Portraits of the Marquise de Maintenon by Louis Ferdinand Elle II and Pierre Mignard are frequently reproduced in the various factual and fictional biographies of Maintenon, but have only been significantly mentioned by art historians in broader studies of the period or in comparison to other portraits. In this thesis, these portraits will be significantly and singularly addressed in a larger study of Maintenon as patron. Both portraits have connections to events occurring in the life of Maintenon at the time of their creation and can be clearly understood as representations of her intended public identity. In addition, each seems to have an interesting relationship to both negative contemporary criticism of Maintenon and to her subsequent legacy. The chapters are ordered chronologically and each involves a discussion of the meaningful visual elements in each portrait. As the earliest portrait that can be firmly considered part of Maintenon's constructed public identity, Louis Elle's Marquise de Maintenon and her Niece is the focus of the first chapter. An analysis of the many possible layers of meaning within this portrait is discussed in relation to Maintenon's complicated legacy. The second chapter centers upon revealing the original function of Mignard's Marquise de Maintenon as St. Frances of Rome and its relationship to the controversy involving Quietism with which Maintenon was involved at the time of the portrait's creation. In the final chapter, the way in which these portraits influence Maintenon's legacy is analyzed. Finally, in the conclusion, the obstacles involved in the study of representations of Maintenon are discussed and suggestions are made of issues requiring further study.

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Notre travail se consacre à une analyse sociohistorique de la représentation du protestantisme dans le roman épistolaire Delphine (1802). Dans ce premier roman, Madame de Staël dépeint une héroïne dont le parcours offre une réflexion sur la conduite morale en société et sur la place d’une femme éclairée dans un milieu à la fois catholique et protestant. Nous montrons comment le discours protestant, qui est porteur d’un élan libérateur, permet à Delphine (de confession catholique) d’être plus indépendante et libre d’esprit. La jeune femme se démarque en effet des autres personnages, et ce, tant par ses opinions sur la condition féminine que par sa grande ouverture d’esprit à l’endroit de la religion réformée. Le premier chapitre porte sur le contexte sociohistorique du protestantisme au tournant des Lumières ainsi que sur la condition de la femme dans la société française à la fin du XVIIIe siècle. Ce survol historique nous permet de passer à l’analyse du parcours et des opinions de l’héroïne et de quelques personnages secondaires dans les deuxième et troisième chapitres. Le deuxième chapitre étudie la représentation romanesque de la problématique religieuse, de la pratique morale et religieuse de la jeune femme et de la notion du libre examen si chère au protestantisme. Enfin, le troisième chapitre est consacré à l’analyse de l’autonomie propre à la religion réformée, et ce, à travers les rôles non officiels de guide ou d’intermédiaire spirituel donnés par Madame de Staël à certains de ses personnages. Ainsi se dévoile l’un des traits caractéristiques du premier roman staëlien, dont le discours religieux témoigne d’une grande importance accordée à la liberté de la foi de même qu’à la participation de l’individu dans sa propre démarche spirituelle.

Notre travail se consacre à une analyse sociohistorique de la représentation du protestantisme dans le roman épistolaire Delphine (1802). Dans ce premier roman, Madame de Staël dépeint une héroïne dont le parcours offre une réflexion sur la conduite morale en société et sur la place d’une femme éclairée dans un milieu à la fois catholique et protestant. Nous montrons comment le discours protestant, qui est porteur d’un élan libérateur, permet à Delphine (de confession catholique) d’être plus indépendante et libre d’esprit. La jeune femme se démarque en effet des autres personnages, et ce, tant par ses opinions sur la condition féminine que par sa grande ouverture d’esprit à l’endroit de la religion réformée. Le premier chapitre porte sur le contexte sociohistorique du protestantisme au tournant des Lumières ainsi que sur la condition de la femme dans la société française à la fin du XVIIIe siècle. Ce survol historique nous permet de passer à l’analyse du parcours et des opinions de l’héroïne et de quelques personnages secondaires dans les deuxième et troisième chapitres. Le deuxième chapitre étudie la représentation romanesque de la problématique religieuse, de la pratique morale et religieuse de la jeune femme et de la notion du libre examen si chère au protestantisme. Enfin, le troisième chapitre est consacré à l’analyse de l’autonomie propre à la religion réformée, et ce, à travers les rôles non officiels de guide ou d’intermédiaire spirituel donnés par Madame de Staël à certains de ses personnages. Ainsi se dévoile l’un des traits caractéristiques du premier roman staëlien, dont le discours religieux témoigne d’une grande importance accordée à la liberté de la foi de même qu’à la participation de l’individu dans sa propre démarche spirituelle.

Gustave Flaubert et Guy de Maupassant étaient des amis et des écrivains réalistes qui voulaient décrire la société en entier comme des artisans plutôt comme des artistes. En le faisant tous les deux utilisaient les habits des personnages dans leurs œuvres pour découvrir la société, la stratifictaion dans la société et les personnages des œuvres. Mais, malgré qu'ils veuillent travailler comme des artisans ils avaient des styles très précises et élaborés. L'approche sociocritique est la méthode pour comprendre; Comment les habits démasquent la position des personnages dans la société Comment les habits racontent l’histoire et la psychologie des personnages Comment les habits symbolisent les caractères dans un plus grand contexte littéraire / Gustave Flaubert and Guy de Maupassant were friends and realist authors who wanted to describe the totality of society as artisans rather than artists. In doing so both of them used  the way their characters dressed to discover society, the stratification in society and the characters in their literary work. However, in spite of their will to work as artisans they were stylistically prominent with styles precise and elaborated.From a socio-critical point of view this essay tries to understand: How the out-fit unveils the social position of the characters. How the out-fit unveils the story and psychology of the characters. How the out-fit symbolises the characters in a wider literary context. / Gustave Flaubert och Guy de Maupassant var vänner och realistiska författare som ville beskriva samhället i sin helhet som hantverkare snarare än konstnärer. När de gjorde det använde båda två personernas kläder för att avslöja samhället, klassuppdelningen i samhället och personernas psykologi i sina verk. Men, trots att de ville arbeta som hantverkare var båda stilistiskt framstående med varsin precis och genomarbetad stil.Från en sociokristisk synvinkel försöker denna uppsats förstå: Hur kläderna avslöjar personernas sociala ställning. Hur kläderna avslöjar personernas berättelse och psykologi. Hur kläderna symboliserar personerna i ett större litterärt sammanhang.

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Between 1950s and 1990s, Hong Kong had a frenzy for writing and re-writing materials from classical literature and myths. The myth of Madame White Snake is one of the most well known stories that survived a long period of time. The earliest known version of Madame White Snake was a supernatural story in 1550, which later became a prototype of numerous subsequent versions starting in 1624. This prototype was repeatedly re-written throughout history and was also made into different genres including plays, playlets, novels, films and television dramas. One of the latest versions was written by Li Pikwah, a popular novelist in Hong Kong, in 1993, titled, Green Snake. Green Snake is a parody of Madame White Snake written from the perspective of Little Green, the servant of Madame White and an auxiliary figure in the tradition. The novel is also an autobiography of Little Green, who satirically criticizes the story of Madame White Snake in retrospect. Little Green’s autobiography is a nostalgic reflection of the past as well as a critique of the structure of the story that has survived throughout history. These implications made in the story hint at the author’s personal yearning for traditional China as a Chinese resident in Hong Kong. Her nostalgia for traditional China is not idealistic but paradoxical, because her re-writing of the story was an avenue to understand and re-negotiate her identity. Li is also well-known for her other novels, which are parodies of classical literature, traditional myth and legend. Many of these works were also made into films in the 80’s and 90’s. These novels and films were part of a phenomenon in contemporary Hong Kong literary and popular culture that tried to grasp a cultural connection with traditional China in order to embrace the return to mainland China in 1997 after a hundred years of British colonial rule.

The idea of corruption travels down and supports this thesis. It stands as one of the principal stakes of the Homeric Quarrel. By analysing it, we may deepen our understanding of the value the famous hellenist Anne Dacier placed on the heritage of the Anciens and its reception by the Moderns; we may also better understand in which ways her engagement in polemics belonged to her times. Anne Dacier was less an apologist of Homer than a polemist who attacked the corrupted taste of her contemporaries. She feared for them, but above all, she feared for the Homeric text. She had done her best in her translation to preserve the poem while Houdar de la Motte, her adversary thought that an adaptation would suit the public better. Mme Dacier presented herself as the guardian of tradition and its purity; nonetheless, to achieve her goal, she had to compromise with her opponents and speak their corrupted language.

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Fictional characters who mistake reality for fiction can be considered as parodies, beings invented by the author to denounce the illusions of which they are victims. But this viewpoint is not valid if the novels in which those "mistaken readers" exist suggest, to the contrary, that reality is problematic; it is therefore impossible to judge the characters without "afterthoughts", since these characters, in a way, are pointing to the fact that the reality they live in is "unreal". / Such is the case with Madame Bovary and Don Quijote. These two novels, as a result of different "techniques", essentially tell their readers to be suspicious about what is "true" and what is "false". These are novels without a strong authorial voice, novels that speak more about how characters conceive reality than about reality itself, which remains in both cases a complete mystery. / This viewpoint can be extended into a definition of the novel, in terms of what it says (or doesn't say) about the world. And in fact, a novel doesn't say anything about the world, at least not directly. It could be described as "a machine" made from what the characters say. Obviously, such a machine cannot be taken too seriously, since nobody (that is to say no real person) is actually saying what is being said in its pages. But at the same time, by refusing to show the fictional world in itself, (by always showing it through the eyes of fictional characters), the novelist reminds his reader that the real world itself is inescapably ambiguous.