Current debates on space reveal a dichotomy between two apparently conflicting understandings of space: on the one hand, space is understood as a physical, tangible entity that has an impact on how we perceive, feel and emotionally inhabit the world, and on the other hand, space is conceived as an abstract entity, suggesting that space has no active role (a productivity) within everyday life, being solely a conceptual product of intellectual reasoning. As a result, the commonly used word: ‘space’, will be discussed as an ontologically paradoxical, ambiguous and elusive concept; a concept that cannot be captured within a single definition. This thesis consequently researches the ontology of space by informing a framework that embraces the complexity of space as an ambiguous and unrepresentable entity. It aims to reconcile the multiple understandings of space, liberating it from the binary thinking that opposes the abstract to the physical, disclosing its potential productivity. This thesis thus proposes a methodology departing from a transdisciplinary approach that addresses the variability, multiplicity, paradoxicality and ambiguity of space through a ‘bastard’ epistemology that defies binary logic by considering what falls out of order and norm. To research an ontology through a bastard epistemology is to work outside of (but in combination with) the intelligible and sensible realms, through a framework that is non-representational, but instead enactive and performative, driven by experience, affect and aesthetics; thus allowing access to an entity that is both ambiguous and also unrepresentable. In doing so, this thesis argues that space is diversely implicated in the constitution of research methodologies through its interactions with order and structures, as well as agential in the constitution of understandings of human interactions with the world; and therefore, it will be argued, space has methodological purchase. The consequence of this methodological purchase is that space can reveal itself if a research strategy is implemented that works through the multiple dimensions of space. Within this context the diagram will be introduced as a productive path because enables a bastard epistemology to work through the multiplicity of space, since the diagram, is a performed, materialised outcome of multiple experiences of the making of order through the interaction between physical and conceptual dimensions. In synthesis, the diagram is used to recursively research an ontology of space, showing the main contribution of this thesis: of how without negating its complexity and multiplicity, space can be useful, constructive and productive within contemporary contexts of research methodologies.

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Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal. / Pour respecter les droits d'auteur, la version électronique de cette thèse ou ce mémoire a été dépouillée, le cas échéant, de ses documents visuels et audio-visuels. La version intégrale de la thèse ou du mémoire a été déposée au Service de la gestion des documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal.

O objetivo desta tese é analisar as criaturas amiúde consideradas monstruosas bem como os termos geralmente traduzidos por monstro presentes em três poemas da tradição de poesia hexamétrica arcaica, a saber, a Teogonia de Hesíodo, o Hino Homérico a Apolo e a Odisseia de Homero. A análise dessas criaturas tem como foco o modo como são descritas e o papel que desempenham nas narrativas contidas nesses poemas, para a qual são utilizadas como abordagem teórico-metodológica a referencialidade tradicional proposta e desenvolvida por John Miles Foley ao longo da década de 1990 bem como a perspectiva de que os poemas que constituem a tradição hexamétrica arcaica compõem uma história do cosmo, conforme desenvolvida por Barbara Graziosi e Johannes Haubold na década de 2000. Como resultado da análise das criaturas, de um lado, e dos termos traduzidos por monstro, de outro, questiona-se a pertinência da categoria monstro como geralmente pressuposta para essas criaturas no mundo moderno, tendo-se em vista que ela possa não existir na poesia hexamétrica arcaica, já que fazem parte de um sistema de pensamento em um mundo ainda não desencantado em termos weberianos, no qual a realidade empírica e a esfera divina enquanto representativa do sobrenatural estão profundamente imbricadas. Como instrumental teórico-metodológico para o questionamento acerca da existência ou não do monstro enquanto categoria em tal tradição poética, lançou-se mão das teorias de categorização de Wittgenstein, desenvolvida nas décadas de 1940 e 1950, daquelas desenvolvidas por Eleanor Rosch e sua equipe durante a década de 1970, bem como as presentes nas obras de George Lakoff a partir da década de 1980. A proposição de que a categoria monstro como pressuposta e entendida no mundo moderno é inexistente para a poesia hexamétrica arcaica tem implicações na compreensão moderna dessas criaturas, que devem ser percebidas enquanto integrantes de um cosmo que não separa o sobrenatural, o maravilhoso e o divino nos mesmos termos que o faz a sociedade moderna ocidental, revelando a necessidade de compreender essas criaturas sob o ponto de vista da tradição que as criou ou as incorporou e ressignificou. / The aim of this thesis is to analyse the creatures often considered monstrous as well as the words generally translated as monster in three poems belonging to the tradition of archaic hexametric poetry, namely, Hesiod\'s Theogony, the Homeric Hymn to Apollo, and Homer\'s Odyssey. The analysis of the creatures focuses on the ways they are described and the role they play in the narratives presented in those poems. The theoretical and methodological approach used to such analysis is the traditional referenciality proposed and developed by John Miles Foley in the 1990\'s in addition to the perspective that such poems that inform the archaic hexametric tradition constitute a history of the cosmos, as developed by Barbara Graziosi and Johannes Haubold during the 2000\'s. The analysis of the creatures, in one hand, and of the words translated by monster, in the other, results in questioning the validity of the monster category as usually taken for granted in the modern world, considering that it might not exist in archaic hexametric poetry, since those creatures are part of a system of thought in a world not yet disenchanted in Weberian terms, in which the empirical reality and the divine sphere as representative of the supernatural are deeply entangled. As theoretical and methodological framework for questioning the existence of monster as a category in such poetical tradition, this thesis adopted the theories of categorization formulated by Wittgenstein during the 1940\'s and 1950\'s, as well as the theories developed by Eleanor Rosch and her team during the 1970\'s, along with the ones presented by George Lakoff from 1980\'s onward. The proposition that the category of monster as pressuposed and understood by the modern world is non-existent in archaic hexametric poetry has consequences to the modern understanding of those creatures which must be perceived as part of a cosmos that does not separate the supernatural, the wonderful, and the divine in the same terms as the modern western world does, revealing the need to understand those creatures under the point of view of the tradition that created them or incorporated and ressignified them.

Le cinéma de Tim Burton se reconnaît par des codes thématiques et des images si aisément identifiables que le nom du cinéaste a donné naissance à l’adjectif « burtonien ». Que signifie au juste ce qualificatif ? Cette thèse se propose de démontrer que si la signature de Tim Burton est reconnaissable entre toutes, c’est qu’elle porte l’héritage des gothiques littéraire et cinématographique. Burton s’en empare pour les transformer, adoptant une double stratégie d’adhésion et d’inversion des tropes du genre. Afin de définir ce gothique burtonien, nous étudions dans un premier temps le croisement entre l’humain et le monstrueux, un questionnement directement hérité du Frankenstein de Mary Shelley et de son adaptation éponyme par James Whale en 1931. Nous analysons ensuite la géographie de l’espace burtonien et sa représentation d’une société cruelle et machinique dont les personnages doivent s’extraire pour survivre. L’art émerge comme un moyen de survie ambivalent qui nous mène à considérer la création artistique du cinéaste lui-même, bâtie comme les grandes œuvres gothiques sur un brouillage des frontières, entre la vie et la mort, le passé et le présent, le rêve et la réalité. / The films of Tim Burton can easily be recognized by their thematic codes and identifiable images so much so that the director’s very name has given birth to the adjective “Burtonian”. But what does it qualify exactly? This dissertation proposes to demonstrate that Burton’s signature is particularly recognizable because it inherits from gothic literature and film. Burton tackles and transforms gothic tropes using a double strategy of adherence and reversal. To define what we call the “Burtonian gothic”, we first study the crossing between the humane and the monstrous, an issue directly inherited from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and its film adaptation by James Whale in 1931. We analyze then the geography of the Burtonian landscape and its representation of a cruel and mechanical society from which the characters must escape to survive. Art emerges as an ambivalent means of survival which leads us to consider the artistic creation of the filmmaker himself, built like great gothic works on blurred frontiers, between life and death, past and present, dream and reality.

From the eighth to the fourteenth century, places of wonder and dread appear in a wide variety of genres in Old and Middle English: epics, lays, romances, saints’ lives, travel narratives, marvel collections, visions of the afterlife. These places appear in narratives of the other world, a term which in Old and Middle English texts refers to the Christian afterlife: Hell, Purgatory, even Paradise can be fraught with wonder, danger, and the possibility of harm. But in addition to the other world, there are places that are not theologically separate from the human world, but that are nevertheless both marvellous and horrifying: the monster-mere in Beowulf, the Faerie kingdom of Sir Orfeo, the demon-ridden Vale Perilous in Mandeville’s Travels, or the fearful landscape of the Green Chapel in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Fraught with horror or the possibility of harm, these places are profoundly different from the presented or implied home world of the text. My dissertation investigates how Old and Middle English narratives create places of wonder and dread; how they situate these places metaphysically between the world of living mortals and the world of the afterlife; how they furnish these places with dangerous topography and monstrous inhabitants, as well as with motifs, with tropes, and with thematic concerns that signal their marvellous and fearful nature. I argue that the heart of this poetics of marvellous spaces is displacement. Their wonder and dread comes from boundaries that these places blur and cross, from the resistance of these places to being known or mapped, and from the deliberate distancing between these places and the home of their texts. This overarching concern with displacement encourages the migration of iconographic motifs, tropes, and themes across genre boundaries and theological categories.

Ce mémoire est consacré à la question de la réception spectatorielle des films en IMAX 3-D. Dans un premier temps, nous retracerons l’histoire du cinéma stéréoscopique, des origines jusqu’à l’inauguration de l’IMAX 3-D en 1986. Nous verrons que le modèle de l’attraction cinématographique s’est maintenu de tout temps dans l’économie de ce format, ce qui a contribué aux échecs de son institutionnalisation dans les années 50 et 80. En un deuxième temps, nous nous intéresserons à l’« expérience IMAX », afin de cerner la position qui y est attribuée au spectateur. Nous montrerons que les films IMAX misent à la fois sur leur potentiel immersif et sur la mise en évidence du dispositif. L’état d’immersion du spectateur entre donc en dialogue avec la réflexivité du médium. Par l’analyse des films Sea Monsters : A Prehistoric Adventure et Haunted Castle, il sera démontré que cette tension entre immersion et réflexivité sert un discours de glorification de l’IMAX. Aussi, nous interrogeons les liens entre la structure ponctuelle imposée par le modèle attractionnel et le fil narratif immanquablement mis en place dans les films IMAX. / This thesis examines the ways in which IMAX 3-D films positions its spectator. First, we look at the history of 3-D cinema, from its origins to the inauguration of IMAX 3-D in 1986. We argue that for the first 70 years of its history, 3-D cinema was staged as a return to the cinema of attractions, and that this aesthetic was an obstacle to its institutionalization in the mid-50’s and 80’s. Then, we describe the “IMAX experience” and argue that IMAX films induce a state of immersion and, at the same time, draw the viewer’s attention to the presence of the apparatus and the act of mediation. In analysing the movies Sea Monsters: a Prehistoric Adventure and Haunted Castle, we demonstrate that this tension between viewer immersion and medium reflexivity serves to glorify the IMAX trademark. Furthermore, we examine the relationship between the punctual structure imposed by the logic of attractions and the narrative line held by each and every IMAX film.

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal / Pour respecter les droits d'auteur, la version électronique de cette thèse ou ce mémoire a été dépouillée, le cas échéant, de ses documents visuels et audio-visuels. La version intégrale de la thèse ou du mémoire a été déposée au Service de la gestion des documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal.

This project begins by examining current trends in the study of medieval literature, particularly in the area of medieval literature dealing with religious conflict. Literary review demonstrates that since the late 20th century, critical examination of medieval literature has been dominated by postcolonial analyses. A dedication to postcolonial analyses, in effect, has stagnated the field of medieval literary analysis, particularly in regard to those texts representing religious differences. By focusing examination on two seminal medieval texts, "The Prioress's Tale" from Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales and the anonymous Song of Roland, this dissertation argues that traditional, postcolonially-inspired analyses are ineffective and inconsequential for modern, post-9/11 audiences, particularly high school students. More substantial and authentic readings are revealed through an application of Jeffrey Jerome Cohen's monster theory, a hypothesis articulated in his essay "Monster Culture (Seven Theses)" (1996) which, when coupled with conventionally psychoanalytic concepts of psychical reality and jouissance, reveals that the cultural creation of monsters is unchanging across time and culture. By illustrating this phenomenon through the Christian creation of Jewish and Muslim monsters, through literary examinations of "The Prioress's Tale" and Song of Roland respectively, this project hints that the same cultural forces feeding monster creation in the Middle Ages are alive in our modern age in the creation of terrorist monsters. The project culminates by arguing that the most effective way to teach literature of the Middle Ages to post-9/11 students is to focus on literature ripe with religious conflict in order to tap into affective connections to be found between modern students and the people of the Middle Ages. This is a bond best forged through a discussion-driven approach to literary instruction. / A future for medieval studies -- Monster Jews in the creation of the Christian psychical reality -- The necessity of Saracen monsters in the formation of the Christian self -- The future of medieval studies : teaching The prioress's tale and Song of Roland in contemporary high school classrooms. / Department of English