three mythemes (the crisis of indifferentiation; the shelter; the release of birds) in a body of novels and films from the 20th and 21st centuries. This analysis highlights the importance of the theme of transmission (of genes and memes, and therefore of replicators). The transmission reflects a need for transcendence which defines, orients, or at least colors, practically all the works dealing with the end of the world. In this context, literature, an object of transmission, can be understood as a “metaphorical ark”. The third chapter focuses on the analysis of the MaddAddam trilogy (Oryx and Crake; The Year of the Flood; MaddAddam) by Margaret Atwood. I suggest that this work takes the form of an epic, in which we witness the staging of its own writing. This mise en abyme clearly shows that the trilogy, while being a work about the end of the world, also tells the birth of a new world: the intradiegetic epic composed therein attempts to immortalize a part of the past and to shape the future. Literature, in the form of this epic, thus symbolizes an ark that connects the pre-apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic worlds of Atwood’s narrative.

My dissertation, Kinship Cross-Talk: Love and Belonging in Contemporary Comparative Literatures, examines contemporary models of kinship as expressions of relationality, resistance, responsibility, witnessing, and love. I ask: how do literary texts depict “never-easy kinship[s]” (Grosz 128) that bind the self to others and the world in particular expressions of love and responsibility, inseparable from familial, national, transnational, and/or trans-Indigenous modes of belonging? Specifically, my dissertation looks at Indigenous, queer, and human rights-based literary texts that articulate shared kinships and intimacies, and facilitate a “critical re-imagining” of “being-together” (Mackey 168) in global contexts. My research methodology emphasizes the historical and cultural contingencies of contemporary models of kinship by engaging the epistemological traditions I encounter on their own terms. Often this means a turn away from Euro-American humanist approaches to subjectivity and relation to attend to other modes (critical or wry humanist, diasporic, spiritual, ecological, gustatory) and materials or environments (water, salt, ocean, for example) that shape kinship beliefs and practices. This dissertation studies three primary literary texts: the fictional autobiography What Is the What authored by Dave Eggers, Monique Truong’s novel The Book of Salt, and The Salt-Wind / Ka Makani Pa‘akai, a collection of poetry by Hawaiian author Brandy Nālani McDougall. / Dissertation / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

The Barrett (1972-1975) and Harcourt-Clark (1991-2001) New Democratic Party (NDP) governments attempted to redefine their relationship with the mining industry by changing the regulatory structures that governed mining in British Columbia. In both cases the mining industry publicly resisted these attempts, and was successful in having the reforms dismantled by subsequent free-enterprise oriented governments. These instances of conflict were centred on a foundational debate over government’s role in, and/or duty to, the mining industry. Intense industry-led resistance occurred when the traditional industry-government compact, which required government to serve as a promoter of the industry, and a liquidator of Crown owned mineral resources, was perceived to have been violated. The Barrett government more stringently asserted its ownership of public mineral resources through the enactment of a mineral royalty, and by assuming greater regulatory authority over mining operations. These actions instigated a substantial public relations campaign against the Barrett government over taxation laws. The Harcourt-Clark government pursued the development of strategic land-use plans and rejected the historic consensus that mining was innately the highest and best use of the land. This led to substantial anti-government rhetoric and an industry withdrawal from all public engagement and land-use planning processes. In both cases the mining industry was able to revive the traditional relationship when free-enterprise oriented governments replaced the NDP administrations. / Graduate / 2018-12-15

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