Le point de départ des travaux entrepris est la définition lefortienne de la démocratie par opposition au totalitarisme. Le totalitarisme est l’institution d’une société organique, une et homogène, dans laquelle aucune division sociale, aucun désaccord avec l’idéologie véhiculée par le parti ne sont possibles. La spécificité de la démocratie, a contrario, est de s’enrichir de la désintrication du pouvoir, du droit, et du savoir. Les citoyens, dotés de droits fondamentaux, sont juges de la légitimité du pouvoir établi. Leurs désaccords ainsi que l’antagonisme entre les classes sociales nourrissent l’exercice d’un commun litigieux. De là, une question fondamentale : une telle définition de la démocratie est-elle historiquement datée, ou continue-t-elle d’être pertinente aujourd’hui ? Doit-on encore concevoir la démocratie, pour la rendre authentique, par le conflit civil érigé en principe politique, ou faut-il l’envisager de manière consensualiste au lendemain de son opposition avec le totalitarisme ? Claude Lefort s’inspirait de Machiavel pour dépasser les limites du marxisme et repenser la démocratie par la valorisation du conflit civil, indissociable de la figure de l’imaginaire social. La thèse ici soutenue adopte différemment une perspective néo-machiavélienne. Elle revient à proposer un espace public dissensuel à partir du modèle machiavélien de l’entente dans le conflit, par confrontation avec l’espace public habermassien et d’autres conceptions du tort et du conflit dans les démocraties contemporaines. Comment concevoir aujourd’hui les figures du conflit civil et de l’imaginaire social, en s’inspirant paradoxalement de Machiavel pour interroger la démocratie ? / The starting point of the present work is the Lefortian definition of democracy as opposed to totalitarism. Totalitarism is the institution of an organic society, one and homogeneous, where no social division, no disagreement with the party’s ideology are possible. On the contrary democracy’s specificity consists in enriching itself with the disentanglement of power, law and knowledge. Citizens, endowed with fundamental rights can judge of the legitimacy of the power in place. Their disagreements as well as the antagonism between social classes fuel the dispute about common good.Hence a fundamental question: is such a definition of democracy historically dated or is it still relevant today? To make it authentic should democracy be seen through civil conflict made into a political principle or should it be viewed in a consensualist way just after its opposition to totalitarism? Claude Lefort drew from Machiavelli to go beyond the limits of Marxism and rethink democracy by giving more importance to civil conflict as an integral part of the theme of social imaginary. The present dissertation adopts in a different way a neo-Machiavellian perspective. It amounts to proposing a dissensual public space on the Machiavellian model of understanding within conflict by confronting it with the Habermassian public space and with other conceptions of wrong and conflict in contemporary democracies.Today how can the themes of civil conflict and social imaginary be viewed – paradoxically drawing from Machiavelli- to question democracy?

This thesis contributes to the burgeoning field of the history of sexuality in New Zealand and seeks to distill the more theorised and reflexive understanding of the subjectively understood queer male identity since 1948. Emerging from the disciplines of History and English, this project draws from a range of narratological materials: parliamentary debates contained in Hansard, and novels and short stories written by men with publicly avowed queer identities. This thesis explores how both 'normative' identity and the category of 'the homosexual' were constructed and mobilised in the public domain, in this case, the House of Representatives. It shows that members of the House have engaged with an extensive tradition of defining and excluding; a process by which state and public discourses have constructed largely unified, negative and othering narratives of 'the homosexual'. This constitutes an overarching narrative of queer experience which, until the mid-1990s, excluded queer subjects from its construction. At the same time, fictional narratives offer an adjacent body of knowledge and thought for queer men and women. This thesis posits literature's position as an important and productive space for queer resistance and critique. Such texts typically engage with and subvert 'dominant' or 'normative' understandings of sexuality and disturb efforts to apprehend precise or linear histories of 'gay liberation' and 'gay consciousness'. Drawing from the works of Frank Sargeson, James Courage, Bill Pearson, Noel Virtue, Stevan Eldred-Grigg, and Peter Wells, this thesis argues for a revaluing of fictional narratives as active texts from which historians can construct a matrix of cultural experience, while allowing for, and explaining, the determining role such narratives play in the discursively constructed understandings of gender and sexuality in New Zealand.

Le point de départ des travaux entrepris est la définition lefortienne de la démocratie par opposition au totalitarisme. Le totalitarisme est l'institution d'une société organique, une et homogène, dans laquelle aucune division sociale, aucun désaccord avec l'idéologie véhiculée par le parti ne sont possibles. La spécificité de la démocratie, a contrario, est de s'enrichir de la désintrication du pouvoir, du droit, et du savoir. Les citoyens, dotés de droits fondamentaux, sont juges de la légitimité du pouvoir établi. Leurs désaccords ainsi que l'antagonisme entre les classes sociales nourrissent l'exercice d'un commun litigieux. De là, une question fondamentale : une telle définition de la démocratie est-elle historiquement datée, ou continue-t-elle d'être pertinente aujourd'hui ? Doit-on encore concevoir la démocratie, pour la rendre authentique, par le conflit civil érigé en principe politique, ou faut-il l'envisager de manière consensualiste au lendemain de son opposition avec le totalitarisme ? Claude Lefort s'inspirait de Machiavel pour dépasser les limites du marxisme et repenser la démocratie par la valorisation du conflit civil, indissociable de la figure de l'imaginaire social. La thèse ici soutenue adopte différemment une perspective néo-machiavélienne. Elle revient à proposer un espace public dissensuel à partir du modèle machiavélien de l'entente dans le conflit, par confrontation avec l'espace public habermassien et d'autres conceptions du tort et du conflit dans les démocraties contemporaines. Comment concevoir aujourd'hui les figures du conflit civil et de l'imaginaire social, en s'inspirant paradoxalement de Machiavel pour interroger la démocratie ?

Esta pesquisa propõe o estudo de canções de Noel Rosa à luz dos preceitos da poesia Pau-Brasil, de Oswald de Andrade. Por meio da análise de obras como Conversa de botequim, Gago apaixonado e Três apitos, percebe-se que o Poeta da Vila materializou a prática da poesia "como falamos" promulgada como gesto de ruptura pelo Manifesto da Poesia Pau-Brasil, em contraposição à retórica ornamental do parnasianismo então vigente. Além da utilização de uma linguagem coloquial e corrente entre os fatos cotidianos, esta aproximação não se restringe ao texto, passando pela observação de dois pontos fundamentais: as melodias das canções camuflam, por meio dos recursos entoativos, as intenções da fala, constituindo um jeito de cantar falando, ou de falar cantando, conforme a teoria semiótica de Luiz Tatit; as canções se concretizam, assim como a fala, pela voz, sendo captadas pelo ouvido sem a intermediação da escrita, incorporando as nuances vocais para além da palavra, ao mesmo tempo em que constituem um ato performativo que envolve a teatralização das cenas, a instrumentação musical, o espaço e o ouvinte, constituindo uma recepção corporal, segundo a perspectiva teórica de Paul Zumthor. Noel Rosa é observado como matriz de uma vertente em que esta proximidade com a fala se dá de forma mais evidente, como se nota em seus textos simples e diretos amalgamados às melodias entoativas, e na interpretação vocal das canções, especialmente quando é ele mesmo o intérprete. O Poeta da Vila é comparado à veia oswaldiana, ainda, pela utilização de recursos como o humor e a paródia em oposição à seriedade dos gabinetes dos cultos doutores, e a incorporação da paisagem urbana num processo de atualização das práticas artísticas à modernidade do século XX. Constata-se que, apesar das convergências, os universos dos dois autores não se cruzavam em seu tempo, no qual a canção não era percebida no território das grandes artes. Entretanto, na década de 1960, compositores de canção como Chico Buarque e Caetano Veloso passaram a ser identificados como os principais poetas de sua geração, chegando a ser associados, respectivamente, a Noel Rosa e Oswald de Andrade. Diante da diferença da percepção da obra noelina como representativa ou não da poesia de sua época, e da presença dos compositores de canção no rol dos grandes poetas a partir da década de 1960, configura-se um cenário de imprecisão no entendimento da canção como linguagem poética. / This research proposes the study of Noel Rosa's songs according to the precepts of the Pau-Brasil poetry by Oswald de Andrade. Through the analysis of works from Noel’s songbook, such as Conversa de botequim, Gago apaixonado and Três apitos, it can be noticed that the so called “Poeta da Vila” materialized the practice of poetry "as we speak" promulgated as a gesture of rupture by the Manifesto da Poesia Pau-Brasil. Besides the use of a colloquial and current language among everyday facts, this approach is not restricted to the text, passing through the observation of two fundamental points. The melodies of the songs camouflage the speech intentions by means of the intonative resources, constituting a way of singing, speaking singing, according to the semiotic theory by Luiz Tatit; The songs realizes themselves as well as the speech, by the voice. They are captured by the ear without the writing intermediation, incorporating the vocal nuances beyond the word at the same time that they constitute a performative act which involves the scenes’ dramatization, the musical instrumentation , space and the listener, constituting a corporal reception, according to the Paul Zumthor theoretical perspective. Noel Rosa is observed as a matrix of an aspect in which this proximity to the speech occurs more clearly, as it can be seen in his simple and direct texts melded into the melodies’ intonation, so as in the vocal interpretation of the songs, especially when he is the interpreter himself. The “Poeta da Vila” is compared to the Oswald de Andrade’s work aspects by the use of resources such as humor and parody opposed to the seriousness of the doctors' offices, such as the incorporation of the urban landscape into an updating process of the artistic practices to the modernity of the 20th century. It is observed that despite the convergences, the two authors’ universes did not intersect in their time, in which the song was not perceived in the great arts category. However, in the 1960s, songwriters as Chico Buarque and Caetano Veloso were identified as the main poets of their generation, with Noel Rosa and Oswald de Andrade. In view of the difference in Noel Rosa’s work perception as representative or not of his time poetry, so as the presence of the composers of song pointed out among the roll of the great poets from the 1960 decade , a scene of imprecision in the song understanding as poetic language is configured. / Dissertação (Mestrado)

Twentieth century modernity has provoked multiple problems ranging from environmental degradation to human rights violations. Globally, diverse communities of people have organized to promote, not just reactive reforms, but a fundamental alteration of the foundational worldview underlying these issues. Radical activists committed their work to promoting an alternative ethos based on egalitarian, democratic, and ecologically-wise concepts. An array of methodologies emerged from these endeavors. More radical political groups focused on cultural tools to engage people in the construction of an alternative worldview. Radical activists utilized two forms of cultural politics: prefigurative politics, the physical presentation of an envisioned future and direct theory, the constant interaction between theory and practice. Within the artistic community, Ecological Artists centered their practice on cultural activism, creating publicly accessible, site-specific collaborative pieces that illuminate and utilize ecosystem principles to promote an eco-wise worldview. The concept of utilizing cultural production as a method for achieving social transformation has only recently been analyzed within the social movement discipline. Artists rarely utilize social movement vocabulary, or the term "activism" to describe their practices. To date, no correlation between artistic production and social movement strategies has been made. I argue in this thesis that Ecological Artists are cultural activists who simultaneously developed strategies and methods similar to those being worked out by radical social movement activists. While prefigurative politics and direct theory are terms defined within social movement discipline, the cultural activities are similar. Political activists' internal organization and external political work, prefigurative of an envisioned future and the result of constant interaction between theory and practice, correlates to the necessary collaborative organizations of Eco-Art and the physical presence of the work, a manifestation of the constant interaction between ecosystem theory and artistic practice. In this thesis I analyze the work of Ecological Artist Ruth Wallen as a form of cultural activism. I argue that the intention, execution, and content of her work are forms of prefigurative politics and direct theory. Ruth Wallen has been practicing Eco-Art for twenty years. Her work is focused on the heart of Eco-Art, its intention to produce an eco-wise future through artistic practice.

This thesis concerns a peer Francis Thun (1809-1871) who was one of the most important personalities in the public and cultural life in Bohemia from the 30s till the end of the 60s of the 19th century. Thun {--} a gifted visual artist himself - was particularly interested in the institutions connected with the visual art. The author shows where his long-life interest in the visual arts was formed. She follows his childhood, upbringing, his own artistic beginning and his studies. She particularly considers his ways around Europe and his stay in Dresden, that used to be one of the most important centres of the European Romanticism, and more than a year-long traveling around England, western Europe and Italy. The last part of this thesis deliberates František Thun{\crq}s public activities {--} mainly his work in the artistic politics and in the care of monuments. This work also follows Thun{\crq}s personal life, particularly his marriage with a burgher girl thanks to it he couldn{\crq}t inherite the fideicommissum. This biography is mainly based on personal materials {--} letters and diaries. In terms of them it attempts to show Thun{\crq}s personality and his important life moments.