Cette étude porte sur Ḳayġusuz Abdāl, le représentant le plus célèbre et le plus prolifique du mouvement appelé les Abdālān-ı Rūm, un groupe de derviches de tendances antinomiques affiliées de façon ténue, qui apparut lors du 13e siècle en Anatolie et devint un composant principal du Bektachisme à partir du 14e siècle. Les œuvres de Ḳayġusuz Abdāl ont joué un rôle clé dans la formation du corpus ultérieurement appelé « la littérature Alévi-Bektachi ». La première partie de ce travail se concentre sur sa doctrine religieuse, ses positions versatiles et opportunistes en fonction des milieux, et son choix du turc vernaculaire comme vecteur de son propos. Ce dernier aspect est comparé à l’apport de Yūnus Emre, fameux derviche des 13e - 14e siècles, qui a contribué grandement au style littéraire de Ḳayġusuz Abdāl. Les şaṭḥiyye (un type de poème) de Ḳayġusuz Abdāl et Yūnus Emre sont analysés pour leurs rôles de passerelles entre les genres folkloriques et la littérature soufie classique. Dans le dernier chapitre de la première partie, les ouvrages des successeurs de Ḳayġusuz Abdāl, de Ṣādıḳ Abdāl, Yemīnī, Şemsī et Vīrānī Abdāl sont lus sous l’angle de leurs contenus doctrinaux. Ainsi, un panorama de l’évolution des pensées abdāl et bektāşī est créé. La deuxième partie de l’étude constitue en l’édition critique, la traduction et le commentaire de l’ouvrage le plus fascinant de Ḳayġusuz Abdāl, à savoir le Kitāb-ɩ Maġlaṭa. Le commentaire commence par étudier comment l’ouvrage se met en résonance avec la tradition islamique sur les rêves, en montrant particulièrement la subversion de celle-ci. Suit une analyse structurale, doctrinale et littéraire de l’ouvrage, trois aspects qui se complètent et se renforcent les uns les autres dans la manière humoristique de Ḳayġusuz Abdāl. En conclusion, le présent travail vise à comprendre la pensée religieuse et littéraire de Ḳayġusuz Abdāl, personnage saint toujours vénéré de l’Alévisme. Sa vision de la sainteté a joué un rôle clé dans la formation du Bektachisme et de l’Alévisme et leur évolution jusqu’à nos jours. / This study focuses on Ḳayġusuz Abdāl, the most famous and prolific representative of the abdāls of Rūm, an antinomian movement of loosely-affiliated dervishes which emerged in Anatolia in the thirteenth century and became a main constituent of Bektashism from the fourteenth century onwards. Ḳayġusuz Abdāl’s works played a major role in the formation of the corpus later called “Alevi Bektashi literature.” The first part of the study focuses on Ḳayġusuz Abdal’s religious doctrine, multiple social positions, and choice of the Turkish vernacular as his literary medium. This last aspect is compared to famous 13th-14th century dervish Yūnus Emre, who was instrumental in shaping Ḳayġusuz Abdāl’s literary style. Yūnus Emre’s and Ḳayġusuz Abdāl’s şaṭḥiyye (a type of poem) are analyzed for their role in creating a bridge between folk genres and classical Sufi poetry. In the last chapter of the first part, the works of Ḳayġusuz’s Abdāl’s successors, Ṣādıḳ Abdāl, Yemīnī, Şemsī, and Vīrānī Abdāl are examined for their doctrinal content, thus creating a panorama of the evolution of abdāl and bektāşī thought. The second part of the study contains the critical edition, translation, and commentary of Ḳayġusuz Abdāl’s most intriguing work, the Kitāb-ı Maġlaṭa (The Book of Prattle). The commentary begins with a focus on the work’s engagement with and subversion of the Islamic tradition of dream literature. A structural, doctrinal, and literary analysis of the work is undertaken, wherein these three aspects are shown to complement and reinforce one another in Ḳayġusuz’s unique humorous way. As a whole, the study aims to understand the religious and literary thought of Ḳayġusuz Abdāl, who has been to this day one of the most important saints of Alevism. His understanding of sainthood was instrumental in shaping Bektashism and Alevism up to our day.

This thesis is an investigation of the complex processes and relationships between the physical human performer and the technologically manufactured cyber-human counterpart. I acted as both researcher and the physical human performer, deeply engaged in the moment-to-moment creation of events unfolding within a shared virtual reality environment. As the primary instigator and activator of the cyber-human partner, I maintained a balance between the live and technological performance elements, prioritizing the production of content and meaning. By way of using practice as research, this thesis argues that in considering interactions between cyber-human and human performers, it is crucial to move beyond discussions of technology when considering interactions between cyber-humans and human performers to an analysis of emotional content, the powers of poetic imagery, the trust that is developed through sensory perception and the evocation of complex relationships. A theoretical model is constructed to describe the relationship between a cyber-human and a human performer in the five works created specifically for this thesis, which is not substantially different from that between human performers. Technological exploration allows for the observation and analysis of various relationships, furthering an expanded understanding of ‘movement as content’ beyond the electronic connection. Each of the works created for this research used new and innovative technologies, including virtual reality, multiple interactive systems, six generations of wearable computers, motion capture technology, high-end digital lighting projectors, various projection screens, smart electronically charged fabrics, multiple sensory sensitive devices and intelligent sensory charged alternative performance spaces. They were most often collaboratively created in order to augment all aspects of the performance and create the sense of community found in digital live dance performances/events. These works are identified as one continuous line of energy and discovery, each representing a slight variation on the premise that a working, caring, visceral and poetic content occurs beyond the technological tools. Consequently, a shift in the physical human’s psyche overwhelms the act of performance. Scholarship and reflection on the works have been integral to my creative process throughout. The goals of this thesis, the works created and the resulting methodologies are to investigate performance to heighten the multiple ways we experience and interact with the world. This maximizes connection and results in a highly interactive, improvisational, dynamic, non-linear, immediate, accessible, agential, reciprocal, emotional, visceral and transformative experience without boundaries between the virtual and physical for physical humans, cyborgs and cyber-humans alike.