<p>In the wake of a twentieth century marked by the Occupation, the Algerian War, the AIDS crisis, and the aftermath of these events, the debates surrounding French identity have acquired particular urgency. French novelists, meanwhile, have increasingly turned to first person narratives; autobiographies and especially autofictions continue to dominate current publication lists. Equally concerned with identity questions, these same texts have often been accused of solipsism, and their authors described as narcissists of little talent. In this dissertation, I argue that the debates surrounding national identity and the problematic construction of a written personal identity are, in fact, intimately related. I analyze a variety of first person narrative works by three major contemporary authors (Patrick Modiano, Assia Djebar, and Hervé Guibert) in order to resituate these purportedly personal critiques of "Frenchness" within an evolving historical and historiographical trajectory that informs national, community, and personal identity. In so doing, I suggest the ways in which both subjects and identities are constructed (and critiqued) textually with respect to a history of traumatic events, as well as the collective memories that those events inspire. I argue that Modiano's contemporary evocations of Occupation-era France, Djebar's complex and shifting assessment of the Algerian War and the legacies of French colonization in Algeria, and the dominant position occupied by Hervé Guibert's AIDS writings in relationship to the rest of his prolific production all merit reexamination. I therefore seek to analyze the fraught construction of identity in a French society marked by its shifting relationship to history as memorialization, while complicating the generalizations that often result from identity-based scholarship. The novel juxtaposition of Modiano, Djebar, and Guibert within the dissertation enacts my desire to challenge the limits posed by reading authors solely in the light of narrowly-defined identity politics.</p> / Dissertation

<p> French literary theorists Dominique Viart and Bruno Vercier identify the beginning of a new era for French literature in the 1980s, characterized by hypotheses, hesitations, and the general notion that truth and reality cannot be fully grasped by discourse. The 1980s can be considered as transitional for the comics medium as well. Art Spiegelman's <i>Maus</i> (first published in 1980, completed in 1991) demonstrated that comics are not only capable of representing difficult familial and historical pasts, but that visual narratives benefit from formal and aesthetic devices that are inherent to the ninth art's polysemiotic possibilities. In this dissertation, I study francophone comics in which a second- or third-generation individual seeks to understand a familial past that exceeds his or her personal experience and that has previously been silenced or repressed, either individually (by the primary witness) or collectively (by the political hegemony). In the research corpus, the narrator's search elicits modal and temporal intersectional spaces: representation and anti-representation in Chapter One, the past and the present in Chapter Two, the collective and the individual in Chapter Three, and the interplay between memory, history, and imagination in the concluding Chapter Four. In addition to an interdisciplinary theoretical framework, Viart's notion of <i>insavoir</i> [not-knowing] and Pierre Nora's concept of "sites of memory" act as overarching theoretical tools throughout the essay. </p><p> The thematic organization of intersectional spaces fosters the identification of recurrent devices as the individual discussions reinforce and nuance one another sequentially and retroactively. Aware of the inherent limitations of representation and the notion of cognitive <i>insavoir</i>, the authors of the research corpus attempt to communicate meaning instead of presupposing understanding or the ability to "know" a traumatic, violent, and repressed past (and the capability to represent such a history through text and image). Such recurrences are symptomatic of an emerging sub-category within the medium, wherein the figure of the intersection is pertinent and productive precisely because these works operate in multi-directional <i>insavoir</i>. Like novels in the literary era identified by Viart and Vericer, the resulting representations oppose binary thought, opting instead for narratives that are self-critical, uncomfortable, thought-provoking, and ultimately, perhaps, more true.</p>

<p> This dissertation analyzes the evolution of French detective novels through the scope of its composition, especially the uses and functions of legal errors. It begins at the time of its creation in 1866 and goes all the way to 1939, the beginning of World War II, synonymous with the coming of a new subcategory of the genre known as the &laquo; roman noir &raquo; on the market of French literature. By examining legal error, I clarify the process by which detective novels reflect the transformations of society through the involvement of scientific discoveries, new judicial structures, and currents of thoughts. Data has been collected from an extensive corpus of detective novels and works of critics known for their studies on literature and society. To complete this study, I use three strategies. </p><p> First, I approached the question on a sociological aspect to demonstrate how detective novel is a genre of its time, its evolution in parallel with society. Second, on a more structural manner, I observed the structuration of the detective novel and the different tools or mechanisms used by authors to create the secret and delay the unveiling of the truth. Last, I compiled a corpus of literature to show the evolution of the detective novel, and I compared and contrast author's work to determine patterns of continuity or key moments of rupture in the structuring of detective literature. I completed my work with the analysis of an exception in the corpus: the collection of Fant&ocirc;mas, an outsider of the genre that comes as a counter-example, and illustrates the rise of a new demand. The findings show how legal error testifies of the drastic changes in the conception of literature and exemplifies that literature became accessible to a wider crowd of readers who have developed through History that particular taste and expectations defined as popular culture.</p>

La novela espanola de la democracia no toma el nombre por el cambio radical en ideologia o tecnica, sino por el hecho de producirse en la democracia. Por tanto el presente estudio de las novelas Luna de lobos de Julio Llamazares, La enredadera de Eduardo Alonso, La noche espanola de Leopoldo Azancot y La Pastora: el maquis hermafrodita de Manuel Villar Raso, no se va a centrar en el estudio de sus innovaciones tecnicas o formales, sino en el estudio de su contenido en relacion a la problematica individual y social de los protagonistas. Estas cuatro novelas tienen en comun la busqueda de la identidad por parte del protagonista, crisis personal de indentidad marcada directa o indirectamente por la guerra civil espanola. Para este estudio socio-historico, la herramienta de trabajo empleada sera el neuvo historicismo. El nuevo historicismo es una practica cuyas ideas principales se pueden resumir en dos: el pasado afecta nuestra vision del presente y nuestro presente condiciona nuestra manera de acercanos al pasado, y la imposibilidad de la objetividad, intentando el rescate de diferentes versiones de la historia, incluso lasn marginadas y excluidas de la version oficial. Parten, como los post-estructuralistas y criticos materialistas de que no hay diferencia entre los textos historicos y literarios, pues ambos son manifestaciones textuales de una epoca, y ambos, se sirven de las herramientas que proporcinoa la retorica para la narracion de los eventos historicos. El estudio de la relacion entre la historia y la ficcion y de las relaciones de poder en estas novelas denuestra como la historia marca a la sociedad, y como para llegar a conocernos tenemos que conocer y entender nuestra historia. Ninguno de los autores de estas novelas vivio debido a su edad la contienda, pero la guerra civil fue un hecho que como espanoles marca. No es una cuestion de censura o no censura. Estas novelas no intentan dar a conocer hechos que antes estaban censurados, sino poner de manifiesto la necesidad de integrar el pasado en el individuo, para que asi el individuo, consciente de su identidad colectiva, pueda recuperar su identidad individual.

Los cronistas que escribieron sobre el conquistador espanol rebelde Lope de Aguirre, lo describieron como un loco, un tirano cruel, un traidor y un aliado del demonio. Sin embargo, tan solo dos de las novelas modernas sobre el personaje describen a Aguirre de ese modo, pues en las tres restantes, se presenta al jefe maranon en forma muy diferente. Mediante una lectura cuidadosa de esas cronicas, asi como de El camino de El Dorado, de Arturo Uslar Pietri, La aventura equinoccial de Lope de Aguirre, de Ramon J. Sender, Lope de Aguirre, Principe de la libertad, de Miguel Otero Silva, Daimon, de Abel Posse, y Cronica de blasfemos, de Felix Alvarez Saenz, hemos descubierto que si Uslar Pietri y Sender presentan, esencialmente, la misma caracterizacion de Aguirre que en las cronicas, ello se debe a que dependieron demasiado de estas para su retrato del jefe maranon. Tambien hemos descubierto que, si Otero Silva, Posse y Alvarez Saenz han creado caracterizaciones muy distintas de ese personaje, ha sido porque han seguido las predicas del Nuevo Historicismo que los han llevado a reelaborar esa figura historica y a emplearla para ilustrar sus propias ideas nacionalistas y politicas. Por consiguiente, hemos concluido que la figura de Lope de Aguirre se ha movido desde la arena historica a la literaria donde, en lugar de permanecer estatica, se ha convertido en una figura dinamica, un simbolo al servicio de cada novelista que puede moldearlo a su antojo. Ademas, del dialogo que se realiza entre las novelas modernas sobre Aguirre, hemos comprendido que las cronicas de los siglos 16 y 17 sobre ese personaje han sido reemplazadas, en la actualidad, por las demas novelas escritas sobre Aguirre como fuentes para la descripcion del personaje. Como una contribucion a futuros estudios sobre Lope de Aguirre, en nuestra disertacion hemos incluido, con el permiso de las casas editoras correspondientes, los textos integros, asi como la traduccion al espanol de uno de ellos, de dos cronicas nunca antes publicadas como obras independientes: la Cronica del Capitan Altamirano, y la del portugues Lopez Vaz.

Carlos Fuentes con La muerte de Artemio Cruz (1962) conquista una posicion privilegiada en la vigorosa narrativa del "boom" hispanoamericano. Aunque no faltan reprobatorios juicios contra las innovaciones de nuestra obra--a veces por desconocimiento teorico o acaso por su acerba cr(')itica socio-pol(')itica--, existen numerosos estudios que aportan valios(')isimas contribuciones en el examen de sus multiples aspectos. Nuestra aportacion esencial consiste en la unificacion de sus variados niveles interpretativos y su problematica estructura narrativa bajo un comun denominador art(')istico. Partiendo de modernas teor(')ias generativas y narcisistas de la metaficcion, observamos una tupida y feliz red de artificios tematicos, estructurales y tecnicos, generados esteticamente desde dentro de la novela. En ep(')igrafes, t(')itulo, nombres y dedicatoria descubrimos codigos generativos de la mimesis, la tecnica perspectivesca y temporal, la estructura y la naturaleza lingu(')istica de una obra, pues, metaficticia. Pero no nos anclamos en tales artilugios pre-textuales, sino qui acudimos al texto, en s(')i tambien poseedor de claves auto-engendrantes, para examinar la aplicacion y desarrollo autoconscientes y efectivos de estos y aquellos codigos. La dedicatoria apunta a la abierta intertextualidad de signo comprometido de C. Wright Mills, cuyas teor(')ias clarifican el sentido de ciertos elementos sociologicos de nuestra obra. Igualmente, los ep(')igrafes registran intertextualidades manifiestas de Calderon, Montaigne, Stendhal, Gorostiza y la cultura popular mexicana, generadoras, a su vez, de otras relaciones intertextuales encubiertas. Los mismos ep(')igrafes y la descomposicion anagramatica de t(')itulo y nombres desentranan hermeneuticamente la estructura, el tema central y la actuacion del protagonista. Esta ultima se nos muestra bajo puntos de vista y dimensiones cronologicas aparentemente diversos, pero convergentes en una perspectiva y tiempo unicos, estampados en el plano mental del Artemio-Yo-presente. As(')i, este narrador-protagonista unico justifica su actuacion vital mediante el puro ejercicio ficticio de su imaginacion, su voluntad y su memoria. Generadores pretextuales--erigidos en meta-comentario mimetico, diegetico y lingu(')istico--hacen de La muerte de Artemio Cruz una obra textualmente autoconsciente, como conclusivamente muestra una comparacion con el narcisismo creador y cr(')itico de Ovidio y Linda Hutcheon. Tal auto-reflexion novelesca descubre su naturaleza ficticia al lector, incitandole simultanea y paradojicamente a una re-creacion participante, comprometida, paravital.

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Objective. The "melting pot" nature of our world has been intensified recently by the migration of Southeast Asian refugees. This socio-cultural interchange modifies the character of the East-West conflict (dating back to the beginning of colonialism), thus engendering a new anthropological figure. My intent is to enumerate and classify the signs of this figure as studied in six novels by Pham Van Ky, winner of the French Academy's Grand Prix for the Novel. This Vietnamese writer depicts the transformations of the Je, acquired at Western school, and contrasts it with the innate Moi: the motherland. In Asia, the family took precedence over the individual, who, subordinated to the ancestors, was to perpetuate the cult of the dead and of the tradition. Method. My analysis utilizes two critical perspectives: the conflict Je/Moi, and the chess-board. From the "living chess game" to the "chess-board of chess-boards," these boards constitute an increasingly complex battleground for the Je/Moi conflict. Conclusions. These critical perspectives highlight central concepts: mimesis and consciously borrowed behavior, disappointment in the Je, liberation of the Moi. The very principle of the chess-board permits recognition of the Other, the alien Je, the white man, who, by upsetting the norms of the Moi, introduces the element of comparison, creating the divergence between the Je and the Moi, the signs of change. Pham Van Ky relates the game of chess to the cosmic game of Yin and Yang which is at the very heart of Asian tradition; through his characters, he spans all Far-Eastern civilizations; he reduces the East/West conflict to the Je/Moi conflict: the Western Je, aspiring to a continual abolition of the infinite; the Tao(')ist or Buddhist Moi, to a continual abolition of the finite.