L'étude se propose de mettre en évidence les nombreuses corrélations existant entre l'espace urbain de la ville de los angeles et le travail d'écriture de wanda coleman, femme noire-américaine originaire du quartier des watts à la carrière littéraire conséquente. l'essentiel de la matière littéraire de coleman se focalise et trouve son point d'ancrage dans la ville en elle-même et pour elle-même. ainsi, en considérant la production poétique de l'auteur dans sa globalité, qu'il s'agisse de recueils, d'ouvrages photographiques ou de supports audio, il s'agira de voir en quoi l'œuvre de coleman ayant pour point de départ un los angeles des années 70 a su retracer, au sein de la matrice poétique qu'elle met en place, l'évolution d'une mégalopole hors normes. qu'en advient-il alors de la totalité de la création littéraire de coleman, et comment peut-elle être considérée ? en effet, ayant fait le choix de cibler sa poésie sur un espace commun en perpétuelle évolution, ne deviendrait-elle pas par conséquent un moyen jusque là peu envisagé de créer un archivage social, culturel et historique d'une ville dont les mutations et développements fascinent. c'est cette fonction d'œuvre-mémoire d'un lieu duquel elle s'inspire associée à un processus de création littéraire que la ville semble elle-même motiver qui sera également un point central de cette étude. quels desseins le projet poétique sert-il alors ? cette union implicite, sorte d'entente cordiale entre la ville et l'auteur qu'elle abrite/ qui l'abrite, manifeste une interdépendance entre deux entités tangibles dans un réel que le mot poétique semble vouloir tantôt dénoncer, tantôt réaffirmer. ce réel sectoriel et imparfait avec lequel coleman fait office de lien, d'interprétateur et juge entre l'espace et les hommes, entre l'espace et sa mémoire deviendrait-il ainsi un objet poétique de l'intangible se servant de lieux communs afin de dénoncer une déshumanisation de la ville, un hyperréalisme, un simulacre que s'évertuait déjà à démontrer jean baudrillard. effigie poétique imprégnée d'un los angeles qu'elle comprend au regard d'une vie passée dans ses dédales, coleman est-elle la figure mémorielle presque prophétique porteuse d'une parole rédemptrice d'une ville infernale. dénonçant ainsi les maux de la ville comme pour en aspirer le venin, coleman de par ses mots serait alors détentrice d'une alliance poétique consubstantielle, servant un projet allant bien au-delà de la simple écriture poétique, comme si l'acte poétique renouvelé dans son aspect le plus primaire permettait de projeter les mots sur les maux passés et présents d'un espace urbain parcellaire, de servir une mémoire essentielle à la survie du réel dans une cité chaotique se tenant au bord du gouffre. / This study aims at shedding some new light upon the many correlations existing between the Los Angeles cityspace and Wanda Coleman’s writings. As an African American woman born in Watts, Los Angeles in 1946, Coleman is the author of a significant literary oeuvre. Whether regarding the urban evolution and construction of the city, its ethnic composition, its socioeconomic conditions or its cultural development, the megalopolis can be read explicitly and implicitly throughout the author’s work, which started in 1979 and ended with the posthumous co-publication of The Love Project in 2014.Post World War II Los Angeles and the great mutations that the territory has been undergoing are, for Coleman, an unending source of material that are both motivating her writing and influencing her craft. The privileged witness of a city under the firm grasp of postmodern ideology of which Los Angeles seems to be the epicenter, Coleman’s work shows the ever-growing gap between an everyday life that is getting more and more brutal and an idealized imagery of the city that imposes itself as the American Way of Life par excellence. That unreachable goal for a disadvantaged and disenfranchised portion of society (about to become the majority of the Los Angeles population), is projected in a perpetual renewal of the American Dream, maintained within reaching distance, as an obscene strategy serving social appeasement. Wanda Coleman thus intends to unsettle an illusion that has been perpetrated and widely distributed through and by Hollywood whose influences, in a mass-media transmission era, cannot be under-estimated. Because she has been able to consider and apprehend the overall dehumanizing process for as long as she can remember, that Coleman is able to assess the import of her art and thus sets its objectives: to rehumanize the dehumanized.

This study was motivated by a crisis in Biblical hermeneutics within postmodernity. Within postmodernity the Bible is no longer read for various reasons and therefore it has become inaccessible for many people although they own a Bible. The Biblical world is too ‘strange’ and therefore for many people it has lost its relevance to today’s challenges and daily struggles. The problem of interpretation and understanding becomes even more complicated with a book like the Revelation of John where the message is hidden behind culturally and historically conditioned symbols and metaphors. There are numerous interpretations and commentaries available to help explain these books, but through these explanations and interpretations much of the narrative and literary affect of these writings is lost. There are however books, such as J R R Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, which have a tremendous impact on millions of readers throughout the world. Tolkien’s book together with the Revelation of John, have deeply inspired me as books of comfort and strength in times of trial. The questions arose whether these two books can be compared, and secondly, whether a well-loved book like The Lord of the Rings, can be used to help readers to enter the world of a wonderful biblical book like Revelation? These two questions could not be answered with a simple comparative study, but needed to be asked within a theological hermeneutical framework which led to the hypotheses of this study: It is hermeneutically and theologically justifiable to make use of secondary, non-biblical literature which is comparable in its intent, genre, theological perspective, characters and plot, as a hermeneutical tool with which to elucidate and gain access to primary biblical literature. It was in the search for an appropriate hermeneutic which is theologically justifiable that I discovered the narrative-critical approach. The search for a hermeneutical approach which would create the necessary space for a non-biblical literary work to be used to interpret and elucidate a biblical work raised numerous theological questions, such as questions with regards to scriptural authority and the question of the relationship between revelation and scripture. I reflected on this approach theologically with regards to revelation and the authority of Scripture and discovered that this hermeneutical approach is very appropriate within a postmodern context as it aptly responds to the challenges of postmodernity. The two narratives were described within the narrative-critical approach and then compared with each other using the principle of analogy. It was discovered that these two narratives have enough important similarities with regards to intent, genre, theological perspective, characters and plot, so that the one can be used to illuminate the other. It is the conclusion of this study that the narrative critical approach is a wonderful hermeneutical tool not only to elucidate biblical books, but also to interpret and understand contexts and identity-forming stories and to bring these stories into dialogue with Scripture with the help of secular and contemporary literature where needed. / Thesis (DD (New Testament Studies))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / New Testament Studies / unrestricted

The movement from modernism to postmodernism have brought about perceivable changes in contemporary thinking and social practices. An important step was the transition toward the “broader rationalistic” view made in the hermeneutical approach, inclusive of the realization that the collection and accumulation of knowledge is not primarily dependent on sharply formulated methodical rules, but also on the symmetrical interaction between and among equal participants in the communication process. The rise of social-constructionism based on the viewpoint, that the sense and meaning of reality are both reciprocally constructed, did not merely exercise its way and influence on the social sciences but also within the practical theology as a science. In this process the narrative model of counselling mode itself strongly known with the understanding that the story of a person and the particular meaning the person attaches to this story, is that which requires the urgent attention of the pastor. With the realization that several stories are involved in the pastoral occurrences, the question immediately arising is: In what way, does the story of God function in the narrative – pastoral discussion? Could the Story of God make any difference in the pastoral happenings? It was decided to research the role of Biblical contents in the pastoral occurrences by way of the qualitative method. The pastoral behaviour of two co-researchers was researched, this included mutual discussions with them about the use of Biblical contents in their counselling. Certain inferences were made from this discussion, the latter leading to further mutual discussions. In the second instance a focus group was brought into play to reflect on inferences made from individual discussions. Subsequently the researcher interactively related stories from the past (tradition) and modern stories, as well as the inferences from the research, with a view to assess whether a new story would possibly come to the fore. The final chapter concluded with the story in which it was realised, that the meta Story still had an unique and particular role in the pastoral counselling. The religious discourse still retains its primary importance for the pastor as a representative of God. This includes that a pastor cannot detach himself from the accompanying specific identity. Within the framework of thought of the postmodernism we should guard against elevating the meta Story to become the “most important” aspect. The reason for this is that the authoritative completeness of the story does not lie in its proclamation to be the most important aspect but it rather lies in the Story itself and in the omnipresence and involvement of God in this world. The pastor should realise that it is not necessary to bring into play the Word of God, because God’s love and compassion is evident in the demeanour and behaviour of the pastor. The specific and challenging task of the pastor persists, in bringing man into contact with the Story of Jesus of Nazareth. The timing and manner of this “bringing into contact” must be applied with a sense of responsibility. This should lead to additional opportunities in constructive dialogue in which HOPE is established. The Story of God’s hope that brings with it an unparalleled sense and meaning. Those who prefer to negate or omit the meta Story in an attempt to comprehend man and his particular circumstances, is guilty of a major error of reasoning. / Thesis (DPhil (Practical Theology))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Practical Theology / unrestricted

Please read the abstract in the section 00front of this document / Dissertation (PhD (Educational Management))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Education Management and Policy Studies / unrestricted

1 Michaela Rumpíková, Résurrection de l'auteur : Hervé Guibert Abstract Hervé Guibert's writings are shocking, revolting, surprising with their explicit and expressive content. The author's desire to show, to reveal and to expose himself transforms his private universe into a space where intimacy becomes extimacy. His exhibitionist project is accomplished with the assistance of a literary genre, autofiction, the new postmodern cosmos of the "I". This thesis seeks to analyse the notion and the modalities of his "I", intimately connected to the themes of body, illness, life, death and resurrection, in his literary chronicles of AIDS, To the Friend Who Did Not Save My Life, The Compassionnate Protocol, Modesty, or Immodesty and The Man in the Red Hat. The "I" of the autodiegetic narrator appears as fragmentary and unstable. His "self" configures and unconfigures at the same time. There is a sense of alienation from his own body which has been dramatically altered by the illness. As a consequence, we witness both physical and psychological defragmentation of the subject. The body, constituent of the "I" identity, gradually transforms into an impersonal "it", an entity apart. In order to (re)construct himself, the author uses various writing processes that help him become familiar with his new "self". Finally,...

The diploma thesis concerns the questions of hybrid literature, especially the novel HHhH by Laurent Binet. Even though history and fiction can impact and enrich each other, their relationship is quite problematic. Therefore philosophers, historians and literary critics are trying to answer the questions of how to write (about) history. Laurent Binet tackles this in his novel HHhH, in which two storylines keep alternating. In the first one narrator constantly addresses the reader, expressing his doubts if it is even possible to give a faithful account of an historical event. In the second storyline he portrays the events that led to the assassination of deputy Reich Protector of the Bohemia and Moravia Reinhard Heydrich. The goal of the thesis is to analyse the relationship between history and fiction, as this relationship has during the 20th century undergone rapid changes, which are also apparent in the analysed text. The thesis is divided in two parts. The first, which serves as a theoretical base for the subsequent analysis of HHhH, depicts the historiographical approaches, which have changed and evolved significantly in the 20th century. The second part tracks the reflections of the particular historiographical approaches in HHhH and examines, which conclusions has the author reached in his...

Le rapport au religieux et aux religions s'est métamorphosé dans les sociétés occidentales, sous l'influence de l'ultramodernité et du tournant subjectif qui domine les nouvelles religiosités. Plusieurs institutions et organisations choisissent aujourd'hui de discuter de leurs activités en termes de « spiritualité » et non plus de religion. Les pratiques de dialogue interreligieux, qui concernent non pas les spécialistes mais plutôt les citoyens et les croyants, sont, elles aussi, travaillées par ces changements. Pour les organisations qui cherchent à rassembler des gens afin d'échanger au niveau de la spiritualité -et non de la religion-, très peu de ressources théoriques existent pour éclairer les enjeux propres à ce type d'activité collective. Cette recherche vise à amorcer la théorisation de l'interspiritualité en tant que pratique intersubjective mobilisant la spiritualité des participants, à partir de l'analyse de quatre études de cas portant sur des organisations de Québec et de Paris. En inscrivant la recherche dans une sociologie de la spiritualité, l'attention est maintenue sur le contexte d'émergence de l'interspiritualité, qui est caractérisé non seulement par une critique de la religion, mais aussi par le double mouvement de la sécularisation des ressources pastorales et de la spiritualisation des ressources psychosociales. Notre théorisation de l'interspiritualité procède d'une analyse à quatre dimensions : la conception de l'être humain qui est mobilisée dans les milieux à l'étude, leur rapport aux normativités, leur conception de ce qu'est la spiritualité et le rôle attribué à « l'autre » dans les dynamiques intersubjectives. Les activités interspirituelles apparaissent dès lors comme étant des espaces de résonance, dont la vocation est de nourrir l'expérience subjective des participants. Selon les visées des organisations qui soutiennent ce type d'activités, les rencontres interspirituelles peuvent même constituer de véritables critiques actives de l'aliénation qui caractérise l'ultramodernité, et alimenter un imaginaire de transformation du monde à travers des individus résonants. / The relationship with religion is metamorphosed in Western societies, under the influence of ultramodernity and the subjective turn which dominates new religiosities. Several institutions and organizations choose today to discuss their practices in terms of "spirituality" and no longer "religion". Interreligious dialogue, which concern not theologians but rather citizens and believers, is also affected by these changes. For organizations that seek to bring people together to discuss spirituality - and not religion -, very few theoretical resources exist to shed light on the issues specific to this type of collective activity. This research aims to initiate the theorization of interspirituality as an intersubjective practice mobilizing the spirituality of the participants, based on the analysis of four case studies relating to organizations in Quebec and Paris. By placing the research within a sociology of spirituality, attention is maintained on the context of emergence of interspirituality, which is characterized not only by a critique of religion, but also by the double movement of the secularization of pastoral resources and spiritualization of psychosocial resources. Our theorization of interspirituality proceeds from an analysis of four dimensions: the conception of the human being mobilized by those organizations, their relationship to normativity, their conception of spirituality and the role attributed to "the other" in intersubjective dynamics. Interspiritual activities therefore appear to be spaces of resonance, whose vocation is to nourish the subjective experience of the participants. Depending on the aims of the organizations that support this type of activity, interspiritual encounters can even constitute active critiques of the alienation that characterizes ultramodernity and fuel an imagination of transformation of the world through resonant individuals.

Du point de vue de la théorie de la société, la sortie de la modernité peut se comprendre comme l’abandon d’un idéal d’unité de la société aussi bien que de cohérence de l’expérience subjective de la vie sociale, un idéal qui fut régi et aiguillé par le principe de la raison universelle. En ce sens, et pour dire les choses de manière imagée, on dira que cette sortie de la modernité est un passage progressif de la verticalité vers l’horizontalité; il n’y a plus alors de principe régulateur et transcendant éclairant l’humanité, la tirant vers lui, le point focal ayant disparu. Le sujet postmoderne évolue dorénavant en prenant contact a posteriori avec ce qui se trouve devant lui, hic et nunc, dans l’instant même de sa constitution et à partir du divers environnant. Cette transformation du rapport à la totalité, typique d’une crise, s’imprime et s’inscrit à l’intérieur de toutes les dimensions de la pratique sociale. La dimension esthétique et expressive de la pratique humaine porte donc elle aussi, forcément, l’empreinte de cette érosion progressive du mode d’être de la modernité et elle s’y présente comme effort de mettre fin au régime de la représentation. Sur le plan de l’opération esthétique, cet effort est sans doute l’une des caractéristiques fondamentales de la sortie de la modernité. La mutation postmoderne du mode d’être propre au monde moderne se traduit objectivement par des volontés expressives qui s’actualisent et se manifestent à l’intérieur des oeuvres qui s’en font l’écho, comme autant d’efforts de rompre avec la représentation. Il est ainsi possible, et c’est ce que je tenterai de montrer dans cette thèse, de lire les différents moments dialectiques de la transition sociétale postmoderne à partir d’une typologie sélective de propositions formelles d’unité expressive qui visent à remplacer, dans les provocations artistiques adressées à la sensibilité, la fonction unificatrice du référent extérieur, qu’il ait été subjectif ou objectif. Ce sont donc des oeuvres (dont je soutiens qu’elles sont archétypales) qui seront examinées ici, des oeuvres issues des domaines de l’architecture, de la peinture, de la musique et du cinéma, des oeuvres qui serviront à mon effort d’illustrer la nouvelle volonté expressive associée selon moi à la mutation générale de la culture dont est porteuse la postmodernité. L’examen de ces oeuvres montrera également qu’un processus de fragmentation est à l’oeuvre au coeur du déploiement de la postmodernité; que cette fragmentation « processuelle » devient aussi pour le sujet, dans sa constatation et dans sa ressaisie, une invitation à la libre composition de mondes possibles. / From the point of view of the theory of the society, the exit from the modernity can be understood as the withdrawal of an unity ideal of the society as well as a consistency one of the subjective experience of the social life, an ideal that has been governed and directed by the principle of the universal reason. In that sense, and for saying it in an imaging way, we will say that this exit from the modernity is a progressive passage from verticality toward horizontality; there is no more regulating and transcendent principle enlightening humanity, pulling it up to its heights, the focal point has been gone. The postmodern subject is from now on evolving by taking contact a posteriori with what is standing in front of him, hic et nunc, in that same moment of its constitution and from the surrounding diversity. This transformation of the relation to the totality, as typical as a crisis, imprints and inscribes itself within all the dimensions of the social practice. The aesthetic and expressive dimension of the human practice then also holds, necessarily, the mark of that progressive erosion of the being mode of the modernity and appears as an effort to end the representation regime. On the aesthetic operation plan, this effort is without a doubt one of the fundamental characteristics of the exit of the modernity. The postmodern mutation of the being mode related to the modern world is objectively translated by expressive wills that are actualizing and showing themselves in artworks which are their echoes, as much as efforts to end with the representation. It is then possible, and that is what I will try to show in this thesis, to read these different dialectical moments of the postmodern societal transition, from a selective typology of formal propositions of expressive unity which aim to replace, within these provocations addressed to the sensibility, the unifying function of the exterior referent, although it was subjective or objective. So these are artworks (that I assert that they are archetypal) that are going to be examined here, artworks that are coming from the architecture, painting, music and cinema domains, artworks that will serve at my effort to illustrate the new expressive will linked to, according to me, the general mutation of the culture held by the postmodernity. The examination of these artworks will also show that a fragmentation process is working at the heart of the deployment of the postmodernity; that this « processive » fragmentation becomes also for the subject, in its constatation and in its re-catching, an invitation to free composition of possible worlds.

Ma thèse examine quatre romans de l`époque post-1960 qui s’appuient sur le genre de la littérature prolétarienne du début du vingtième siècle. Se basant sur les recherches récentes sur la littérature de la classe ouvrière, je propose que Pynchon, Doctorow, Ondaatje et Sweatman mettent en lumière les thèmes souvent négligés de cette classe tout en restant esthétiquement progressiste et pertinents. Afin d’explorer les aspects politiques et formels de ces romans, j’utilise la « midfiction », le concept d’Allen Wilde. Ce concept vise les textes qui utilisent les techniques postmodernes et qui acceptent la primauté de la surface, mais qui néanmoins essaient d’être référentiels et d’établir des vérités. Le premier chapitre de ma thèse propose que les romans prolétariens contemporains que j’ai choisis utilisent des stratégies narratives généralement associées avec le postmodernisme, telles que la métafiction, l’ironie et une voix narrative « incohérente », afin de contester l’autorité des discours dominants, notamment les histoires officielles qui ont tendance à minimiser l’importance des mouvements ouvriers. Le deuxième chapitre examine comment les romanciers utilisent des stratégies mimétiques afin de réaliser un facteur de crédibilité qui permet de lier les récits aux des réalités historiques concrètes. Me référant à mon argument du premier chapitre, j’explique que ces romanciers utilisent la référentialité et les voix narratives « peu fiables » et « incohérentes », afin de politiser à nouveau la lutte des classes de la fin du dix-neuvième et des premières décennies du vingtième siècles et de remettre en cause un sens strict de l’histoire empirique. Se basant sur les théories évolutionnistes de la sympathie, le troisième chapitre propose que les représentations des personnages de la classe dirigeante riche illustrent que les structures sociales de l’époque suscitent un sentiment de droit et un manque de sympathie chez les élites qui les font adopter une attitude quasi-coloniale vis-à-vis de la classe ouvrière. Le quatrième chapitre aborde la façon dont les romans en considération négocient les relations entre les classes sociales, la subjectivité et l’espace. Cette section analyse comment, d’un côté, la représentation de l’espace montre que le pouvoir se manifeste au bénéfice de la classe dirigeante, et de l’autre, comment cet espace est récupéré par les ouvriers radicaux et militants afin d’avancer leurs intérêts. Le cinquième chapitre explore comment les romans néo-prolétariens subvertissent ironiquement les tropes du genre prolétarien précédent, ce qui exprimerait l’ambivalence politique et le cynisme généralisé de la fin du vingtième siècle. / My dissertation project examines post-1960s novels that draw on the genre of proletarian fiction of the early twentieth century. Building upon current research focused on working-class literature, as well as pertinent literary theory, I argue that Pynchon, Doctorow, Ondaatje, and Sweatman bring to light often neglected working-class themes while remaining aesthetically progressive and relevant. In order to explore these novels in their political and formal aspects I employ Allen Wilde’s concept midfiction. This concept refers to texts that use postmodern techniques and accept the primacy of surface, but nonetheless try to be referential and establish truths. The first chapter of my dissertation argues that the contemporary proletarian novels that I have selected employ narrative strategies commonly associated with postmodernism, such as metafiction, irony, and an “incoherent” narrative voice, to challenge the authority of dominant discourses, including the official histories that tend to downplay labour movements. The second chapter examines how the novelists employ mimetic strategies in tandem with more experimental techniques in order to achieve a believability factor that helps to connect the narratives to concrete historical realities. Referring to my argument in chapter one, I explain that the novelists ultimately use these two modes, referentiality and “unreliable”, “incoherent” narrative voices, in order to both re-politicize the class struggle of the late nineteenth and early decades of the twentieth century as well as to undermine a strict sense of empirical history. The third chapter draws on evolutionist theories of sympathy to argue that the depictions of wealthy ruling class characters illustrate that social structures at the time fostered a sense of entitlement and lack of sympathy in the elites that caused them to adopt a colonial-like attitude towards the working class. The fourth chapter addresses how the novels under consideration mediate the relationships between social classes, subjectivity and space. This section analyses how, on the one hand, representations of space show how power is manifested to benefit the ruling class, and on the other hand, how space was co-opted by radicals and militant workers in order to further their interests. The fifth chapter explores how the neo-proletarian novels ironically subvert tropes from the earlier proletarian genre which, I argue, expresses the political ambivalence and cynicism of the late twentieth century.

Ce mémoire traite de l’enseignement de la danse africaine en France et au Canada. Cette recherche a débuté en 2007, lorsque l’auteur a participé à un échange étudiant. À la fin de cette expérience, l’auteur en était arrivé à la conclusion que la danse africaine au Québec était abordée comme un bien de consommation et/ou une production socioculturelle relevant de l’imaginaire. La présente analyse explore les avantages et les limites de l’approche méthodologique adoptée par l’anthropologue (qui est, dans ce cas-ci, une ancienne danseuse classique), et les conditions de la rencontre entre les Africains et les occidentaux par la danse. Tandis qu’il reste à démontrer que les critiques postmodernes de l’art de masse s’appliquent dans ce cas-ci, l’analyse montre ici clairement que l’on trouve dans les cours de danse africaine au Québec une forme de conscience professionnelle. Les critiques de la danse et de d’autres formes de démocratisations artistiques tendent à se confondre dans la peur du discours populaire. L’objectif principal de cette recherche est par conséquent d’établir les limites du fétichisme par rapport à la danse africaine et d’explorer en détail les implications de la « hantise du Troisième Homme » communiquée par la recherche ethnographique et l’analyse anthropologique / This thesis deals with the teaching of African dance in France and in Canada. The research for this thesis began in 2007, when the author took part in a student exchange and ended with a consideration of African dance in Quebec as a consumer good and/or an imaginary sociocultural production. The analysis explores the benefits and the limits of the methodological approach embraced by the anthropologist (who is, in this case, a former dancer with training in classical dance), and the terms of the encounter between Africans and Westerners through dance. While it remains to be shown that the post-modernist critiques of mass art apply to this context, the analysis here points to the presence of a professional consciousness in African dance lessons in Quebec. Critiques of dance and other arts as democratization tend to get lost in the fear of popular discourse. The main objective of this research is therefore to establish the limits of the fetishism associated with African dance and to discuss in further detail the « hantise du Troisième Homme », communicated by ethnographic research and anthropological analysis