This diploma thesis deals with the comparison of three literary works, namely Harry Potter series by Joanne Kathleen Rowling, The Secret of Platform 13 by Eva Ibbotson, Groosham Grange and Return to Groosham Grange: The Unholy Grail by Anthony Horowitz. The aim of the theoretical part is to outline the theory of fantasy and also the lives of the three above mentioned authors. The rites of passage and the Gothic tradition are also included in the first, theoretical, part. The aim of the interpretation is to compare the following themes occurring in the discussed works: the journey to the world of fantasy, the picture of the other world and the hero and his opposite. The summary attempts to prove that the discussed works have different messages. In particular, Rowling focuses on morality, Horowitz deals with farce and Ibbotson concentrates on humour.

Cette thèse consiste à une étude comparative entre les romans arthuriens d’un côté et le Shâh-Nâme de Ferdowsi de l’autre coté sur le sujet de Graal. L’enjeu est d’étudier l’origine du Mythe du Graal et essayer d’expliquer la ressemblance entre le mythe du Graal avec le Khvarnah l’équivalent de mythe dans la littérature persane. Dans une première partie, la thèse se concentre sur une étude du mythe de Graal chez Chrétien de Troyes, Wolfram von Eschenbach et Ferdowsi. Les différentes manifestations du mythe, le sens spirituel tout autour de ce mythe seront l’objet de cette recherche dans cette partie. Dans un second temps, la thèse fait porter l’analyse sur l’origine de ce mythe tellement contesté chez les chercheurs de différentes écoles, soit l’origine celtique ou irano-aryenne. Cette thèse défendra la théorie d’origine iranienne en prenant en considération l’influence celtique du mythe. Selon ce travail, dans la structure du roman de Graal, il existe une base du folklore Alano-celtique que le néo manichéisme cathare, en l’utilisant comme la matière première, construit une couche d’initiation propre à la conviction dualiste afin d’ajouter le personnage de Perceval/Parzival à l’histoire du roi Arthur. Parzival, de ce point de vue, est plus proche de sa modèle persane Kay Khosrow. La divergence entre l’auteur français par rapport à son homologue allemand dépend de leur situation sociale ; Chrétien est l’artiste proche du pouvoir religieux de l’église catholique et Wolfram, le chevalier qui gagne sa vie en chantant, était proche des hérésies cathares et des templiers. Enfin, ce travail essaie de montrer que ce mythe d’origine aryenne, est déformé par les religions à leur fin et que le vrai sens de la quête n’est pas le salut mais le surhomme. / This thesis is a comparative study of the Arthurian romances on the one side and the Shâh-Nâmeh of Ferdowsi on the other side, referring to the subject of the Grail. The challenge is, to study the origin of the Grail myth and try to explain the similarity between the myth of the Grail and Khvarna, the equivalent myth in Persian literature. In the first part, the thesis focuses on a study of the Grail myth in the work of Chrétien de Troyes, Wolfram von Eschenbach and Ferdowsi. Different manifestations of the myth, the spiritual sense around this myth will be the subject of this research in this part. In a second step, the thesis focuses the analysis on the origin of this myth much disputed among researchers of different schools, either Irano-Aryan or Celtic origin. This thesis defends the theory of Iranian origin, taking into account the Celtic myth too. According to this work, the structure of the Grail novel is based on Alano-Celtic folklore. Thereafter, Catharism, using it as the raw material, built a layer initiation specific to dualistic belief, in order to add the character of Perceval/ Parzival to the story of King Arthur. From this point of view, Parzival is closer to the Persian Kay Khosrow model. The divergence between the French author in relation to his German counterpart depends on their different social situation; Chrétien was an artist close to the religious authority of the Catholic Church and Wolfram, the knight who earned his living by singing, was close to Cathare heresy and the Templers. Finally, this work tries to show that the origin of this Aryan myth is that distorted by religions to achieve their ends and that the true meaning of the quest is not salvation but the “Übermensch”.

L’étude des romans attribués à Robert de Boron s’inscrit dans le sillage des travaux sur l’autoréflexivité romanesque et auctoriale, ainsi que sur le développement et la diffusion du mythe du Saint-Graal. Robert de Boron apparaît comme le fondateur d’une importante tradition graalienne, explicitement associée à la figure du Christ et promise à un avenir littéraire considérable. Nous croyons que l’approche mythopoétique, qui permet à la littérature de créer des mythes, s’accorde avec les enjeux socio-historiques des laïcs, ce qui explique pourquoi le projet de Robert s’est étendu jusqu’au cycle du Lancelot -Graal où il a servi de fondation à la chevalerie célestiele. Dans la première partie de ce travail, nous examinons le Saint-Graal et la tradition incarnée par Robert (occurrences, scènes, senefiance et Hauts Livres). Dans la deuxième partie, nous étudions la figure de Robert (éléments de biographie, figure auctoriale, autorité). La dernière partie nous donne l’occasion de remettre les mythes littéraires dans leur contexte afin de montrer qu’ils sont transformés en mythes socio-historiques grâce au savant mélange du discours laïque et du discours clérical. / The study of the French romances attributed to Robert de Boron lies within the recent works on self reflexivity in medieval literature and on the rise and spreading of the Holy Grail myth. Robert de Boron has become known as the founder of a new Grail tradition, explicitly related to Jesus Christ and destined to a great popularity. We think that mythopoétique approach, which allows literature to create myths, is consistent with the socio-historical issues of the laity, which is why Robert’s undertaking has spread to the Lancelot-Grail cycle where it served as the foundation of celestial chivalry. This dissertation consists of three main parts. In the first one, we examine the occurrences of the « Holy Grail » expression in the selected books. Furthermore, we go deeper in our analysis of the Grail tradition embodied by Robert de Boron. In the second part of the thesis, we focus of the figure of Robert, by studying some biographical information, his status as a writer and the nature of medieval authority and authorship. The last section of our work gives us the opportunity to set the literary myths in context to show that they are transformed into socio-historical myths through both secular and clerical discourses in the Arthurian romances.

<p>This study presents a new reading of the <i>Perlesvaus</i>, an anonymous thirteenth-century Old French Grail romance bizarrely structured around an Arthurian restaging of the battle between the Old and the New Law. I construe this hyper-violent, phantasmagorical text as a profoundly significant work of “trauma fiction” encoding a hitherto-unrecognized crisis of religious ethics and identity in Western Europe in the first half of the thirteenth century. Combining literary and historical analysis and drawing on current trends in trauma studies, I tie what I term the “deranged discourse” of the <i>Perlesvaus</i> to the brutal onset of internal crusading in southern France (the papal-sponsored Albigensian Crusade, 1209-29), making the case that the collective trauma staged in its narrative perturbations was a contributing factor in the well-documented worsening of Western European antisemitism during this period. One key analytical construct I develop is the “doppelganger Jew”—personified in the <i>Perlesvaus</i> by its schizoid authority figure, Josephus, a conflation of first Christian priest and first-century Romano-Jewish historian—who functions as an uncanny embodiment of powerful, unacknowledged fears that Christians were losing their spiritual moorings and reverting into reviled, scapegoated Jews. Traces of this collective trauma are explored in other contemporary texts, and one chapter examines how the fourteenth-century <i>Book of John Mandeville</i> revives similar fears of collapsing Judeo-Christian identity and unfolds under the sign of the doppelganger Jew.</p>

Dès le tournant du XIIIe siècle, les écrivains reprennent l’idée d’une quête du Graal, déjà développée par Chrétien de Troyes avec le Conte du Graal, pour y faire entrer plus amplement les traits d’une idéologie ecclésiastique. Les premières proses du Graal présentent alors une nouvelle façon d’exposer certains idéaux de la chevalerie à travers des convictions religieuses. Dans une approche socio-historique, nous nous sommes d’abord penché sur la figure incontournable du roi Arthur, personnage dont le comportement est la cause de la quête du Graal. Plus particulièrement, dans cette recherche, il est question de découvrir comment la position sociale du chevalier tend à s’élever au-dessus de celle du roi. Partant des différentes fonctions royales pour aller vers la nature et le but des aventures vécues par les chevaliers, nous observons pourquoi et comment les auteurs des premières proses du Graal ont tenté d’adapter l’idéologie chevaleresque à l’idéologie ecclésiastique. Il appert que l’influence des discours politiques de cette période médiévale aura joué un rôle important dans cette nouvelle approche de la chevalerie. / Since the turn of the XIIIth century, writers take up the idea of a quest for the Holy Grail, already developed by Chrétien de Troyes in the Conte du Graal. The authors saw in the Holy Grail a great chance to elucidate an ecclesiastical ideology. The first proses of the Holy Grail then present a new way of exposing certain ideals of knighthood through religious convictions. From a socio-historical approach, we initially looked at the figure of King Arthur, who is impossible to circumvent. King Arthur’s behavior is the cause of the search for the Holy Grail. More particularly, this research ponders the question of why the knight’s social position tends to rise above that of the King’s. From the various royal functions to the nature and the goal of the chivalric adventures, we observe why and how the authors of the first proses of the Holy Grail tried to adapt the chivalric ideology to the ecclesiastical one. It appears that the influence of the political discourses from this medieval period will have played a major part in this new approach to knighthood.

This dissertation examines Robert Penn Warren‘s use of Arthurian legend, Judeo-Christian folklore, Norse mythology, and ancient vegetation rituals in his first four novels. It also illustrates how the use of these myths helps define Warren‘s Agrarian ideals while underscoring his subtle references to these ideals in his early fiction.

Dès le tournant du XIIIe siècle, les écrivains reprennent l’idée d’une quête du Graal, déjà développée par Chrétien de Troyes avec le Conte du Graal, pour y faire entrer plus amplement les traits d’une idéologie ecclésiastique. Les premières proses du Graal présentent alors une nouvelle façon d’exposer certains idéaux de la chevalerie à travers des convictions religieuses. Dans une approche socio-historique, nous nous sommes d’abord penché sur la figure incontournable du roi Arthur, personnage dont le comportement est la cause de la quête du Graal. Plus particulièrement, dans cette recherche, il est question de découvrir comment la position sociale du chevalier tend à s’élever au-dessus de celle du roi. Partant des différentes fonctions royales pour aller vers la nature et le but des aventures vécues par les chevaliers, nous observons pourquoi et comment les auteurs des premières proses du Graal ont tenté d’adapter l’idéologie chevaleresque à l’idéologie ecclésiastique. Il appert que l’influence des discours politiques de cette période médiévale aura joué un rôle important dans cette nouvelle approche de la chevalerie. / Since the turn of the XIIIth century, writers take up the idea of a quest for the Holy Grail, already developed by Chrétien de Troyes in the Conte du Graal. The authors saw in the Holy Grail a great chance to elucidate an ecclesiastical ideology. The first proses of the Holy Grail then present a new way of exposing certain ideals of knighthood through religious convictions. From a socio-historical approach, we initially looked at the figure of King Arthur, who is impossible to circumvent. King Arthur’s behavior is the cause of the search for the Holy Grail. More particularly, this research ponders the question of why the knight’s social position tends to rise above that of the King’s. From the various royal functions to the nature and the goal of the chivalric adventures, we observe why and how the authors of the first proses of the Holy Grail tried to adapt the chivalric ideology to the ecclesiastical one. It appears that the influence of the political discourses from this medieval period will have played a major part in this new approach to knighthood.

教育和文學最重要的連結是什麼，普遍最被接受的是「想像」，也就是想像力或幻想，它是跨領域科技整合極重要的黏著劑與調和劑。因此教育最重要的功能之一在於培養孩童持續保有發揮想像的能力，不僅孩童，成人也同樣需要。基此，本文以文學視角出發，結合靈性教育的關懷，從富含幻想表現的奇幻敘事文本取材，透過再想像與再詮釋的創造性連結，嘗試性地勾勒出一個富含寓意的人類圖像。 本研究採文本分析，融入「皺摺、展開、再皺褶」及「詮釋、再詮釋與過度詮釋」的概念與方法，著眼於「人與超自然」向度來詮釋靈性教育的人類圖像。本文共分六章：第一章，導論：緣起說「圓」，為本研究的緒論；第二章，究竟起「源」：創世與起「源」，為文獻探究與前導，指出源即是靈；第三章，迷宮探「園」：謎樣的世界，旨在闡述「界意在破（無）」；第四章，穿越奇「緣」：隧道的盡頭，旨在闡述「道意在無（悟）」；第五章，另度次「元」：空間與過門，旨在闡述「門意在空（心）」；第六章，總結：究極奧「圓」— 〇、●、 、◎，回顧與統整「那神」的人類圖像。 本研究嘗試勾勒之「那神教育學」圖像，或可稱為靈性教育的人類圖像，此圖像模型主要有三層（嚴格來說有五層），上下有其位置，但沒有先後順序或優劣之分，分別以基層的太極陰陽圖、中層的環狀隧道和上層的三角體形構，並透過「噬尾龍」的蘊義，闡釋「人即是神、神即是人」的循環圖像。 / The purpose of dissertation is trying to verify the imagination can be the connection between the education and literature. Imagination can connect and mediate among the multi-dimensions. One of the important things of education, not only for children but also for adults, is to cultivate and maintain the imaginative capacity. In this reason, my dissertation adopts the literature narrative and care about spiritual education. Especially, I use the folk literature with rich fantasy to do the re-imagine and re-interpretation for illustrate the meaning of the whole human picture. The methodology of the dissertation are use the "folding, unfolding and re-folding " and "interpretation, reinterpretation and Overinterpretation" and so on, with the fantasy narrative in "human being and supernatural", to interpret the human picture of spiritual education. There are six chapters in this paper: Chapter Ⅰ, Introduction: the Origin and "circle"; Chapter Ⅱ, Explores the Beginning: the Genesis and Origins; Chapter Ⅲ, Explore the Maze "Garden": the Mystery World, aims to set forth "Boundary to be Break (No)"; Chapter Ⅳ, Meet the “Fate”: At the End of the Tunnel, to elaborate "Road means None (Enlighten)"; Chapter Ⅴ, Another Dimension: Space and Threshold, to elaborate "Door means Empty (Heart)"; Chapter Ⅵ, Conclusion: The Ultimate "Round"— 〇、●、 、◎, Review and integrate the human picture of "No-thing". I try to describe the picture of "Pedagogy of No-thing" or called the human picture of Spiritual Education. There is a vertical structure with three levels in the picture (strictly speaking there are five levels) but no priority among them. The foundation is “Tai Chi”, the middle is “Ring Tunnel”, and the top is Triangular Shape in the structure. Through the “Ouroboros” (bite the tail dragon) interprets the picture of "human being is god, and god is human being ".

Les cycles arthuriens en prose du XIIIe siècle (principalement la trilogie dite de Robert de Boron et le Cycle Vulgate ou Lancelot-Graal) sont des ensembles au statut singulier. Définis à la fois par l’autonomie et l’interconnexion des romans qui les constituent, ils se distinguent des romans en vers individualisés qui les précèdent et des proses amples mais plus homogènes qui les suivent. À leurs caractéristiques formelles s’ajoute le projet de construire des univers de fiction cohérents, susceptibles d’instaurer un canon arthurien définitif. La brièveté de la période de production (1200-1240 environ) est contrecarrée par le succès durable que ces textes connaissent pendant tout le Moyen Âge ; la cyclicité est une forme romanesque expérimentale qui crée un rapport neuf à la matière de Bretagne et génère surtout des modes de lecture nouveaux. Caractérisés par des tendances aussi bien centrifuges que centripètes, les romans cycliques génèrent un réseau que le lecteur peut explorer à sa guise, de manière partielle ou complète, ordonnée ou désordonnée ; mettant en relation des romans aux visées parfois disparates mais assumant leur interconnexion, le cycle offre au lecteur un parcours sans cesse renouvelé, où les grands effets de cohérence l’emportent sur les contradictions de détail. C’est ce réseau inter-romanesque qui est l’objet privilégié de la présente étude : les romans cycliques, loin de développer leur sens en autarcie, vivent de la mise en lien de leurs récits et construisent ensemble, par le biais de la lecture organisatrice, des mondes narratifs multipolaires. / The thirteenth-century Arthurian prose cycles (mainly Robert de Boron’s trilogy and the Vulgate or Lancelot-Grail Cycle) are groupings of a peculiar nature. Defined both by the autonomy and the interconnection of their constituent romances, they differ from the individualised verse romances which precede them as well as from the massive yet more homogenous prose narratives which follow. These formal characteristics go hand-in-hand with a coherent world-building project, which aims to formulate a definitive Arthurian canon. The brevity of the production period (ca. 1200-1240) is counterbalanced by the lasting success of these texts throughout the Middle Ages; cyclicity is an experimental form which creates a new take on the matter of Britain, and most of all, gives birth to new modes of reading. Defined by centrifugal as well as centripetal tendencies, cyclical romances generate a network which the reader may explore at will, either partially or completely, in an orderly or disorderly manner. By linking romances which may have different aims yet accept their basic connectivity, cycles allow their readers to navigate them in constantly renewed ways, while at the same time preserving their coherence in spite of localised contradictions. This cross-romance network is the subject of the present study: cyclical romances, far from existing in isolation, thrive in an interconnected narrative environment; in conjunction with the reader’s own structuring powers, they interact to build multifarious narrative worlds.

The question leading to this study is whether the facts and theories pertaining to the Bible and Jesus Story as presented by The Authors (H Schonfield, D Joyce, B Thiering, M Baigent, R Leigh, H Lincoln; M Starbird, and D Brown) could be verified by the Archaeology evidence. I have adopted a multidiscipline and holistic approach considering information gathered from all media sources to ascertain what theories, if any could replace the traditional Jesus Story of the New Testament. I considered whether the alternative theories or traditional theories were believable due to the evidence presented by Biblical Archaeology or by the techniques used by The Authors in presenting their facts. By using Thouless’ system of Straight and Crooked thinking I was able to ascertain that the theories used in the novels written by The Authors may have been persuasive, but lacked substance. / Biblical and Ancient Studies / M. Th. (Biblical Archaeology)