L’étude a pour premier objet de découvrir les caractères communs aux jeux antiques, au jeu de paume et à la pelote basque à partir d’une étude des textes écrits par des contemporains de ces jeux. Puis, l’observation des héritiers de la paume, dans leur histoire et leur actualité, permet des comparaisons pour cerner héritages et créations à l’origine de la pelote. Dresser une carte des identités de la pelote basque, occupe une grande partie de l’ouvrage, à partir de l’analyse des archives des villes du Pays basque et des articles de presse, principalement Le Courrier de Bayonne (1851 - 1899). Des rares premières archives des XVIe et XVIIe siècles et des témoignages contemporains du jeu décrit jusqu’en 1899, on tire les mutations, les règles et les conditions spacio-temporelles ou socio-culturelles de la pratique de la paume/pelote basque, donc son histoire sur cette période. L’étude des lieux de mémoire, tant les aires de jeu que la langue basque, la géographie d’implantation de la pelote en France et dans le monde, ou encore l’installation de la tradition des fêtes basques initiées par Antoine d’Abbadie, rend compte d’autres éléments identitaires et de la complexité toujours plus étendue de “ la ” pelote basque. Enfin les représentations des jeux de balle et de la pelote, dans leurs formes, littéraire, des arts visuels, journalistique, publicitaire, sont questionnées pour mieux cerner, d’une part les symboles à l’œuvre depuis l’antiquité et, d’autre part, le phénomène pelote basque dans sa personnalité et sa modernité. Les premières archives et l’histoire du XIXe siècle montrent une pratique mêlant joueurs des Pays basque de France et péninsulaire mais une évolution différente des aires et des conditions se fera dans les années 1880 et la pelote se différencie durablement. Devenue sport au début du XXe siècle et sport international, la pelote assume des pratiques plurielles, des influences venues des pays d’Amérique et ses nombreux paradoxes. / The first aim of this thesis is to determine the commonalities between games of Antiquity, real tennis, and Basque pelota, based on a review of documents written by authors coeval to these games. Then, the observation of the descendants of real tennis, in their history and their actuality, allows for comparisons to identify inheritances and creations at the origin of Basque pelota. A large part of the work is devoted to mapping out the identities of Basque pelota, based on the analysis of town records in the Basque Country and press articles, mostly from Le Courrier de Bayonne (1851 - 1899). From the rare first records from the 16th and 17th centuries and testimonies contemporaries of the game described until 1899, we draw the mutations, the rules, and the spatio-temporal or socio-cultural conditions of the practice of real tennis / Basque pelota, thus its history over this period. The study of sites of memory, such as sports fields, Basque language, the geography of establishment of Basque pelota in France and in the world, or even the establishment of the tradition of Basque festival initiated by Antoine d'Abbadie, provides an account of other identity elements and of the ever growing complexity of "the" Basque pelota. Finally, the representations of ball games and pelota, in their literary, visual arts, journalistic, and publicity form, are questioned to better pinpoint, on the one hand, the symbols used since antiquity, and, on the other hand, the phenomenon of Basque pelota in its personality and its modernity. The first records and the history of the 19th century exhibit a practice mixing players from the Basque Countries of France and of Spain but a contrasting evolution of the fields and conditions will emerge in the 1880s, and Basque pelota will lastingly be differentiated. Institutionalised in the early 20th century and made international, Basque pelota adopts plural practices, influences from the Americas, and their many paradoxes.

The following is a meta-commentary of the article, “Marriage and the City: Fatal Displacement in La Maison du chat-qui-pelote,” co-authored by Dr. Anca Mitroi Sprenger and myself, Laurel Cummins. The article will soon be submitted for publication, and this commentary contains an annotated bibliography of all our primary and secondary sources as well as an account of the origin of the argument and the process of writing the article. Our article is based upon an analysis of La Maison du chat-qui-pelote, a story authored by Honoré de Balzac within his seminal collection La Comédie humaine. In the article, we analyze the theme of fatal displacement in La Maison du chat-qui-pelote as an allegory of the repressions of nineteenth-century modernity. The theme is presented through the tumultuous marriage of the bourgeois protagonist, Augustine Guillaume, to the aristocrat artist, Théodore de Sommervieux, and through Augustine's literal movement within the city of Paris that ensues after their marriage (from her home, the Chat-qui-Pelote, to her husband's home, her attempted return to the Chat-qui-Pelote, and her visit to her husband's mistress). We demonstrate that these displacements are not only the source of Augustine's premature death but are emblematic of the perishing past in a post-revolutionary, modern Paris. Our development of this conclusion comes through a close analysis of the principal text itself as well as of the literal and figurative displacements that occur throughout to the main character, Augustine. In studying these displacements, we consider not only the social structures and institutions at the time of the novel but the detailed images of the past that anchor Augustine in traditions that do not let her transition into modernity. We examine the portrayal of marriage in La Maison du chat-qui-pelote as it coincides to the ideals of marriage in pre and post-Revolution periods. We likewise consider the various geographical areas (as pinpointed by specific roads provided by the author) as a way of understanding the historical background and the effect of displacement from various areas of Paris to others. The title of the story (which references the sign outside of the protagonist's house), the Chat-qui-Pelote, also offers rich symbolism that, when deciphered, substantiates our claim that this story goes far beyond an unfortunate marriage caused by class disparity. Instead, Augustine's trajectory in the story, she being the human embodiment and relic of ancient French traditions, alludes to a foundational inability for past ways of French life to survive in modernity.