Representation of social groups in the comics is serious. In 2006, a series of twelve cartoons published in a Danish newspaper sparked a controversy that precipitated the deaths of hundreds of people. The images depicted Mohammed and other images that supposedly mocked Islam. All across Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa protesters paraded through the streets, some calling for the death of the cartoonists. Trials in Europe over the publication of these cartoons resulted in several firings. Counter protests have also arisen. These protesters found grievance with the firings, claiming that the freedom of the press was being violated (especially in France, concerning the publication Charlie Hebdo). Aside from these inflammatory images, comics artists have been depicting peoples of the Near and Middle East since the foundations of the medium by Rodolphe T&oumlpffer. Over approximately 150 years, representation of these peoples have changed in some ways and remained the same in others. Specifically, the franco-belgian tradition of comics (also known as la bande dessin&eacutee) have been instrumental in the creation and proliferation of several stereotypes about Near and Middle Eastern peoples. This thesis examines the relationships between these stereotypes and the medium of the bande dessin&eacutee. Through a wide variety of criticisms and sources, the researcher found that there exists a focused trend to lessen the degree to which stereotyping of Arabs occurs. Via content and context analysis, the researcher discovered several key factors in the evolution of the Arab stereotype. These factors include political and religious affiliations of the authors and publishers, the type of narrative chosen, and artistic style of the author/ illustrator, amongst others. The additions these authors and illustrators make to the available bodies of literature provide a framework in which to ground psychological and sociological studies of a particular nature, that being the sensitivities of artists in regards to representation.

Cajun and Creole French are thought of by scholars and lay-people alike as the two varieties of French spoken in Louisiana. While this may have been true to some extent in the past, the linguistic landscape of Louisiana is constantly evolving. As in other parts of the world, globalization, higher education, and an ever expanding media presence are changing the linguistic reality for Louisianas French speaking community. The twentieth century has seen a complete shift in the status of the French language in relation to public schools in Louisiana. In the early twentieth century, many children learned French at home and were not allowed to speak it at school. By the end of the twentieth century, the sociopolitical landscape as well as the linguistic one had changed so much that children could not learn French in the home and were forced to learn it in the public school system. In this paper, I attempt to describe in technical terms how this shift in the linguistic reality of Louisiana has changed Louisiana French itself. Many hope that Louisianas expanding French immersion schools can help preserve the French language in Louisiana and ensure that a future generation of Louisianans will be able to take their rightful place in the Francophone world. Through my observation of French immersion students, I illustrate the ways in which the French language which will be spoken by future generations differs from that of their ancestors and I attempt to shed light on the causes of these changes. I also identify several different phenomena in Louisianas immersion schools which warrant future linguistic research.

After the independence of Morocco in 1956, the question of the language arose among Moroccan writers. Highly aware of its historical implications authors had to choose between a vernacular such as spoken Arabic or Berber and a traditionally written language such as classical Arabic or French, languages of the colonizers. From there arose the contested choice of French, perceived by some as a patriotic treason. Use of French was predicted to disappear, however some authors defended its use. One such author is Abdellatif Laâbi, father of the famous review Souffles created in 1966, that played a crucial role in defining maghrebian literature of French expression. I argue that far from betraying their freshly independent nations, such authors have served to subvert the language of the colonizer. Indeed, francophone post-colonial North African writers have managed to deconstruct the language and the novel in a way as to make it their own freeing their literature of the colonial influence. Breaking the rigidity of language allows them to express their multiple influences and serves to translate a traumatic experience such as colonization into a positive phenomenon, writing. I will demonstrate this by giving on overview of the linguistic situation in Morocco, and the historical context that led to Le Chemin des ordalies written by Laâbi; I will then propose my reading of the narrative scheme in Laâbis Le Chemin des ordalies as well as a brief analysis of the péritexte of the novel.

This dissertation explores the graphic, literary and cinematic representations of the Pieds-Noirs, the French citizens of various origins who lived in French Algeria before independence. Rather than focusing on the War for Independence (1954-1962), the extensive study of which has failed to faithfully render the heterogeneous soul of Pieds-Noirs, this work aims at showing the multi-faceted aspects of a community that has always been considered by mainland France to be borderline, Mediterranean rather than French, and, overall, estranged both physically and emotionally, not only from its African roots, but also from its theoretical allegiance to the motherland. By tracing back closely the motivations of these European settlers and by looking closely at the somewhat capricious etymology of the term pied-noir, I first bring to light some recurrent patterns of memory, exile and identity that have permeated all layers of the pied-noir psyche. Secondly, I tackle the schizophrenic narrative voice of pied-noir authors, from Albert Camus to Annelise Roux, both emblematic of a people torn and impaired by colonization and obsessed with guilt, lost paradise, the impossibility of return, and disillusionment. While a close study of the scarce cinematic representations of the Pieds-Noirs in films produced before and after Algerias independence further confirms the quintessential pied-noir quest for amnesia and acceptance, it tends to showcase that cultural and linguistic stereotypes have helped Pieds-Noirs build an identity, exorcize their fear of Otherness, as well as embrace their hybrid status as French citizens born in Algeria. The last chapter is devoted to current productions in video art, graphic novels and literature, exploring the pied-noir multiple identities along promising and pioneering lines. By not exclusively limiting the corpus to artists of pied-noir descent, my goal is to emphasize that being pied-noir no longer has to be seen as a static status imposed upon individuals by a governmental force. Piednoiritude can finally evolve into an empowering perspective fueled by a rhizomatic propensity for networking differences and relocating national History within personal trajectories.

In seventeenth-century France, social and political confusion abounded. Absolute monarchy, which was principally created by Richelieu and glorified by Louis XIV, began gradually replacing the medieval feudalism that remained popular among the nobles. Likewise, préciosité, a proto-feminist literary and cultural movement that was not in line with official political ideals, emerged in France during this century. The institution of marriage was an important element of the complicated sociopolitical tapestry of seventeenth-century France. Through the depiction of marriage in Pierre Corneilles Le Cid (1636), Jean-Baptiste Poquelin de Molières LÉcole des femmes (1662), and Jean Racines Andromaque (1667), three works of the most prominent form of fiction in seventeenth-century Francetheater, one can see how marriage was tightly bound to both politics and society.

French Polynesia and New Caledonia are facing an identity crisis in which the lack of recognition of otherness represents a serious risk to the sociopolitical cohesion of these fragile multiethnic and multicultural societies. In order to avoid self-destructive conflicts and to build harmony in the midst of ethnic diversity, an endogenous inclusive redefinition of cultural identities has become necessary. Within this context, this research had a double objective. First, it aimed to ascertain how this quest for recognition of the Other is represented in the emerging literature of French speaking Oceania. Secondly, its purpose was to understand the social and political functions played by the writers of our corpus. In Tahiti: Henri Hiro, Chantal Spitz, Louise Pelzer, Ariirau, Marie-Claude Teissier-Landgraf, Celestine Hitiura Vaite, Jimmy Ly, and B.D Gotz. In New Caledonia: Déwé Gorodé, Nicolas Kurtovitch, and José-Louis Barbançon. In Tahiti and in New Caledonia, the emergence of the self-represented Other, which breaks the mold of stereotypes produced by colonial works and pleads for recognition, constitutes one of the main themes of the literary production by the present generation of authors. These writers perform several key social functions. First, by validating their own culture, which until then had been misrepresented, denigrated, or even denied, they rebuild their self-esteem- the first step towards recognition. Secondly, by transmuting their sufferings into written language, they contribute to a collective healing process. Moreover, most of them challenge the construction of identity founded on the myth of ethno-cultural homogeneity. Indeed, through their work, these writers implicitly promote cultural cross-hybridization or métissage culturel and in so doing, become the architects of bridges between ethnic groups. Of equal importance, in the process of recognition of otherness, women, who comprise a large proportion of the authorship, especially in French Polynesia, have contributed a gender sensitive perspective. This dimension enriches the literature by giving voice, and therefore some recognition, to the other half of the population. In the imaginative function that they are fulfilling, francophone writers are formulating the project of an inclusive society in which the ideal of recognition of otherness transcends the borders of ethnicity and gender.

Starting from the premise that ones identity is first and foremost construed in language, this dissertation argues that language is the fundamental site of resistance for writers who define themselves through linguistic difference. Recognizing also that language and literary production frequently fall under the control of complex authorities, this thesis examines literature as a site where confrontation is played out aesthetically. Literary writing, in other words, is exposed as a point of intersection between writers whose language draws its sources from a peripheral location and the centers of authority that regulate and dictate what is accepted as artistically and culturally valuable. Read as such, at the core of literary writing, we find nothing less than the Self and the Other engaged in a competing struggle for affirmation. The two authors considered in this study are Michel de Montaigne and Charles Ferdinand Ramuz. By going as far back in history as the French Renaissance and then shifting focus to the Swiss francophone, this project explores historical processes and literary creation from the viewpoint of relationships of hegemony and resistance that call to mind the conceptual definitions of postcolonial theory. Reading Michel de Montaigne and Charles Ferdinand Ramuz through a postcolonial theoretical lens, this dissertation reveals that power dynamics, imbalanced power relations, and struggles over cultural control can be discerned in other settings than those most frequently associated with postcolonial theory.

Interactions are understood through the filter of language and culture. Because of this when people of different cultures interact, miscommunications often result. As both verbal and nonverbal aspects of communication are culturally specific, this paper examines trends in the nonverbal communication patterns of generations of Pointe Coupee Creoles undergoing language shift from Creole French in the older generation to English in the younger. The data demonstrate that nonverbal patterns are decoupled from verbal language to some extent in the degree to which they are maintained down the observable generations of Pointe Coupee Creole participants. This study analyzes videos of naturally occurring conversations in Creole and English filmed in Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana, as well as an English-speaking control group filmed in Shreveport, Louisiana. These dialogues provide data on the frequency with which participants in various groups gesture, the duration of gesture phrases, as well as the personal sphere with its inverse relationship to the gestural sphere, and the usage of physical contact to regulate turn-at-talk. After establishing nonverbal communicative characteristics of the Creole speakers, I discuss the extent to which these features are maintained through successive generations. I find that while touching as a conversational regulator to hold speaker turn appears to have been dropped by the younger generation, other nonverbal communicative features such as the frequency of gesturing and wider gestural spheres (smaller personal spheres) observed in the older, Creole-dominant generation are maintained by the younger generation of English-dominant Pointe Coupee Creoles. Thus, aspects of the nonverbal patterns survive longer than the verbal system in this speech community.

This dissertation examines nineteenth-century Louisianan author Alfred Merciers novels and their roles as emblems of Francophone Creole cultural identity. During the nineteenth century following the Louisiana Purchase and subsequent anglophone influx, the French-speaking Creole population faced a cultural upheaval. Unable to completely identify as either French or American, Creoles occupied an uncertain space. This study demonstrates that Alfred Merciers works articulate a hybrid identity that is neither French nor American but rather a multicultural construct. The first chapter examines the nineteenth-century Creole communitys problematic positioning between French and American cultures. Chapters two, three, and four center on two of Merciers texts and concentrate on his depictions of race, gender, and language, respectively, while incorporating a historical perspective and establishing a literary context using works by more well-known French and francophone authors. This analysis shows that Merciers representations take into account the multiplicity of cultures established in Creole society, contesting the perception that Creole identity can be defined singularly.

Published during Québecs Révolution Tranquille, but set during the final phase of World War II, Roch Carriers novel La guerre, yes sir! (1968) chronicles how one community copes with the sober homecoming of its first son of the village to die in the war. The novel centers on the fallen Corriveaus repatriation to what was then considered French Canada. The bodys passage from one realm, in Europe, associated with French Canadas multi-layered, quasi-colonial control, to another, in soon-to-be Quebec, associated with the provinces self-definition and burgeoning sense of sovereignty, offers an allegorical commentary on the Québécois peoples passage from a colonized to a decolonized people. The introduction, Body in Transit, Body in Transition, explores the importance of the novels setting and its period of publication as two critical moments for the Québécois. The second chapter, Colonizing the Body: Hurting, outlines how Carrier depicts the Québécois body as colonized, drawing on the imagery of colonial wounding evoked by writers such as Albert Memmi, Frantz Fanon, and Jean Bouthillette. It also examines the significance of Carriers depiction of the wounded Québécois body as zombified and cannibalized, employing imagery historically associated with colonial control. Finally, the finite, linear vision of time that characterizes the initial scenes constitutes another form of wounding or temporal trauma. The third chapter, Decolonizing the Body: Healing, investigates how the familys reception of the repatriated body begins the healing process. Thus, the abject state of Corriveaus corpse functions not only as a source of horror, as Julia Kristeva suggests, but also epitomizes Mikhail Bakhtins grotesque body, with all the creative potential to outgrow itself. Likewise, Corriveaus symbolic cannibalization by his community becomes a form of reappropriation, reversing the initial depiction of violent consumption. Consuming Corriveau becomes both a source of comfort and a symbolic Eucharist that transforms Corriveau from a living-dead or zombie figure, made to labor in the service of another, to a supernatural Christ figure, capable of transcending death. The final chapter, Corps and Clocks: Ticking Toward a New Time, elaborates on the meaning of Corriveau as a body clock that measures the end of one era and marks the beginning of another.