Ce travail présente une nouvelle analyse des bas-reliefs des palais néoassyriens du premier millénaire av. J.-C. Elle combine une analyse spatiale, basée sur la restitution à l’aide de l’imagerie 3D des palais d’Assurnazirpal II et Sargon II, qui permet la remise en situation des images dans l’architecture, et une analyse sémiologique.L’analyse de la structure de ces images, couplée à une étude sémantique des textes des palais qui leurs sont associés permet de montrer que les décors, ainsi que les textes, forment des portraits de rois, dont la synthèse se trouve dans la salle du trône, centre du palais et du royaume, les thèmes des images présents dans les autres salles étant concentrés dans celle-ci.Mais les portraits ainsi mis en évidence sont partagés entre un portrait de la royauté, traditionnel et stéréotypé, et le portrait du roi. Ils se situent également entre deux conceptions du temps, le premier circulaire, manifesté par les images faisant le tour des salles, ainsi que par l’inscription des Fastes chez Sargon II racontant les campagnes militaires du roi selon un découpage géographique, et un temps linéaire, manifesté par les textes des Annales.Le portrait du roi se ferait ainsi dans ce temps linéaire, et le portrait de la royauté dans le temps cyclique, les événements s’y reproduisant, sources de traditions, comme la forme des salles du trône, les thèmes utilisés et les conventions employées dans la représentation. Le portrait du roi se manifestant dans le choix de tel ou tel thème au détriment des autres, comme les scènes rituelles sous Assurnazirpal II, qui laissent la place à la chasse au lion sous Assurbanipal, concrétisant un éloignement du rituel dans les images entamé sous Sargon II. / This work presents a new analysis of low reliefs of neo-Assyrian palaces from the first millennium B.C. It combines a spatial analysis, based on 3D restitutions of Assurnazirpal II and Sargon II palaces, which permits to replace images in the architecture, and a semiological analysis.Structural analysis of images associated with a semantic study of texts present in palaces too, permits to demonstrate that the decoration and texts make portraits of kings. Throne rooms are synthesis of these portraits, as centre of the palace and kingdom, themes of images in other rooms being concentrated in this one.But these portraits are divided between a portrait of royalty, traditional and stereotyped, and the portrait of the king. They are so between two conceptions of time. One circular, shows by images going round rooms, and by the Display Inscription from the palace of Sargon II which tells of king’s military campaigns according to a geographical cutting. The other time is linear, as showed in annals of kings.The portrait of the king would take place in this linear time, and the portrait of kingship in the cyclical one, events to recur in, sources of traditions, like the throne room plans, themes used and conventions employed in representations. The portrait of the king isapparent in themes chosen among the others. So, ritual scenes with Assurnazirpal II left place to hunt scenes with Assurbanipal, who concretizes a distance with ritual images started under Sargon II.

Animal art is one of the more mystical aspects of Scandinavian Iron Age culture. It has foremost been regarded in the light of art and style history. Interpretation has also – mainly from the 1990s and onwards – been made through iconographic analysis. But the problem here is that iconography requires textual analogy, something that the Scandinavian Iron Age lacks. The purpose of this paper is to lift some of the ”mystical fog” that engulfs the scandinavian animal art, by developing a method for interpretation of pre-historic images that evades the flaws in the iconographic method. This by doing an interpretation of the gripping beast motif on Gotlandic Viking Age animal-head brooches. The study is divided into three parts. Part one focuses on reception within research history and how the use of language and methodological approaches shapes the perception of animal art within it's own time, it also discusses animal art in the light of style, motif and communication. Part two aims to outline a method for pre-historic image interpretation, a structuralistic iconology with addition of contextualization and anthropological theories of agency. The chapter also discusses the cosmological order through means of ”structuralistic iconology”. Finally part three contextualizes the gripping beast to the object – the animal head-brooch – through notions of use, combination and age. Concluding that the gripping beast should be understood as a hybrid creature closely linked to ancestry, odal and the fatalistic worldview of Iron Age Scandinavia.

This is an explication of Lacan’s Seminar XVII. The introduction situates the Seminar in its time and in relation to other theories of discourse. In part one I examine the changes which it brings to a variety of ideas already known in Lacan’s oeuvre such as Jouissance, Master Signifier(s) and Oedipus. Part two looks the four discourses in detail after considering the positions common to each. I provide accounts of each discourse as taking place internally to a subject and between subjects. The coda examines areas where further research is possible, reviews and critiques some scholarship on this seminar and inquires into the use value of the discourse theory, both generally and as a means of getting beyond Lacan.

Dans le Cambodge angkorien, les souverains khmers administraient une paysannerie mouvante par le biais de temples-palais. Lorsque les Français prennent le contrôle, en 1845, ils se retrouvent devant une « masse paysanne inorganisée, inorganique même » (Delvert, 1961 : 201) et restent « confondus devant la mobilité des Cambodgiens » (Forest, 1980 : 30). À l’époque postcoloniale, les ethnologues feront essentiellement le même constat, pendant que John F. Embree (1950) proposera de catégoriser les sociétés indianisées du Sud-Est asiatique comme étant « loosely structured » : postulant une faible intégration individuelle des structures sociales donnant lieu à une prévalence de comportements individualistes ad hoc et à des communautés sans réelle organisation. La proposition fera école. Ces observations paraissent justes, mais l’analyse infructueuse. La structure dont parle Embree s’appuie sur une culture hautement syncrétique qui se reflétait aléatoirement dans les comportements. Mais l’organisation sociale khmère se trouve ailleurs : dans les solutions organisationnelles qui gouvernent les choix des individus lorsqu’ils doivent se regrouper afin d’effectuer des tâches récurrentes. À ce titre, les paysans khmers évoluaient dans une organisation sociale rigoureusement minimaliste et flexible. La maisonnée était l’élément essentiel, tandis que la communauté territoriale locale était contingente et fluctuante. Dans l’environnement naturel généreux du Cambodge, un petit groupe d’individus mobiles réunis sous un même toit pouvait aisément accomplir toutes les tâches nécessaires à sa survie. Alors on ne s’attachait jamais indéfiniment à une localité : seulement à des communautés sans cesse en évolution, centrées autour de pagodes agissant comme des ports d’ancrage. / In Angkorian Cambodia, Khmer rulers administered a moving peasantry through temple-palaces. When the French took over, in 1845, they found what administrators called an unorganized mass of peasants, “even inorganic” (Delvert, 1961: 201) and were confounded by Cambodian peasants’ mobility (Forest, 1980: 30). During the postcolonial era, ethnologists essentially came to the same conclusions, while John F. Embree (1950) proposed to categorize South-East Asian indianized societies as “loosely structured”. He postulated that the prevalence of ad hoc individualistic behavior and the lack of organization found in communities were due to a weak integration of social structures at the individual level. Many ethnologists followed in Embree’s path. These observations appear just but the analysis seems unfruitful. Embree’s structure is modeled on a highly syncretic Khmer culture which was randomly reflected in individual behavior indeed. But Khmer social organization lies elsewhere: In the organizational strategies which govern individual choices when groups must come together to accomplish recurring tasks. In this respect, Cambodian peasants evolved in a social organization that was rigorously minimalistic and flexible. The household was the essential element here, while the local territorial community was incidental. In Cambodia’s generous natural environment, a small mobile group of individuals united under one roof could easily accomplish all the tasks essential to their survival. Thus the Khmer never attached themselves indefinitely to a locality: Only to ever evolving communities, centered on pagodas which acted as anchor harbors.

The research presented in this dissertation adopts an empirical Saussurean structuralist approach to elucidating the true meaning of the verb patterns characterised formally by vowel lengthening in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA). The verbal system as a whole is examined in order to place the patterns of interest (III and VI) in context, the complexities of Arabic verbal morphology are explored and the challenges revealed by previous attempts to draw links between form and meaning are presented. An exhaustive dictionary survey is employed to provide quantifiable data to empirically test the largely accepted view that the vowel lengthening patterns have mutual/reciprocal meaning. Finding the traditional explanation inadequate and prone to too many exceptions, alternative commonalities of meaning are similarly investigated. Whilst confirming the detransitivising function of the ta- prefix which derives pattern VI from pattern III, analysis of valency data also precludes transitivity as a viable explanation for pattern III meaning compared with the base form. Examination of formally similar morphology in certain nouns leads to the intuitive possibility that vowel lengthening has aspectual meaning. A model of linguistic aspect is investigated for its applicability to MSA and used to isolate the aspectual feature common to the majority of pattern III and pattern VI verbs, which is determined to be atelicity. A set of verbs which appear to be exceptional in that they are not attributable to atelic aspectual categories is found to be characterised by inceptive meaning and a three-phase model of event time structure is developed to include an inceptive verbal category, demonstrating that these verbs too are atelic. Thus the form-meaning relationship which is discovered is that the vowel lengthening verbal patterns in Modern Standard Arabic have atelic aspectual meaning.

À partir d’un dispositif théorique et méthodologique emprunté au structuralisme figuratif de Gilbert Durand, ce mémoire propose une exploration du Mythe de la Fin du Monde dans quelques unes de ses manifestations romanesques et théâtrales. Les postulats de base qui fondent notre démarche sont au nombre de trois : a) l’œuvre littéraire possède toujours un substrat mythique ; b) un mythe représente un noyau de mythèmes, dont le trait définitoire est la redondance ; c) il n’y a pas de version privilégiée ou primitive du mythe, qui doit être vu comme une constante de l’esprit humain. Au niveau des applications pratiques, notre travail s’articule en deux démarches complémentaires, reprises d’une section à l’autre. Dans un premier temps, en nous appuyant sur le corpus romanesque – où le mythe nous semble abondant et complet – nous identifions les redondances internes et génériques que nous qualifions de «mythèmes». Dans un second temps, nous vérifions la présence et le fonctionnement de ces mythèmes dans le corpus dramatique. / Within the theoretical and methodological framework of the figurative structuralism devised by Gilbert Durand, this work sets out to explore the Myth of the End of the World based on two corpora: five novels and two plays. Three main postulates underlie our research: a) the literary work is always based on a mythical substratum; b) myth is an aggregation of mythemes, whose defining characteristic consists in their redundancy; c) myth is a constant of the human spirit and therefore none of its versions takes precedence over another. As far as the applications of the theory are concerned, our work is articulated in two distinct phases, repeated form one section to another. Based on the body of novels, where the myth manifests itself in its most complete and abundant form, phase 1 is devoted to the identification of redundancies, both internal to each work and generic, that are categorized as mythemes. Phase 2 verifies their presence in the body of plays.

This thesis mobilizes a feminist critique to examine the ways in which New Public Management (NPM) represents a gendered discourse. Using Foucauldian discourse analysis, NPM is mapped as a discursive field in order to tease out its dominant and subordinate discourses. The tensions between the dominant discourses and between the dominant and subordinate discourses are examined. The discursive themes of NPM are then engaged using a feminist post-structuralist framework in order to develop a feminist critique. From this critique, it is argued that NPM discourses reinscribe dominant masculinity as well as challenge the Weberian model of bureaucracy by reconstructing a gendered division of labour that takes place entirely within the public sphere.

During the premodern era, images corresponded to the doctrines of ”The Word”, but in contemporary society this relationship is open and does not correspond to the divine Word. Because of our perceived, postmodern inability to respond to ancient Christian symbols, there is a need to revision these symbols and Christian spirituality. The result of such a revisioning would include an ”opening up” of ”The Word” and of traditional, worn symbols which have lost vitality in this milieu. Art produced with this in mind needs to make ”The Word” more currently accessible and relevant. Further, this revisioning would add significance and enhance the possibility of resurrecting language dealing with ”The Word”. In the process of revitalising old Christian imagery and language, I aim to show that the primary role of contemporary Christian art is to function metaphorically. Finally, I argue that Christian images can take on significance as contemporary images. / Art History Visual Arts and Musicology / M.A. (Visual Arts)

A presente dissertação discute alguns atravessamentos de gênero na escolha, na formação e no exercício profissional de homens enfermeiros. Trata-se de uma pesquisa de cunho qualitativo, que trabalha com entrevistas narrativas, desenvolvidas com enfermeiros, analisadas desde as perspectivas dos estudos culturais e de gênero pós-estruturalistas com análise de discurso inspirada em Michel Foucault. Procurou-se discutir alguns dos modos pelos quais os discursos que instituíram e continuam apresentando a enfermagem como profissão feminina, de-limitaram a opção profissional e incidiram sobre o processo de formação de alguns homens, durante sua graduação em enfermagem. Também buscou-se discutir quais são, na perspectiva dos informantes, as facilidades e as dificuldades de ser homem no contexto de um curso e de uma profissão definida/representada como feminina. O corpus de análise foi organizado a partir de entrevistas narrativas realizadas com seis enfermeiros da região de Porto Alegre e um enfermeiro da região noroeste do estado. Com essas entrevistas, foram construídas duas categorias centrais de análise: a) o gênero como elemento constitutivo do processo de escolha e de formação profissional que se desdobrou em duas subcategorias: escolha e formação profissional; b) como eles vivem e falam sobre a condição de “ser homem” no contexto da formação e do exercício profissional da Enfermagem, que se desdobrou nas seguintes subcategorias de análise: formação e exercício profissional. A análise possibilita dizer que o gênero constitui masculinidades e feminilidades na Enfermagem, organiza as relações de trabalho, produz áreas de atuação mais adequadas para homens e para mulheres. A partir da análise das relações de poder entre homens e mulheres, e das posições de sujeito então criadas na Enfermagem, foi possível tensionar discursos que tratam a Enfermagem como uma prática naturalmente feminina, tanto quanto romper com discursos singulares que posicionam homens nessa profissão apenas como vítimas, por conta dos pressupostos de gênero que constituem as representações culturais da prática. / The current paper discusses a few gender crossings upon the choice, education and professional activity of male nurses. It is a qualitative research working with narrative interviews carried out with male nurses and analyzed from the perspectives of post structuralism cultural and gender studies with analysis of speech inspired on Michel Foucault. It aimed at discussing some of the modes whereby the speeches that have established and continue presenting Nursing as a feminine occupation, have de-limited the professional choice and have affected the education process of several men during their Nursing graduation. In addition, it discusses which are, under the perspective of the interviewees, the facilities and difficulties of being a man within the context of a course and occupation defined and represented as feminine.The corpus of the analysis was organized from the narrative interviews carried out with six male nurses from the area of Porto Alegre and with one male nurse from the northwest region of the state of Rio Grande do Sul. These interviews provided the construction of two central analysis categories: a) the gender as an element that constitutes the process of professional choice and education that broke down into two sub-categories: professional choice and education; b) how they live and talk about the condition of “being a man” within the context of Nursing education and professional activity that broke down into two analysis sub-categories: professional education and practice. The analysis allows saying that the gender constitutes male and female features in Nursing and it organizes the labor relations besides producing performance fields which are more adequate for men and for women. From the analysis of power relations between men and women and from subject positions, then created in Nursing, it was possible to strain speeches that view Nursing as a naturally feminine practice as well as breaking with singular speeches that position men in this occupation as victims only on account of gender presuppositions that constitute the cultural representation of the activity. / El presente trabajo discute algunos cruzamientos de género en la escogencia, en la formación y en el ejercicio profesional de hombres enfermeros. Se trata de una investigación de carácter cualitativo, que trabaja con entrevistas narrativas, desarrolladas con enfermeros, analizadas desde las perspectivas de los estudios culturales y de género pos-estructuralistas con análisis de discurso inspirado en Michel Foucault. Se buscó discutir algunos de los modos a través de los cuales los discursos, que instituyeron y siguen presentando la Enfermería como ocupación femenina, de-limitaron la opción profesional e incidieron sobre el proceso de formación de algunos hombres, durante su graduación en Enfermería. También, se buscó discutir cuales son, en la perspectiva de los informantes, las facilidades y las dificultades de ser hombre en el contexto de un curso y de una profesión definida/representada como femenina. El corpus de análisis fue organizado a partir de entrevistas narrativas realizadas con seis enfermeros de la región de Porto Alegre y un enfermero de la región noroeste del estado. Con esas entrevistas se construyeron dos categorías centrales de análisis: a) el género como elemento constitutivo del proceso de escogencia y de formación profesional que se desdobló en dos sub-categorías: escogencia y formación profesional; b) como ellos viven y hablan acerca de la condición de “ser hombre” en el contexto de la formación y del ejercicio profesional de la Enfermería, que se desdobló en las siguientes sub-categorías de análisis: formación y ejercicio profesional. El análisis posibilita decir que el género constituye masculinidades y feminidades en la Enfermería, organiza las relaciones de trabajo, produce áreas de actuación más adecuadas para hombres y para mujeres. A partir del análisis de las relaciones de poder entre hombres y mujeres, y de las posiciones de sujeto, entonces creadas en Enfermería, fue posible tensionar discursos que tratan la Enfermería como una práctica naturalmente femenina, tanto cuanto romper con discursos singulares que posicionan hombres en esa ocupación solamente como víctimas, por cuenta de los presupuestos de género que constituyen la representación cultural de la práctica.

This thesis examines the relationship of monetary policy and investment in a theoretical framework in which monetary and real economic forces are intrinsically interlinked. The full shift from a money, real dichotomy in historical economic thought to the notion of money being an essential determinant of economic outcomes is traced to the work of Keynes, partly in the Treatise (1930), but more completely in the General Theory (1936). The treatment of monetary forces in economic growth models is examined. It is found that the money, investment relationship, with close money, real interaction, is appropriately pursued in the approach to monetary theory adopted by those who could broadly be characterised as Post Keynesian. The operation of monetary forces through the banking system is examined using this theoretical backdrop. A symbolic model is developed of the influence channels implied by the theoretical analysis, using the South African monetary system as the specific focus. The symbolic model is expressed in a form which enables empirical examination. South African data are compiled and used to determine the nature and statistical significance of hypothesised relationships. The implications of the theoretical analysis and empirical examination are drawn out both for monetary theory within the Post Keynesian mould, and for the conduct of monetary policy, in South Africa in particular. / Economics / D. Litt. et Phil. (Economics)