Thèse--Faculté des lettres de Paris. / Bibliography: p. [5]-6.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Berne. / "Bibliographie": p. [199]-207.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1963. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 371-382).

The Second World War witnessed what was recognised at the time as a poetic revival in France. The phenomenon of Resistance poetry in particular commanded literary attention throughout the war. Immediately afterwards, however, this large corpus of poetry was widely dismissed as an unfortunate aberration. Viewed as ephemeral poetry of circumstance with only a documentary value, as tendentious poésie engagée, as propaganda or as conservative patriotic verse, it was thought unworthy of consideration as poetry. Marked by the reputation it gained just after the war, Resistance poetry has been given short shrift in critical studies, and has only rarely been the focus of academic attention. This study reexpounds in detail and with a wide range of reference the debate concerning Resistance poetry, and draws attention to a number of poets who are not widely known, or who are not known as Resistance poets. It demonstrates through a thematic and formal analysis of a selection of Resistance poetry that it is in fact no different from poetry as implicitly understood by critics who have dismissed it. A description of commitment in Resistance poetry is followed by a thematic study of its three related objects, namely France, man and language. Detailed examinations of these three major concerns in the poetry challenge the received view that Resistance poetry is conservative in its patriotism, dogmatic or essentialist in its commitment, and reactionary in its use of language. This thematic study is complemented by illustrative analyses of individual poems or parts of poems, and by a concluding commentary.

The Old French narrative lais offer an image of the individual in terms of both social and personal relationships. This study considers the extent to which it is possible to derive definitions of forms of social and personal fulfilment and non-fulfilment from these texts. As well as being presented in isolation, they are shown in interaction; there can never be a total divorce of the personal desires of the individual from his/her rights and obligations in society. These two aspects of human existence - love and society - appear in the lais in a state of balance or imbalance. Even in those lais in which the characters themselves do not achieve a balance of social and personal fulfilment, the image of the ideal emerges. Consummate fulfilment in a relationship - be it feudal, familial, sexual - necessarily involves a fusion of social suitability and personal commitment. In his/her aspirations to and/or success in fulfilment, the individual appears variously in these texts both as a pawn of the forces of society or destiny and as endowed with the power to earn his/her own happiness. The degree of importance that the interaction between love and society has in the lais is, in particular, indicated through the extent to which these patterns of interaction define the patterns of narrative structure. From this study, conclusions can be drawn as to the historical reality of the individual in twelfth-century noble society in France; the lais offering a reflection of that society, of which they are a product, and also an expression of its ideals, which allow for the very real obstacles to a fusion of social and personal fulfilment to be overcome.

A study of modern myth-making in Baudelaire and Rimbaud's prose poems.

Note:

Thesis--Pennsylvania, 1969. / On cover: Horace, Ciceron, et la rhétorique du seizième siècle. Bibliography: p. xi-xix.

Thesis--Pennsylvania, 1969. / On cover: Horace, Ciceron, et la rhétorique du seizième siècle. Bibliography: p. xi-xix.

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