Esse estudo apresenta reflexões a respeito de narrativas realizadas por algumas jovens mulheres e procura responder como elas, inseridas no contexto de periferia urbana de Porto Alegre, narram suas vivências cotidianas. É resultado de uma pesquisa qualitativa com bases epistemológicas do campo da educação e da sociologia da juventude e tem influência teórica da história cultural, da filosofia e da antropologia, apoiando-se nos estudos de: Alberto Melucci, Marilia Sposito, José Machado Pais, Maria Teresa Santos Cunha, Jorge Larrosa, Michel de Certeau, Zygmunt Bauman. Enseja compreender os percursos traçados através de discursos produzidos pelas próprias jovens, recorrendo, entre outros recursos de expressão, ao diário autobiográfico. Durante a execução, o diário utilizado com o objetivo de produção de dados se transformou em uma prática, instituindo-se como um potente artifício que colocou em prática uma experiência e um movimento para a produção de si, transitando pela dimensão política, cultural e subjetiva. Nas narrativas contidas nos diários, as jovens se posicionam diante no mundo, constroem um novo mundo pela incorporação de traços do existente, colocam em cena práticas discursivas. Por meio delas, revelam a trama de suas vidas, trafegam pelos tempos da memória, criam sentidos para suas vivências, buscam, no abismo de si mesmas, novos significados para sua história, produzem a si próprias, ao mesmo tempo que o texto as produz. A tentativa de separar a narrativa, ou seja, o como, da própria vida, o o que, se tornou uma tarefa inútil, pois no como criam a vida; no modo como narram, a vida se revela. A vida se mostra enredada no sistema patriarcal (cujos contornos já não são tão rígidos), imprevisível e limitada, principalmente em decorrência da precariedade das condições de sobrevivência que caracterizam sua contingência. Também se mostra potente, intensa, pois o que rege o movimento das jovens é inventar uma vida que valha a pena ser vivida. O status de jovem é conquistado por elas principalmente pela liberdade para sair, namorar, ficar e pela convivência intergeracional, respeitando um critério etário que predomina sobre os signos próprios da juventude. Pretende-se que os achados da pesquisa possam contribuir para a sociologia da juventude, uma vez que abordam a especificidade do sexo feminino e para a educação, já que possibilitam conhecer a quem a educação se destina, pois adentra em um universo pouco visível no espaço público, dando a conhecer os meandros da vida cotidiana de jovens mulheres, bem como os modos criativos que utilizam para inventar maneiras de fazer a partir do imprevisível revelado tanto no modo de produção das narrativas - por meio da linguagem escrita (diários), ou de imagens (fotografias) - quanto na própria vida, apesar da precariedade que a circunscreve. / Este estudio presenta reflexiones respecto de narrativas realizadas por jóvenes mujeres y busca responder cómo ellas, insertadas en el contexto de periferia urbana de Porto Alegre, narran sus vivencias cotidianas. Resulta de una investigación cualitativa con bases epistemológicas de los campos de la educación y sociología de la juventud y tiene influencia teórica de la historia cultural, filosofía y antropología, apoyándose en los estudios de: Alberto Melucci, Marilia Sposito, José Machado Pais, Maria Teresa Santos Cunha, Jorge Larrosa, Michel de Certeau, Zygmunt Bauman. Posibilita comprender los recorridos trazados a través de discursos producidos por las jóvenes mismas, valiéndose, entre otros recursos de expresión, del diario autobiográfico. Durante la realización, el diario utilizado con el objetivo de producción de datos se convirtió en una práctica, que se instituyó como un poderoso artificio que puso en práctica una experiencia y movimiento para la producción de sí, pasando por la dimensión política, cultural y subjetiva. En las narrativas contenidas en los diarios, las jóvenes se posicionan frente al mundo, construyen un nuevo mundo por la incorporación de rasgos del existente, ponen en escena prácticas discursivas. Por medio de estas, revelan el enredo de sus vidas, circulan por los tiempos de la memoria, crean sentidos para sus vivencias, buscan en el abismo de sí mismas nuevos significados para su historia, producen a sí mismas, al mismo tiempo que el texto las produce. El intento de separar la narrativa, es decir, el cómo, de la propia vida, el qué se transforma en una tarea inútil, pues, en el cómo, crean la vida; en el modo cómo narran, la vida se revela. La vida se muestra enredada en el sistema patriarcal (cuyos contornos ya no son tan rígidos), imprevisible y limitada, principalmente en consecuencia de la precariedad de las condiciones de supervivencia que caracterizan su contingencia. También se muestra poderosa, intensa, pues lo que rige el movimiento de las jóvenes es inventar una vida que valga la pena vivirse. El status de joven ellas lo conquistan principalmente por la libertad para salir, ligar, ennoviarse y por la convivencia intergeneracional, respetando al criterio etario que predomina sobre los signos propios de la juventud. Se pretende que los hallazgos de la investigación puedan contribuir para la sociología de la juventud, una vez que abordan la especificidad del sexo femenino, y para la educación, ya que posibilitan conocer a quienes la educación se destina, pues adentra en un universo poco visible en el espacio público. De esta manera, se da a conocer el enmarañamiento de la vida cotidiana de jóvenes mujeres, así como los modos creativos que utilizan para inventar formas de hacer a partir del imprevisible revelado tanto en el modo de producción de las narrativas -por medio del lenguaje escrito (diarios) o de imágenes (fotografías)- como en la vida misma, a pesar de la precariedad que la circunscribe.

This study explores the manner in which Anne Michaels uses figurative language, particularly metaphor, in her poetry and prose. In her first novel, Fugitive Pieces, and in certain of her poems, Michaels demonstrates the powers of language to destroy and to recuperate. For her, metaphor is not simply a literary device; it is an essential mechanism in the creation of an authentic story or poem. Moreover, in contrast to other figurative language such as euphemism, which she feels can be used to conceal the truth and make moral that which is immoral, metaphor in her view can be used to gain access to the truth and is therefore moral. Thus, as this study demonstrates, Michaels proposes as well as utilises the moral power of language. The ideas of four language theorists provide the basis of this study, and prove highly useful in application to Michaels’s work. With the aid of Certeau and Bourdieu, we examine Michaels’s participation in and literary presentation of the relationship of domination and subordination in which people seem to interact and which takes place partly through language. In the light of Ricoeur’s explication of the precise functions of metaphor, we discuss Fugitive Pieces as a novel whose engagement with the topic of the Holocaust in intensely emotive and figurative language makes it controversial in terms of what may or may not constitute the appropriate manner of Holocaust literary representation. Klemperer’s meticulous, first-hand study of the Nazis’ use of the German language during the period of the Third Reich proves illuminating in our exploration of the works of Michaels that feature themes of oppression and dispossession. In certain of her poems, Michaels stands in for real people and speaks in their voices. This is also a form of metaphor, this study suggests, as for the duration of each poem Michaels requires us to imagine that she is the real-life person who expresses him- or herself in the first person singular, which she patently is not. We could see this as appropriation and misrepresentation of those people’s lives and thoughts; however, with the aid of the notion of empathic identification we learn that Michaels’s approach is always empathic – she imaginatively places herself in various situations and people’s positions without ever losing her sense of individuality and separate identity, and her portrayal of their stories is always respectful and carefully considered. / Thesis (DLitt)--University of Pretoria, 2011. / English / unrestricted

This dissertation aims to position train surfing as a visual spectacle that is practised by Sowetan train surfers within the context of post-authoritarian Johannesburg. The author argues that train surfing is a visual and spatial phenomenon that is theoretically under-researched. As such, this study aims to decode seven train surfing videos to establish what train surfing looks like, where train surfing occurs and why individuals participate in such a high risk activity. This study, furthermore, aims to frame train surfing as a spectacle by investigating the similarities between train surfing and rites of passage (initiation rites). The author also regards train surfing as a very specific form of storytelling. The narratives conveyed in the seven videos are, therefore, interpreted to establish that train surfing is practised to ‘voice’ fatalistic feelings, societal as well as individual crises. After establishing the visual aspects of train surfing, the author focuses on the spatial context of train surfing. Johannesburg is described as both an authoritarian and post-authoritarian construct by tracing the spatial and political history of the city. When the discussion turns to the post-authoritarian city, townships and squatter settlements are analysed as being both marginal and hybrid spaces. It is argued that townships are marginal spaces due to their location, they are inhabited by the underclass and they are formed by processes of capitalism and urbanisation, and as a result of these factors, township residents might have fatalistic mindsets (Gulick 1989). The author, however, contends that township space is an ambivalent construct, and as such, it can also be read as hybrid space. Here, hybrid space is interpreted as a platform from which township residents can resist oppressing spatial and political ideologies. In this context, train surfing is regarded as one way in which train surfers use hybrid space to express tactics of resistance. After establishing the spatial context of train surfing, the socio-economic and material living conditions of train surfers are investigated. The discussion firstly, explores the underclass, as theorised by Jencks and Peterson (1990), and thereafter highlights why train surfers can be classified as being part of this sub-category. It is, furthermore, argued that Sowetan train surfers are part of a new lost generation due to high unemployment rates, the HIV/AIDS pandemic and bleak future outlooks. The author aims to establish that, as a result of their socio-economic status and material living conditions, train surfers are fatalistic, and practice an extreme activity to exert control over one area of their lives, namely their bodies. Lastly, the dissertation aims to explore train surfing as being both a risk-taking activity and a new spatial practice. The dynamics of adolescent risk-taking behaviour is explored by emphasising the psychological motivations behind high risk activities. The author argues that alienating space can be regarded as an additional factor that usher adolescents into risk-taking activities. As such, the place(s) and space(s) inhabited by train surfers, namely Johannesburg, Soweto and township train stations, are discussed as alienating spaces. Moreover, it is argued that alienating spaces create opportunities for resistance (following the power-resistance dialectic inherent to space), and as such, train surfing is interpreted as a de-alienating spatial practice that enables the marginalised train surfer to exert control over his surroundings. / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Visual Arts / unrestricted

This thesis addresses the epistolary work by Novo-Hispanic writer Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz to place it in the literary and discursive context of the end of the 17th Century. I will take as theoretical background the concepts of dialogism and the carnivalesque by Mikhail Bakhtin, as well as Michel De Certeau’s reflections on what he calls the practice of everyday life. Other aspects of my theoretical approach will be drawn from Michel Foucault’s concepts in The Archaeology of Knowledge; his ideas about power, knowledge and social control, which will be useful for contextually addressing Sor Juana’s work and that of her intellectual contemporaries. Particularly, I will analyse the circumstances in which these Novo-Hispanic discourses were produced. This contextualization will allow me to incorporate not only the cultural (everyday life) practices that surround the production of these texts, but also other less notable or unpublished documents written by some of Sor Juana’s contemporaries. My aim is to widen the discursive spectrum of authors and critics of the prose of this author, and to this end I make use of documents from the 17th Century as primary source. This thesis is divided into three chapters. In the first, I will place into context the Novo-Hispanic discourse and the generic forms of the time: sermon, satire, libel, letter and inquisitorial censure, and the function of ideological control exerted by the Novo-Hispanic Holy Office. In the second chapter I will make a textual and contextual revision of three epistolary documents by Sor Juana: Carta al Padre Nuñez (Letter to Father Nuñez, 1682), Carta Atenagórica (Letter Worthy of Athena, 1690) and Respuesta a Sor Filotea de la Cruz (Reply to Sor Filotea of the Cross, 1690); as well as the antecedents, development and the result of the critical-theological conflict caused by these private letters, their replies and other collateral documents, namely, Carta de Serafina de Cristo, and Carta de Filotea de la Cruz (1690). Both drafts of these letters, found in Puebla in 2010, will also be refered in this revision. In addition to this I will study Defensa del Sermón del Mandato (1691) and Discurso Apologético contra la Fe de Erratas de un Soldado Castellano (1691), documents found in Lima in 2002 and published in Mexico in 2004. The third chapter consists of the study of three contemporary preachers of Sor Juana: Francisco Xavier Palavicino Villarrasa, Pedro Muñoz de Castro and Pedro de Avendaño Suárez de Sousa, whose theological and literary activities were denounced by the Holy Office. My aim is to show the reach of inquisitorial control and its consequence on the writing and literary activities of the contemporary intellectuals of Sor Juana, to contextualize Sor Juana’s epistolary work and confront the possible isolation and singularization that may place her life and work apart from the kernel of the intellectual scene in the New Spain at the close of the 17th Century.

This study explores the relationship between literature and society against the background of the emergence in the 1930s and 1940s in South Africa of a form of Afrikaner nationalism that was spearheaded by members of the Afrikaner petty bourgeoisie and intelligentsia and a subsequent expansion in Afrikaans literary production. It addresses problems of explanation in Afrikaner nationalism by focusing attention on the question of culture, the field of imagination and the domain of everyday life. In particular, the study examines the Keurboslaan series - a series of schoolboy stories aimed at juvenile readers - by Stella Blakemore, and traces the production, circulation and critical reception of the twenty titles in the series. The first title in this series was published in 1941 and the series has been reprinted several times over a number of decades and as recently as 1997. Drawing on the work of Benedict Anderson, this study illuminates the link between the emergence of print capitalism and the production of popular fiction on the one hand and nationalism on the other. Whilst this is a link that is not often explored, an analysis of the Keurboslaan series illustrates that the study of popular fiction can illuminate the practices through which nationalism gains popular support. It is argued that the Keurboslaan series produced a narrative of the Afrikaner ‘nation’ in popular fiction, but that this narrative was not authenticated by the intelligentsia and petty bourgeoisie who were the driving forces behind Afrikaner nationalism and its contents. It is further argued that this ‘narrative of nation’ circulated alongside more official narratives of the ‘nation’ espoused in discourses of religion, science and literature published in Afrikaans. The narrative of ‘nation’ in Keurboslaan – whilst sharing many similarities with official narratives in other discourses – but also differs from those discourses in important respects. It is argued that the popular series was influential precisely because it imagined the Afrikaner ‘nation’ in very different ways and on different terms from those discourses. Moreover, the form in which this narrative was produced, that is popular youth literature, appealed to readers of Afrikaans who were in search of escapist fiction. For these readers, the Keurboslaan series helped to give shape to and created new possibilities for interpreting the world that they inhabited. Reading the school as a corollary of the ‘nation’, it is argued that the narrative of the nation in Keurboslaan series explores the boundaries between the self and the other and posits the self as a danger to the self, resulting in an emphasis on the need to discipline the self. This kind of analysis also creates the space for examining in what ways ideas and identities about ‘race’, gender, sexuality, class and ‘nation’ are constructed in the texts. Yet, the study maintains that whilst the Keurboslaan series contributed to creating a space in which a particular understanding of the self and the world becomes possible, and whereas the reader is not conceived of as a completely free agent that can derive simply any meaning from the text, the study and its theoretical underpinnings do not fully account for individual readers’ engagement with popular texts and the ways in which reading strategies and habits can generate different, ambiguous or inconclusive meanings for readers. It is suggested that a study of popular texts and Afrikaner nationalism employing theories of reading and the reader will complement this analysis. / Thesis (DLitt (Literary Theory))--University of Pretoria, 2004. / Afrikaans / unrestricted

La première épître de Paul aux Thessaloniciens (1 Thés) est un texte à caractère pastoral évoquant les relations des « apôtres » avec « l’Église des Thessaloniciens ». Le texte Identité chrétienne de l’Assemblée des évêques du Québec (AEQ) est aussi un texte à caractère pastoral évoquant les relations d’un « Comité de théologie » avec « plusieurs communautés chrétiennes » actuelles. À l’aide d'outils linguistiques, nous avons fait une lecture de la première épître de Paul aux Thessaloniciens en dégageant des structures identitaires. À l’aide des travaux de Michel de Certeau, nous avons repris les structures dégagées dans l’épître pour lire le texte Identité chrétienne et pour critiquer son approche identitaire. Ainsi, nous avons dégagé deux types de discours identitaires: l’un davantage d’ordre idéologique (AEQ), associant « donné révélé » et « institution », l’autre davantage d’ordre éthique (1 Thés), associant « pratique intersubjective » et « vie théologale ».

This study sets out to explore first person theatre as a means of opening the individual to the problems of contemporary capitalism and its increasing pervasion of the personal in an era of embeddedness enabled by networked pervasive technology. Firstly setting out key definitions and a theoretical analysis of the problems of being in the digital age in chapter 1, and then setting this against the history of interaction in performance in chapter 2. The study then goes on (in chapters 3-5) to investigate three key aspects of first person performance as personal-as-political; sound and the city, play and games, and interactive theatre. In the final chapter, The Umbrella Project develops a piece of first person theatre as practice, a method of investigation that is vital to a thesis that discusses politics, late capitalism, and the means to resist the message-sending of private interests as fundamentally only to be understood in practice. For this reason, too, chapters 3, 4 and 5 are supported by key case studies discussing other first person theatre practice. By placing the participant at the centre of the world-constituting process of theatre in the hot space between what is and what if this study suggests that first person theatre is able to open the contemporary individual to an inbetween where they might re-see, reflect and react to what is. To imagine and, if wished, act upon a what if. In an age of the disrupted near and far, the vanishing of the interface, of the false rhetoric of choice of personalisation , and the often false rhetoric of agency at the end of the era of broadcast, first person theatre offers the subject a route to individual agency, an understanding of the urban environment as construct, and to their relationship with the subjective other something which this thesis suggests is a personal-as-political practice to rival the Spectacle of late capitalism.

Cette thèse s’inscrit dans la lignée des récents travaux de réévaluation de l’histoire des études cinématographiques. Son objectif est de réviser la conception actuelle de l’historiographie du cinéma en France de 1896 jusqu’au début des années 1950 en remettant en question la vision homogène du courant historique de l’histoire traditionnelle du cinéma telle que l’ont présentée les tenants de la nouvelle histoire du cinéma. Cette thèse se divise en trois parties. J’expose dans la première mon cadre et mon principal outil d’analyse. Je présente l’opération historiographique telle que définie par Michel de Certeau, soit comme le croisement d’un lieu social marqué par des cadres intellectuels dominants, d’un ensemble de procédures dont l’historien se sert pour sélectionner ses sources et construire les faits, et enfin, d’une écriture qui implique l’élaboration d’un système de relations entre les différents faits construits. Je décris ensuite les courants historiques en France des années 1870 jusqu’au début des années 1950. Ce panorama me permet de mieux identifier les échanges, les emprunts et les enrichissements qui se sont opérés entre l’histoire et l’histoire du cinéma durant cette période. Dans la deuxième partie, je « construis » depuis l’intérieur d’un vaste ensemble de discours d’historiens du cinéma, d’historiens de la culture et de théoriciens du cinéma ce qui deviendra la conception dominante de l’historiographie du cinéma. Je montre qu’elle est élaborée par ceux que plusieurs commentateurs nomment les nouveaux historiens du cinéma et qu’elle se réduit à la succession de deux grands courants historiques : l’histoire traditionnelle et la nouvelle histoire du cinéma. J’expose ensuite comment cet acte de périodisation est instrumentalisé par ceux qui l’effectuent. L’objectif des nouveaux historiens n’est pas d’exhumer la pluralité des écritures de l’histoire du cinéma, mais plutôt de mettre en évidence la rupture qu’ils opèrent au sein de l’historiographie du cinéma. L’examen de la place accordée au dispositif cinématographique Hale’s Tours dans les histoires générales parues avant et après le Congrès de Brighton me permet finalement d’atténuer la rupture entre ces deux courants historiques. Dans la troisième partie, j’engage l’examen de plusieurs manières d’approcher l’histoire du cinéma. J’identifie différentes ruptures dans l’historiographie française du cinéma concernant l’objet historique que les historiens se donnent, les outils conceptuels qu’ils convoquent et leurs relations aux sources qu’ils utilisent. Ces études de cas me permettent au final de témoigner de la richesse de l’historiographie française du cinéma avant le début des années 1950. / This thesis is one of several recent works to re-evaluate the history of film studies. Its goal is to revise the present-day conception of film historiography in France from 1896 to the early 1950s by calling into question the view of traditional film history as homogeneous portrayed by the new film historians. This thesis is divided into three sections. In the first, I describe my tools and analytical framework. I discuss the historiographical operation as it defined by Michel de Certeau, as the three-way encounter of a social space marked by dominant intellectual frameworks, a range of procedures used by historians to select their sources and construct events, and, finally, the writing of history, which involves creating a system of relations between the various events so constructed. I then describe historical currents in France from the 1870s to the early 1950s. This survey enables me to better identify the exchanges, borrowings and enrichments that occurred during this period between history and film history. In the second part, I “construct” from within a vast range of discourses – those of film historians, cultural historians and film theorists – the dominant conception of film historiography. I show that it is created by product of those who are known by many commentators as the new film historians and that it is reduced as the succession of two great historical currents: traditional film history and new film history. I then discuss how this periodisation has been instrumentalised by those who created it. The goal of the new historians is not to bring to light the plurality of writings on film history, but rather to show the break that they have brought about in film historiography. Finally, a discussion of the role accorded to the mode of film exhibition known as Hale’s Tours in general film histories published before and after the Brighton Congress enables me to soften the break between these two historical currents. In the third part, I examine several ways of approaching film history. I identify various breaks in film historiography in France with respect to the historical topic historians adopt, the conceptual tools they call upon and the relations between these historians and the sources they employ. These case studies, finally, enable me to document the wealth of film historiography in France before the early 1950s. / Thèse de doctorat effectuée en cotutelle au Département d’histoire de l’art et d’études cinématographiques de la Faculté des arts et des sciences de l'Université de Montréal et à la Section d’histoire et esthétique du cinéma de la Faculté des lettres de l'Université de Lausanne.

Thèse de doctorat effectuée en cotutelle au Département d’histoire de l’art et d’études cinématographiques de la Faculté des arts et des sciences de l'Université de Montréal et à la Section d’histoire et esthétique du cinéma de la Faculté des lettres de l'Université de Lausanne. / Cette thèse s’inscrit dans la lignée des récents travaux de réévaluation de l’histoire des études cinématographiques. Son objectif est de réviser la conception actuelle de l’historiographie du cinéma en France de 1896 jusqu’au début des années 1950 en remettant en question la vision homogène du courant historique de l’histoire traditionnelle du cinéma telle que l’ont présentée les tenants de la nouvelle histoire du cinéma. Cette thèse se divise en trois parties. J’expose dans la première mon cadre et mon principal outil d’analyse. Je présente l’opération historiographique telle que définie par Michel de Certeau, soit comme le croisement d’un lieu social marqué par des cadres intellectuels dominants, d’un ensemble de procédures dont l’historien se sert pour sélectionner ses sources et construire les faits, et enfin, d’une écriture qui implique l’élaboration d’un système de relations entre les différents faits construits. Je décris ensuite les courants historiques en France des années 1870 jusqu’au début des années 1950. Ce panorama me permet de mieux identifier les échanges, les emprunts et les enrichissements qui se sont opérés entre l’histoire et l’histoire du cinéma durant cette période. Dans la deuxième partie, je « construis » depuis l’intérieur d’un vaste ensemble de discours d’historiens du cinéma, d’historiens de la culture et de théoriciens du cinéma ce qui deviendra la conception dominante de l’historiographie du cinéma. Je montre qu’elle est élaborée par ceux que plusieurs commentateurs nomment les nouveaux historiens du cinéma et qu’elle se réduit à la succession de deux grands courants historiques : l’histoire traditionnelle et la nouvelle histoire du cinéma. J’expose ensuite comment cet acte de périodisation est instrumentalisé par ceux qui l’effectuent. L’objectif des nouveaux historiens n’est pas d’exhumer la pluralité des écritures de l’histoire du cinéma, mais plutôt de mettre en évidence la rupture qu’ils opèrent au sein de l’historiographie du cinéma. L’examen de la place accordée au dispositif cinématographique Hale’s Tours dans les histoires générales parues avant et après le Congrès de Brighton me permet finalement d’atténuer la rupture entre ces deux courants historiques. Dans la troisième partie, j’engage l’examen de plusieurs manières d’approcher l’histoire du cinéma. J’identifie différentes ruptures dans l’historiographie française du cinéma concernant l’objet historique que les historiens se donnent, les outils conceptuels qu’ils convoquent et leurs relations aux sources qu’ils utilisent. Ces études de cas me permettent au final de témoigner de la richesse de l’historiographie française du cinéma avant le début des années 1950. / This thesis is one of several recent works to re-evaluate the history of film studies. Its goal is to revise the present-day conception of film historiography in France from 1896 to the early 1950s by calling into question the view of traditional film history as homogeneous portrayed by the new film historians. This thesis is divided into three sections. In the first, I describe my tools and analytical framework. I discuss the historiographical operation as it defined by Michel de Certeau, as the three-way encounter of a social space marked by dominant intellectual frameworks, a range of procedures used by historians to select their sources and construct events, and, finally, the writing of history, which involves creating a system of relations between the various events so constructed. I then describe historical currents in France from the 1870s to the early 1950s. This survey enables me to better identify the exchanges, borrowings and enrichments that occurred during this period between history and film history. In the second part, I “construct” from within a vast range of discourses – those of film historians, cultural historians and film theorists – the dominant conception of film historiography. I show that it is created by product of those who are known by many commentators as the new film historians and that it is reduced as the succession of two great historical currents: traditional film history and new film history. I then discuss how this periodisation has been instrumentalised by those who created it. The goal of the new historians is not to bring to light the plurality of writings on film history, but rather to show the break that they have brought about in film historiography. Finally, a discussion of the role accorded to the mode of film exhibition known as Hale’s Tours in general film histories published before and after the Brighton Congress enables me to soften the break between these two historical currents. In the third part, I examine several ways of approaching film history. I identify various breaks in film historiography in France with respect to the historical topic historians adopt, the conceptual tools they call upon and the relations between these historians and the sources they employ. These case studies, finally, enable me to document the wealth of film historiography in France before the early 1950s.

Various potential modes of interpreting the urban space in the inner city of Pretoria is evaluated in this study with the purpose of expanding discourse around spatial production in the city. Production of meaning through formal and structural means produced a city that served as administrative capital and ideological base for Afrikaners until the arrival of a democracy in 1994. The contemporary urban space is produced by people through everyday life, as theorised by Henry Lefebvre, rather than through formal means such as name changes. This study evaluates the way that identity and belonging is created by referring to everyday life practices, rhythmanalysis and daily activities as performances. Urban space is evaluated from a phenomenological perspective through the eyes of an artist and resident and expressed in an art exhibition. The way artists Julie Mehretu and Franz Ackermann dealt with urban space in their art is also referenced. / Art History, Visual Arts & Musicology / Master of Visual Arts