Jean Sénac, poète algérien du XXème siècle, est avant tout connu pour son engagement en faveur de l’indépendance algérienne. Ses poèmes dénoncent l’autoritarisme colonial comme ils révèlent la violence morale et sociale qui accompagne la mise en place du nouveau régime politique de Houari Boumedienne succédant à celui, plus en adéquation avec les attentes du poète, d’Ahmed Ben Bella. Mais ce serait amputer l’oeuvre poétique sénacquienne d’une grande richesse thématique et stylistique que de la résumer à quelques uns de ses plus grands recueils « politiques ». Car, derrière la voix d’un homme engagé dans le combat sociopolitique de son pays s’entend celle d’un artiste qui s’interroge, dès ses premiers écrits, sur les fondements de son existence, sur la réalisation du sujet en tant qu’homme, mais aussi en tant que poète, et sur les possibilités ontologiques et littéraires d’y parvenir. Une parole lyrique fonde et / ou transcrit alors la quête existentielle en même temps qu’elle interroge sa légitimité et l’espace de son déploiement. La problématique de l’interdépendance entre voeu d’unité ontologique et pluralité des modalités d’énonciation permet d’appréhender le polymorphisme stylistique et thématique de cette oeuvre singulière, polymorphisme au service d’un cheminement ontologique étroitement nourri des révélations générées par l’écriture poétique. La première partie de ce travail a donc pour vocation de mettre en lumière la corrélation réciproque entre l’expérience phénoménologique et sensitive du monde menée par le poète et celle de l’écriture, corrélation sur laquelle repose la prise de conscience réfrénée puis acceptée d’une diffraction du sujet. L’écriture poétique, espace de représentation et de construction de l’ego, renseigne le sujet lyrique sur la nature de sa disparité et devient le champ d’expérimentation d’un projet de réunification du corps et de l’esprit en lieu du poème ; ce que Jean Sénac nommera le « corpoème ». La seconde partie fait état d’un degré supérieur d’interrogation existentielle et analyse l’enjeu verbal et ontologique d’une substitution du poète à Dieu. Jean Sénac éprouve le besoin de se confronter à la divinité, référentiel d’un espace absolu, afin de mesurer la nécessité et les possibilités d’une incarnation définie selon ses propres concepts. L’écriture préfigure donc un « parcours de soi » inachevable en même temps qu’elle instaure les limites d’un espace de re-présentations où le poète appréhende la fragmentation du « moi » avant d’en faire un motif de justification d’un questionnement cyclique sur les conditions de son identité. Toutes les figures du sujet lyrique convergent alors dans cet espace d’agencement que représente l’oeuvre poétique, et leur rassemblement autorise le poète à profiler la voie /voix d’une réalisation singulière / The Algerian Twentieth Century poet Jean Senac is well known for his commitment for Independence of Algeria. His poems not only denounce colonial autoritarism but also reveal moral and social violences closely linked to Houari Boumedienne policy. Boumedienne follows Ahmed Ben Bella’s regime that Senac agrees with. But Senac’s work isn’t limited to a political poems collection. He is a true artist above all, who questions himself about the fondamental themes of literature. A lyrical word founds and transcribes existential quest and makes its legitimacy an interrogation. The main problem about interdependence between wish ontarienne unity and variety of terms allows the multiplicity of speech and themes in this singular work. The first part of the demonstration may put into relief a reciprocal relation between phenomenological and sensitive experience of world Senac follows. Poetic writing, scene of ego’s construction and representation, gives informations to lyrical subject about the reasons of its dissimilarities. It becomes as well the field of experimentation about a link between body and spirit, what Sénac calls the « corpoème ». The second part should reveal a higher step in existentiel questioning and should analyse the formal and ontological stake of Sénac’s substitution in God. Jean Senac needs a confrontation with divinity, the absolute place, in order to assess the necessity of a potential incarnation determined by his own concepts. The writing feels an unfinished « parcours de soi » (an unfinished self route) and establish the ends of representation space where the poet grasps the ego’s fragmentations. Every lyrical subjects figures converge in this field of layout what is poetic work. Their association allows the poet to open up the voice/the way of a singular realisation

This doctoral research is dedicated to the study of identity issues in contexts of renewal or appropriation of ethnic traditions and their displacement, by specific actors, within the realm of holistic spiritualities. These issues revolve around quests for authenticity, legitimacy and negotiation of (intra)-cultural differences. This research problematizes the relationships among mobility, spirituality and Mayan ethnicity, from the perspective of Transnational Studies and life stories, through the concept of neo-Mayanity. These relationships have been embedded in the broader context of "religious change" and its forms since the 1950s and 1960s. On the one hand, these changes imply the rise of New Age currents in the wake of 1968 counter-culture. On the other hand, they stem from the emergence of new forms of "religious or spiritual mobility", more specifically in the transnational circulation of actors, practices, imaginations and symbols. This research features qualitative case studies conducted in different national contexts. Six field studies were carried out as part of a multi-situated ethnography spanning Mexico, Guatemala, Switzerland and Germany, using methods such as narrative interviews, direct participant observations, cyber-ethnography, and ethno-photography. The research aims to show current transformations in the field of Mayan ethnicity, ever since contact with globalized New Age spiritualities. A variety of empirical examples reveal that since the "2012 Phenomenon", the accelerated transnationalization of spiritual leaders has involved a resemantization of symbolic contents and rituals through processes of rearrangement, visual innovation and cohabitation.

This thesis seeks to interpret the cinematic representations of Hong Kongers’ identity quest during a transitional state/stage related to the sovereignty transfer. The Handover transition considered is an ideological one, rather than the overnight polity change on the Handover day. This research approaches contemporary Hong Kong cinema on two fronts and the thesis is structured accordingly: Upon an initial review of the existing Hong Kong film scholarship in the Introduction, and its 1997-related allegorical readings, Part I sees new angles (previously undeveloped or underdeveloped) for researching Hong Kong films made during 1982-2002. Arguments are built along the ideas of Hong Kongers’ situational, diasporic consciousness, and transformed ‘Chineseness’ because Hong Kong has lacked a cultural/national centrality. This part of research is informed by the ideas of Jacques Derrida, Homi Bhabha and Stuart Hall, and the diasporic experiences of Ien Ang, Rey Chow and Ackbar Abbas. With these new research angles and references to the circumstances, Part II reads critically the text of eight Hong Kong films made during the Handover transition. In chronological order, they are Boat People (Hui, 1982), Song of the Exile (Hui, 1990), Days of Being Wild (Wong, 1990), Happy Together (Wong, 1997), Made in Hong Kong (Chan, 1997), Ordinary Heroes (Hui, 1999), Durian Durian (Chan, 2000), and Hollywood Hong Kong (Chan, 2002). They meet several criteria related to the undeveloped / underdeveloped areas in the existing Hong Kong film scholarship. Hamid Naficy’s ‘accented cinema’ paradigm gives the guidelines to the film analysis in Part II. This part shows that Hong Kongers’ self-transformation during transition is alterable, indeterminate, and interminable, due to the people’s situational, diasporic consciousness, and transformed ‘Chineseness’. This thesis thus contributes to Hong Kong cinema scholarship in interpreting films with new research angles, and generating new insights into this cinematic tradition and its wider context.