Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Children's literature Political aspects'

When looking back through the last eighty years, one thing is certain: the socio-political climate has changed dramatically. From the beginning of the 20th century where racism and sexism was rampant to the beginning of the 21st century where equal rights and acceptance of all is becoming the norm, the climate has flipped throughout the last one hundred years. The question to then ask is how does the climate impact literature, specifically children’s literature. Research shows that children’s literature is impacted, but research does not describe how it is impacted. This thesis will work to qualify the quantitative research by explaining how the socio-political climate impacts children’s literature. By looking at three texts over the past eighty years, the qualitative analysis shows how children’s literature is impacted by the socio-political climate. The three texts that will be analyzed are And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street by Dr. Seuss (1937), Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak (1963), and Ada Twist, Scientist by Andrea Beaty (2016).

Thesis (MA)--University of Stellenbosch, 2002.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Since feminist approaches to international relations (IR) first made their appearance in the late 1980s, efforts to explain the 'gender gap' have proliferated. Gender studies within IR in particular have been focused on foreign policy opinion, seeking to discover whether men and women have different views on foreign policy simply due to the fact that they are of different genders. The correlate of this is that if women believe differently than men, in which way do they believe differently and if this were then taken to its logical end, what would happen if they were more equally responsible for foreign policy decision-making? As an illustration of the varying approaches to feminist IR, this research project undertakes a brief overview of the history of feminist IR, showing how the tools and language of traditional IR do not encompass the needs of feminist IR study. The research article then reviews the literature of gender, feminism and foreign policy beliefs and behavior, examining its research core and evolution to date. Three research questions are covered. Firstly, is gender a relevant variable in foreign policy analysis? Secondly, if yes, does it make a difference to the foreign policy beliefs of women? Thirdly, where women play a significant role in foreign policy decisionmaking, are countries more pacific on the international level? Dealt with separately, foreign policy beliefs are found to have a clear gender-based breakdown. Foreign policy behavior is less simple to approach since the dataset of countries led by women during international disputes is limited. The research project and literature review also looks forward, pointing toward the future, not only of gender and foreign policy studies but also to the implications that future developments in feminist IR may have for the study of IR.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Pogings om die geslagsgaping te verduidelik het vermenigvuldig sedert die feministiese benadering tot Internasionale Verhoudinge die eerste keer in die laat 1980's sy verskyning gemaak het. Geslagstudies binne Internasionale Verhoudinge het veral gefokus op opinies oor buitelandse beleid om sodoende vas te stelof mans en vroue verskillende sienings oor buitelandse beleid huldig bloot as gevolg van die feit dat hulle verskillende geslagte is. Die keersy hiervan is dat indien vroue anders glo as mans, op watter manier hulle anders glo, en - indien dit dan tot 'n logiese uiteinde gevoer word - wat sou gebeur indien daar meer gelyke verantwoordelikheid vir buitelandse beleidsbesluite sou wees. As 'n illustrasie van die verskillende benaderings tot feministiese Internasionale Verhoudinge, onderneem hierdie navorsingsprojek 'n oorsig van die geskiedenis van feministiese Internasionale Verhoudinge om sodoende te toon dat die gereedskap en taal van tradisionele Internasionale Verhoudinge nie aan die behoeftes van feministiese Internasionale Verhoudingstudies voldoen nie. Hierdie navorsingsartikel gee dan 'n oorsig oor geslagsliteratuur, feminisme en buitelandse beleidsopinies en -gedrag deur sy navorsingskern en evolusie tot datum te ondersoek. Drie navorsingsvrae word behandel. Eerstens, is geslag 'n relevante veranderlike in buitelandse beleidsanalise? Tweedends, indien ja, veranderdit die buitelandse beleidsopinies van vroue? Derdens, is lande meer passief op internasionale vlak waar vroue 'n wesentlike rol in buitelandse beleidsbesluitneming speel? Afsonderlik beskou, is daar gevind dat daar 'n duidelike geslagsonderskeid in buitelandse beleidsopinies is. Dis egter minder eenvoudig om buitelandse beleidsgedrag te bestudeer, aangesien slegs beperkte inligting oor lande wat gedurende internasionale dispute deur vroue beheer is beskikbaar is. Die navorsingsprojek en literatuuroorsig kyk ook vorentoe met spesifieke verwysing na die toekoms van nie net geslag en buitelandse beleidstudies nie, maar ook na die implikasies wat toekomstige verwikkelinge In feministiese Internasionale Verhoudinge 'n vir die studie van tradisionele Internasionale Verhoudinge kan hê.

The thesis sets out to examine the little studied phenomenon of translating and rewriting children’s literature during Fascism. Under Mussolini’s rule, books for children had to perform the important task of forging the ‘new Italians’. For this reason, the presence of foreign literature on the Italian book market became increasingly problematic, as the regime attempted to achieve cultural and economic autarchy. This research aims to show how, rather than merely reflecting dominant ideologies, the translation of books for children was a site for negotiation, allowing different, and sometimes conflicting narratives and discourses to be identified and fruitfully examined. By adopting an interdisciplinary theoretical framework, where theories from Translation Studies, Children’s Literature, and studies on Fascism, are integrated, translations and rewritings of books for children are employed as hermeneutic tools to explore the multifaceted nature of the regime’s ideology and cultural production, beyond the official façade of unity and consistency. Central questions concerning the construction and defense of Fascist identity are addressed through a selection of case studies, showing different strategies and functions of translating and rewriting for children. The Fascist rewritings of Collodi’s Pinocchio are analysed in relation to Fascism’s relationship with tradition, focusing on the ways in which the past was ‘rewritten’ at different phases of the dictatorship. The challenges of translating a book that had been openly condemned by Fascist institutions are examined by looking at the two translations of Alice in Wonderland which appeared during the 1930s. The complex reception and the controversial success of American comics is investigated, where the different strategies of translation and re-creation reveal complex dynamics of interactions between imported and native products. Finally, the process of rewriting an apparently timeless and universal tradition is observed in the book series ‘La Scala d’Oro’, which was highly regarded by official culture, despite publishing mostly foreign titles.

This study, situated in classroom practice and grounded in pedagogic wakefulness (Clandinin and Connelly, 2000), explores the nature of young children’s sense of voice as indicated through sustained interactions and representations of experiences with picturebook literature. The naturalistic research site was a grade one classroom setting in a large urban school. Student engagement and interactions with read-aloud events and responses to literature through multi-modal representations perpetuated meaning making and personal relevance. Coding procedures exemplified the nature of young children’s sense of voice as falling into two broad conceptual categories: (1) Situated Nature and (2) Experiential Nature. The Situated Nature of young children’s sense of voice revealed developmental, exploratory, and social sites of student engagement to literature. The Experiential Nature of young children’s sense of voice described three specificities of narrativity in their responses to picturebook literature: Young children’s multi-modal responses were interpreted as representative of Self- Narrativity, Interpretive-Narrativity, and Aesthetic-Narrativity. The findings contribute to a reconceptualized literacy curriculum which illuminates personal, social, and cultural identities, especially young children’s awareness of their individual sense of voice, developed through picturebook literature in primary classrooms.
xii, 151 leaves : col. ill. ; 29 cm.

The extent to which Jewish and Christian lifestyle actions were portrayed in 62 children's books of accepted literary worth was studied. The researcher read the Newbery award book and one Newbery honor book for each year in search of actions that Jewish and Christians active in their faiths deemed important. The sample consisted of the Newbery award book and one Newbery honor book for each year from 1960 to 1990. A content analysis of 13 action categories found that the five most common actions were (1) compassionate/ charitable deeds, (2) telling others about God, (3) prayer, (4) worship attendance and (5) reading the Bible. No significant change in the frequency of the 13 actions was found over time. However, the researcher found that Jewish and Christian lifestyles were portrayed only nominally in the Newbery books. The sample distribution shows that 65 percent of the sampled books contained fewer than the mean of 4.9 actions per 100 pages. Only six books contained strong Jewish or Christian characters - that is, main characters whose faith in God was portrayed as playing an important role in everyday life. Jewish characters of any kind (prominent or obscure) were found in only three books. Of the eight books that contained more than 10 actions per 100 pages, only one was about people in a contemporary setting: The Great Gillv Hopkins (1979). Actions were recorded regardless of which character committed them. In four books, characters' actions seemed inconsistent with the rest of the character's portrayed lifestyle. Some books contained a large number of actions contrary to Judeo-Christian lifestyles, with portrayals of hate and cruelty far outweighing portrayals of Jewish or Christian lifestyle actions. The most extreme of these wereThe Tombs of Atuan (1972) and The Witches of Worm (1973). Other studies have asserted that multicultural literature should be preferred because children need positive exposure to all cultures. This study concludes that portrayal of the cultures of committed Jews and Christians has not been common of the Newbery books since at least 1960.
Department of Journalism

It is a common intuition that we can learn something of moral importance from literature, and one of the ways in which we teach our children about morality is through stories. In selecting books for children to read a primary concern is often the effect that the moral content of the story will have on the morality of the child reader. In this thesis I argue in order to take advantage of the contribution that literature can make to moral development, we need to teach children to read in a particular way. As a basis for this argument I use an account of moral agency that places emphasis on the development of moral skills - the ability to critically assess moral rules and systems, and the capacity to perceive and respond to the particulars of individual situations and to choose the right course of action in each - rather than on any particular kind of moral content. In order to make the most of the contribution that literature can make to the development of these skills, we need to teach children to immerse themselves in the story, rather than focusing on literary criticism. I argue that, contrary to the standard view of literary criticism as the only form of protection against possible negative effects, an immersed reading will help to prevent the child reader from taking any moral claims made in the story out of context, and so provide some measure of protection against possible negative moral effects of the story. Finally I argue that there are certain kinds of stories - recognisable by features that contribute to a high literary quality - that will enrich the experience of an immersed reading, and will therefore make a greater contribution to moral development than others.

This study examines the political theory of modernity as it appears in the work of contemporary Latin American writers and thinkers (pensadores). It is designed to help bridge the gap that separates the North American and European dialogue on modernity from the parallel dialogue on modernity currently flourishing in Latin America. The dialogues are brought together in two ways. First, the theory of modernity, which is still often thought to apply only or primarily to the developed world, is subjected to the challenge of the Latin American political and cultural context. Many features of the theory are found to apply equally well to both cultures, and these features provide the basis for the second "bridging" of the two dialogues, in which some of the most interesting Latin American responses to the problems of modernity are brought to the attention of North American and European political scholars. After reviewing the problem of modernity in some depth, the work of Jose Ortega y Gasset is presented both as a link to German philosophical thought and as a pattern for subsequent discussion of modernity in the Spanish-speaking world. Ortega's uniquely Latin way of understanding modernity is then compared to other philosophical approaches, and placed within the context of political literature in Latin America. Literature is shown to be a uniquely suitable forum for conveying Ortega's approach to modernity because it expresses in itself the central role of arts and culture in his political thought. The balance of the study focuses on the works of three contemporary Latin American authors: Octavio Paz of Mexico, Gabriel Garcia Marquez of Colombia, and Mario Vargas Llosa of Peru. Each author's major works are placed within the context of the model Latin American response to modernity inspired by Ortega and analyzed for significant contributions to the discussion of modernity. Their most important insights center around the need to assimilate the value of tradition in a new approach to modernity by means of some form of democratic dialogue combined with critical appreciation for the cultural uniqueness of nations.

This thesis investigates and demonstrates the value of using Derrida's "two interpretations of interpretation" (the Rousseauistic and the Nietzschean) to enrich the reading of literature in Religious Education with reference to I.e Guin's A Wizard of Earthsea. Religious Education has responded in recent decades to developments in pedagogy, theology, and various other disciplines such as psychology and sociology. However, religious educators do not seem to have considered the question of the impact of modern literary theory on Religious Education. Such theories have influenced the way in which literature is read and studied in the English classroom. Such developments should be of interest not only to the English teacher but also to the Religious Education teacher. The hypothesis underlying this thesis is that the Derridean common ground of the Rousseauistic and Nietzschean interpretations will broaden and enhance the reading of literature in Religious Education by facilitating both the search for the centre (search for finite meaning) and the free play of signifiers (pursuit of infinitely deferred and pluralistic meaning). Generally, Post-Structuralism, with its emphasis on the impossibility of absolute meaning, seems antithetical to Religious Education, with its emphasis on the search for meaning. However, Derrida's common ground of the two interpretative positions suggests a reading of literature that allows for both the Rousseauistic concern with centre and definitive meaning and the Nietzschean concern with free play and provisional meaning. This thesis, then, establishes that the value of 'story' in Religious Education is considerably enriched by the adoption of Derrida's "two interpretations of interpretation" as an approach for reading literature, whether secular or sacred, in Religious Education.

Thesis (PhD)--Macquarie University, Division of Humanities, Department of English, 2007.
Bibliography: p. 239-289.
Introduction -- Fantastic metamorphosis as childhood 'otherness' -- The metamorphic growth of wings : deviant development and adolescent hybridity -- Tenors of maturation: developing powers and changing identities -- Changing representations of werewolves: ideologies of racial and ethnic otherness -- The desire for transcendence: jouissance in selkie narratives -- Conclusion -- Bibliography -- Appendix: "The great Silkie of Sule Skerry": three versions.
My central thesis is that fantastic motifs work on a metaphorical level to encapsulate and express ideologies that have frequently been naturalised as 'truths'. I develop a theory of motif metaphors in order to examine the ideologies generated by the fantastic motif of metamorphosis in a range of contemporary children's and young adult fantasy texts. Although fantastic metamorphosis is an exceptionally prevalent and powerful motif in children's and young adult fantasy literature, symbolising important ideas about change and otherness in relation to childhood, adolescence, and maturation, and conveying important ideologies about the world in which we live, it has been little analysed in children's literature criticism. The detailed analyses of particular metamorphosis motif metaphors in this study expand and refine our academic understanding of the metamorphosis figure and consequently provide insight into the underlying principles and particular forms of a variety of significant ideologies.
By examining several principal metamorphosis motif metaphors I investigate how a number of specific cultural beliefs are constructed and represented in contemporary children's and young adult fantasy literature. I particularly focus upon metamorphosis as a metaphor for childhood otherness; adolescent hybridity and deviant development; maturation as a process of self-change and physical empowerment; racial and ethnic difference and otherness; and desire and jouissance. I apply a range of pertinent cultural theories to explore these motif metaphors fully, drawing on the interpretive frameworks most appropriate to the concepts under consideration. I thus employ general psychoanalytic theories of embodiment, development, language, subjectivity, projection, and abjection; poststructuralist, social constructionist, and sociological theories; and wide-ranging literary theories, philosophical theories, gender and feminist theories, race and ethnicity theories, developmental theories, and theories of fantasy and animality. The use of such theories allows for incisive explorations of the explicit and implicit ideologies metaphorically conveyed by the motif of metamorphosis in different fantasy texts.
In this study, I present a number of specific analyses that enhance our knowledge of the motif of fantastic metamorphosis and of significant cultural ideologies. In doing so, I provide a model for a new and precise approach to the analysis of fantasy literature.
Mode of access: World Wide Web.
[12], 294 p

This thesis carries out a detailed analysis of three examples of canonical English children's fantasy literature using Jesslca Benjamin's psychoanalytic feminism as a 'theoretical framework. , Applied to close readings of chosen texts, Benjamln's concepts offer Important Inslghts Into understandlrig childhood development, relationship dynamics and gender issues. Furthermore, Benjamln's Intersubjective,theory has Implications for litarary uses of psychoanalysis, and for using books as therapeutic mediums In the practice of bibliotherapy.

This thesis is an analysis of the manner in which the persona and works of Ben Jonson were appropriated – between the Restoration, in 1660, and the retirement of David Garrick, in 1776 – to reflect the political and social concerns of the age. Unlike previous studies, rather than primarily focusing on the stage history of Jonson, I analyse a wide range of sources – produced both within and outwith the theatre – in order to explore, across a variety of media, a breadth of material which appropriates the playwright and his works. I shall consider in my first main chapter the appropriations of Jonson within the Restoration court, in particular noting the assimilation of the playwright's work to what might be styled a proto-Tory ideology, as well as the way in which his plays could mirror the destabilising effects of the king's romantic liaisons. In my second chapter, I explore the moral reformation at the turn of the eighteenth century, in which we can see appropriations of Jonson which cast his works as being primarily didactic. The third chapter moves the narrative of the thesis into the years of the premiership of Sir Robert Walpole. I shall consider the way in which the playwright's works – especially The Alchemist and Eastward Ho! – were seen as being especially relevant to an age of speculation and mercantile endeavour, as well as examining the manner in which the figures of Sejanus and Volpone were appropriated to mock the increasingly unpopular premier. In the final chapter, I shall offer an analysis of Garrick's seminal portrayal of Drugger in the contexts of the political philosophy of the mid-eighteenth century, considering the manner in which it was interpreted alongside the character's further appropriations by Francis Gentleman. The thesis concludes by exploring political appropriations of Jonson up to the present day.

Literally hundreds of novels were written by white Rhodesians during the U.D.I. era of the 1960s and 1970s. Since Independence, however, not much more than a handful of literary texts have been produced by whites in Zimbabwe. This dissertation, therefore, involves an interrogation of both white discourse and the (reduced) space for white discourse in postcolonial Zimbabwean society. In addition to the displaced moral space, and the removal of the economic and political power base, there has been an appropriation of control over the material means of production of any discourse and white discourse, which has become accustomed to its position of superiority due to its dominance and dominating tendencies, has struggled to come to terms with its new, non-hegemonic 'space'. In an attempt to come to some understanding of the literary silence and marginalisation of white discourse in post-independence Zimbabwe there has to be some understanding of the voice that was formed during the British South Africa Company's administration and which reached a crescendo of authoritarian self-assertion at the declaration of unilateral independence. Vital to this discussion (in Part I) is an uncovering of the myths that were intrinsic to white discourse in the way that they were created as justification for settlement and to propagandise the aggressive defence of that space that was forged in an alien landscape. These myths have not been easily cast aside and, hence, have made it so difficult for white discourse to adapt to post-colonial society. Most Rhodesian novels were extremely partisan and promulgated these myths. Part II, discusses ex post facto novels about the war (from the white perspective) to investigate whether white discourse is recognising the lies that make up so much of its belief system. This investigation of this particular perspective of the war, then, will help to define at what stage white Zimbabweans are at in the development of a national culture. Part III takes this discussion of acculturation and national unity further. Furthermore, through the discussion of a number of novels in this chapter, it is argued that white discourse is struggling to come to terms with its non-hegemonic position and is continuing to attempt to assert its control. The 'space' available to the early settlers' discourse for appropriation, however, has been removed and, in the reduced space available to white discourse, one continued area of possible control is that of conservation.

Techronomicon Techronomicon is a science fiction novel that examines far-future military actions from several different perspectives. Human beings have colonized several planets with help from the enigmatic and more technologically advanced Zhir, who gave spaceships and habitable worlds to those they deemed suitable and their descendants. The Joint Expeditionary Force is the military arm of the Universal Faith, called in when conflicts arise that the Faith decides are beyond the local government and militia and require their intervention. Leneveldt and Roader are JEF officers assigned to Operation Techronomicon, investigating what seems to be a Zhir-built defence shield around the planet Lassana. Another JEF company sent to Kalaabhavan after the murder of the planets Confessor-General loses its CO to a land-mine, and Lieutenant Hellerman reluctantly accepts command. Chevalier, a civilian pilot, takes refugees fleeing military-run detention camps on Ararat to a biological research station on otherwise uninhabited Lila. The biologists on Lila discover a symbiote that enables humans to photosynthesize, which comes to the attention of Operation Techronomicon and the JEF's Weapons Research Division. Leneveldt and Roeder, frustrated by the lack of progress on Lassana, are sent to Lila to detain the biologists, who flee into the swamps. Hellerman's efforts to restore peace on Kalaabhavan are frustrated by the Confessors, and his company finds itself besieged by insurgents. The novel explores individuals' motives for choosing or rejecting violence and/or military service; the lessons they learn about themselves and their enemies; and the possible results of attempts to forcibly suppress ideas.

Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2013.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: C. Louis Leipoldt had, in his lifetime and after his death, a celebrated reputation as an important Afrikaans poet in South Africa. He remains most remembered for his contribution to the growth of Afrikaans literature and for the significance of his poetry in helping to establish Afrikaans literature in the early part of the twentieth century in South Africa. He is also mostly remembered for his recipe books and food and wine guides, as well as his career as a paediatrician. Between 1980 and 2001, scholarly work was done to offer a reappraisal of Leipoldt’s literary works. During this period, previously unpublished material written by Leipoldt was made publicly available. Three novels by Leipoldt, written in English, were published at irregular intervals between 1980 and 2001. The novels cast Leipoldt in a different light, suggesting that as an English-language writer he was against many of the ideas he was associated with when viewed as an Afrikaans-language writer. These ideas, for the most part, linked Leipoldt to the Afrikaner nationalist project of the twentieth century and co-opted him to Afrikaner nationalist policies of racial segregation based on the campaigning for group identity. The three English-language novels, collectively making up the Valley trilogy, not only reveal Leipoldt’s opposition to the nationalist project but also draw attention to some of his other work in Afrikaans, in which this same ideological opposition may be noted. In this thesis I argue that Leipoldt’s Valley trilogy, as well as some of his other, Afrikaans works, not only refute the nationalist project but offer a reading of South African modernity in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This reading of historical events in South Africa that reveals the trajectory of the country’s modernity is strongly indicative of a unique literary modernism. It is my argument that Leipoldt’s Valley trilogy shows a modernist critique of the historical events it presents. Because the concept of a South African modernism in literature has not yet been fully defined, it is also an aim of this thesis to propose that Leipoldt’s works contribute a broad but sustained literary outlook that covers his own lifespan (1880-1947) as well as the historical period he examines in the Valley trilogy (the late 1830s -the late 1920s/early 1930s). This literary outlook, I argue, is a modernist outlook, but also a transplantation of a Western understanding of what modernism is to the South African context in which there are crucial differences. This thesis hopes to arrive at an outcome that binds Leipoldt’s anti-nationalism to his literary critique of the modernity he explores in the Valley trilogy, thereby proving that Leipoldt could be read as a South African literary modernist.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: C. Louis Leipoldt het in sy leeftyd en na sy dood 'n gevierde reputasie behou as 'n belangrike Afrikaanse digter in Suid-Afrika. Hy word die meeste onthou vir sy bydrae tot die groei van die Afrikaanse letterkunde en die belangrikeheid van sy poësie tot die Afrikaanse letterkunde, se stigting in die vroë deel van die twintigste eeu in Suid-Afrika. Hy word meestal ook onthou vir sy resepteboeke en kos en wyn gidse, sowel as vir sy loopbaan as 'n pediater. Tussen 1980 en 2001, is navorsingswerk gedoen om ‘n herwaardering van Leipoldt se literêre werk aan te bied. Gedurende hierdie tydperk was voorheen ongepubliseerde material geskryf deur Leipoldt publiek sigbaar gestel. Drie romans deur Leipoldt, wat in Engels geskryf is, is gepubliseer op ongereelde tussenposes tussen 1980 en 2001. Die romans stel Leipoldt in ‘n ander lig, wat daarop dui dat as 'n Engelse skrywer was hy gekant teen baie van die idees waarmee hy geassosieer was toe hy as 'n Afrikaanstalige skrywer beskou was. Hierdie idees het grootendeels vir Leipoldt gekoppel aan die Afrikaner-nasionalistiese projek van die twintigste eeu en het hom gekoöpteer tot Afrikaner nasionalistiese beleide van rasse-segregasie gegrond op die veldtog vir groepidentiteit. Die drie Engelstalige romans, gesamentlik die Valley-trilogie, openbaar nie net Leipoldt se teenkanting van die nasionalistiese projek nie, maar vestig ook aandag op sommige van sy ander werk in Afrikaans waarin hierdie selfde ideologiese opposisie aangeteken kan word. In hierdie tesis voer ek aan dat Leipoldt se Valley-trilogie, sowel as sommige van sy ander, Afrikaans werke, nie net die nasionalistiese projek weerlê nie, maar ook ‘n lesing aanbied van Suid-Afrikaanse moderniteit in die negentiende en twintigste eeus. Hierdie lesing van historiese gebeure in Suid-Afrika wat die trajek van die land se moderniteit openbaar is sterk aanduidend van 'n unieke literêre modernisme. Dit is my redenering dat Leipoldt se Valley-trilogie 'n modernistiese kritiek toon van die historiese gebeurtenisse wat dit aanbied. Omdat die konsep van 'n Suid-Afrikaanse modernisme in die letterkunde nog nie ten volle gedefineer is nie, is dit ook 'n doel van hierdie tesis om voor te stel dat Leipoldt se werke 'n breë maar volgehoue literêre kritiek bydra wat sy eie leeftyd dek (1880-1947) asook die historiese tydperk wat hy ondersoek in die Valley-trilogie (die laat 1830s tot die laat 1920s/vroë 1930s). Hierdie literêre vooruitsig, redeneer ek, is 'n modernistiese vooruitsig, maar ook 'n oorplanting van 'n Westerse begrip van wat die modernisme is tot die Suid-Afrikaanse konteks waarin daar belangrike verskille is. Hierdie tesis hoop tot 'n uitkoms wat Leipoldt se anti-nasionalisme bind tot aan sy literêre kritiek van die moderniteit wat hy ondersoek in die Valley-trilogie, en daardeur bewys dat Leipoldt gelees kan word word as 'n Suid-Afrikaanse literêre modernis

In this dissertation the author argued for a postcolonial reading of the sublime that takes into account the racial and gendered underpinnings of Immanuel Kant's and Edmund Burke's classic theories. The thesis used the understanding of the sublime as a lens for an analysis of the cultural politics of landscape in a range of late imperial and early modern texts about Africa. A re-reading of Henry Morton Stanley's central African exploration narratives, John Buchan's African fiction and political writing, and later texts such as Alan Paton's fiction, autobiographies and travel writing, together with an analysis of colonial mountaineering discourse, suggest that non-metropolitan discourses of the sublime, far from being an outmoded rhetoric, could manage and contain the contradictions inherent in the aesthetic appreciation and appropriation of contested colonial landscapes.

The intent of this thesis was to test the feasibility of constructing performance-for-development narrative using a constructive logic approach. I created an equation which expressed the sum of non-human-elements as the sum of a narrative with each element serving as a variable. I used a review of persuasion literature to provide insight into the selection and manipulation of each variable. I provided my family as a hypothetical example and used my knowledge of their preferences and communication styles in conjunction with the literature and the equation to craft a narrative which might increase pro-school attitudes in other families like my own. I found that there exists a narrative comprised of only non-human elements that are likely to yield change in an audience given a specific situation, and that a constructive logic approach can be used to craft performance-for-development narrative.

Orientador: Jose Oscar de Almeida Marques
Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Filosofia e Ciencias Humanas
Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-08T10:37:44Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Freire_CarloCurvelano_M.pdf: 793382 bytes, checksum: ff29a4faa0e2668d358a2f68cf823fe6 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007
Resumo: Os objetivos do presente estudo são, além de apontar na obra de Rousseau princípios de moral e de gosto que podem servir para esclarecer a gênese de seu famoso romance, mostrar que o autor, com sua Nova Heloísa, já antecipava para seus leitores alguns dos princípios de sua pedagogia, compilados sobretudo no Emílio, e demonstrava estar bem avançado no desenvolvimento de alguns dos princípios de sua teoria política, organizados de forma mais exaustiva sobretudo no Contrato Social.
Abstract: The objectives of the present study are, besides pointing in the work of Rousseau principles of moral and taste that may serve to elucidate the genesis of his famous romance, to show that the author, with his La nouvelle Heloise, already anticipated for his readers some of the principles of his pedagogy, compiled above all in the Emile, and has shown himself to be very advanced in the development of some principles of his political theory, organized in a exhaustive way chiefly in the Social Contract.
Mestrado
Historia da Filosofia Moderna
Mestre em Filosofia

Orientador: Marcelo Siqueira Ridenti
Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Filosofia e Ciencias Humanas
Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-07T01:44:23Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Santos_Robsondos_M.pdf: 537268 bytes, checksum: 1e18c6479bd995723fbb8fdd11644a50 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006
Resumo: Esta pesquisa propõe realizar uma análise das condições socioculturais intrínsecas ao espaço literário brasileiro na primeira metade do século XX, por meio das crônicas de Graciliano Ramos, reunidas nos livros Linhas Tortas e Viventes das Alagoas. Pautando-se numa abordagem sociológica da literatura, busca-se esclarecer como os escritos ¿ publicados originalmente em jornais e revistas do Rio de Janeiro e de Alagoas, entre 1915 e 1952 ¿ representam elaborações estéticas que sintetizam visões de mundo e que se imbricam à história social brasileira, ao direcionarem seu foco narrativo para os conflitos políticos, às alterações dos grupos detentores do poder, assim como à emergência de novos atores sociais. Objetiva-se ainda demonstrar como as crônicas exprimem o processo de transformações no campo literário e intelectual brasileiro, que não deixa de possuir reverberações na trajetória social e criativa de Graciliano Ramos
Abstract: This research propose a analysis of the social and cultural conditions in the brazilian literary space in the first half of the century XX, by means of the Graciliano Ramos's chronicles, congregated in books Linhas Tortas and Viventes das Alagoas. In conformity with the sociology of literature, looking for to understand this texts that was published originally in the periodicals and magazines of the Rio de Janeiro and Alagoas, between 1915 and 1952. This chronicles represent aesthetic elaborations that relate the brazilian social history. Its focus narrative is directed for the politicians and social conflicts. The investigation too to concern in to indicate how the chronicles show the transformations in the brazilian literary and intelectual field influencing the Graciliano Ramos's creations
Mestrado
Mestre em Sociologia

This project is an exploration of 20th century dystopian literature through the lens of germ theory. This scientific principle, which emerged in the late 19th century, asserts that microorganisms pervade the world; these invisible and omnipresent germs cause specific diseases which are often life threatening. Additionally, germ theory states that vaccines and antiseptics can prevent some of these afflictions and that antibiotics can treat others. This concept of a pervasive, invisible, infection-causing other is not just a biological principle, though; in this paper, I argue that one can interpret it as an ideological framework for understanding human existence as a whole. Particularly, I believe that authors of prominent 20th century dystopian novels applied the tenets of germ theory in order to explore the potential “pathogens” that furtively exist within the human mind. These pseudo-germs are various human tendencies that, when left “untreated” by governments, create nonnormative members of society. In the eyes of dystopian regimes, it is precisely this nonnormativity that poses a lethal threat, in that it challenges the continued existence of society with the current ruling body at the helm. In this paper, I trace love (both sexual and familial) and individuation (as a function of social hierarchy, recreational activities, and the use of language) as social disease-causing pathogens in George Orwell’s 1984 and in Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World.

Manga masterpiece Message to Adolf’s fictional narrative intertwines the Holocaust, romance, espionage, and friendship in its international World War II-focused narrative. Using theory on nationalism and Japanese memories of WWII, this thesis argues the violence the characters initiate and suffer blurs lines between perpetrator, hero, and victim to critique the power of nationalism. Its message concerning the danger of nationalism is as applicable for global audiences now as when it was published in 1985.

This thesis explores the history of the New Age movement through a political analysis of influential New Age books. By drawing upon cultural, religious and American studies, and concepts from literary criticism and political science, a new understanding of the movement becomes possible. This thesis analyses the ideological representations and rhetorical strategies employed in both New Age literature and American presidential discourse. It is argued that their shared imagery and discursive features indicate that New Age writings derive their ideological underpinnings and textual devices from dominant beliefs of American nationalism. This historical examination begins with the Cold War in the late 1940s and ends with the 1990s. Each chapter traces parallels between a particular presidential discourse and New Age texts published in the same decade commencing with Dwight D. Eisenhower and The Doors of Perception and finishing with William J. Clinton and The Celestine Prophecy: An Adventure. It argues that the appropriation of particular spiritualities in New Age texts is closely related to contemporary American geo-political interests and understandings. Major New Age spiritual trends are derived from regions, most often in the third world, which are considered to be under threat from forces such as Communism. New Age writings construct an imaginary possession of these worlds, reconfiguring these sites into frontiers of American influence. In particular, this study examines the influence of the jeremiads and the ensuing Monroe Doctrine and Manifest Destiny ideologies upon post-war national beliefs and the extent to which these understandings of nationalism inform New Age discourse. Representations of time and space, destiny and landscape, and self and other in these literary and political contexts are analysed. From this perspective, the eclecticism that marks the New Age can be historically understood as a shifting cultural expression of Cold War and post-Cold War political responses. Consequently, New Age literature is one of the means by which dominant American identity is reproduced and disseminated in what seems to be an alternative spiritual context.

Bibliography: pages 242-266.
The general aims of this dissertation are: to study a form of literature traditionally disregarded by a text-bound academy; to argue that form is an important element in ideological analyses of the poetry under discussion; and, on the basis of this second aim, to argue for a comparative, rigorously critical approach to the poetry of Mzwakhe Mbuli. Previous evaluations of Mbuli's poetry are characterised by acclaim which, the author contends, is only possible because of under-researched criticism, representing a general trend in South African literary culture. Compared to Linton Kwesi Johnson's work, for instance, Mbuli's poetry does not emerge as the innovative and progressive art - in both content and form - it is claimed to be. Mbuli and his critics are thus read as a case study of a general trend. Johnson and Mbuli mainly perform their poetry with musical accompaniment and distribute it as sound-recording. This study's approach then differs from the approaches of general oral literature studies because influential writers on oral literature - specifically Walter J. Ong, Ruth Finnegan and Paul Zumthor - do not address the genre under investigation here. Nevertheless, their writings are explored in order to show why particularly Ong and Finnegan's approaches are inadequate. The author argues that using the orality of the poetry as an organising, theoretical principle is insufficient for the task at hand. On cue from Zumthor, this study suggests an approach through Cultural Studies and conceives of the subject matter as popular culture.

Bibliography: pages 217-232.
Yali-Manisi, a Xhosa writer, performs and writes traditional praise poetry (izibongo) and modern poems (isihobe) and can, therefore, be regarded as a bard because he also performs his poetry. One can safely place him in the interphase as he combines performance and writing. The influence of oral poems and other oral genres can be perceived in his works as some of his works are a product of performances which were recorded, transcribed and translated into English. The dissertation, among other things, examines the way in which Yali-Manisi's work has been influenced by such manipulations. In this study we examine lzibongo Zeenkosi ZamaXhosa, lmfazwe kaMianjeni, Yaphum'igqina and other individually recorded poems. His poetry is characterised by an interaction between tradition and innovation. The impact of traditional poetic canon on the poet, the way of exploiting traditional devices are the most outstanding characteristics concerning his poetry. His optimistic disposition towards the future of the South African political situation leaves one with the impression that he envisages an end to the Black-White political dichotomy. Yali-Manisi manipulates literary forms to articulate specific socio-political and cultural attitudes which are dominant among the majority of South Africans. His writings coincide with some of the major political changes in South Africa. In his recent works, he is explicit and protests against Apartheid structures especially in Transkei and Ciskei. In his earlier works he could not articulate the feelings of his people as an imbongi because of the fear of censorship and themes of protests had to be handled with extreme caution if one's manuscripts were to be published at all. He often alludes to national oppression of the majority by the minority and instigates the former to be politically conscious. In some instances (e.g. in his historical poems) he seeks to correct inaccuracies which are presented in history books. Thus showing the listener/reader another side of the coin. He displays very keen interest and deep knowledge of natural phenomena such as seasons of the year and the behaviour of animals during each period. Poems about historical figures are characterised by certain allusions which refer to realities and events in the life of the 'praised one' or his forefathers. This helps to shed light on the present situation. Although fictitious adaptations of genuine events have been done, an element of reality is still prevalent.

Thesis (MA (Political Science))--University of Stellenbosch, 2010.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study explores the claim that Great Power Wars are a necessary condition for successful hegemonic ascent in the modern world-system, primarily from the standpoint of World- Systems Analysis. This study advances the conception of hegemony primarily in economic and state terms, and it was investigated, by way of a historical case study, how the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648) impacted the economic domains of agro-industrial production, commerce, and finance of the United Provinces of the Netherlands, and its main rival for systemic leadership, Hapsburg Spain. The variables utilised in the study were Great Power War, and the ‘material base’ of the state involved (both independent), the three abovementioned economic domains (intervening), and hegemony or defeat (dependent). The case study was primarily descriptive and explanatory, with the use of process-tracing in its compilation, and a method of within-case structured, focused comparison was utilised with the aim of tentatively producing standardised, generalised knowledge concerning the wider link between Great Power War and hegemony beyond the Dutch case. The findings of the study, although derived from only one historical case of hegemonic ascent in the modern world-system, strongly support the argument that Great Power War is necessary to secure the hegemony of the leading insular core state, which is physically removed from the fighting during the conflict, since the full mobilisation of its economy is effected, while the economies of most other core states are impaired, especially the main continental rival for hegemony. However, the ascending hegemon must also possess the requisite favourable ‘material base’. Further research on this topic is called for, given the potential destructiveness of a future Great Power War, and its role in establishing hegemony in the modern world-system.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie studie ondersoek die bewering dat Groot Moontheid Oorloë ‘n noodsaaklike vereiste is vir suksesvolle hegemoniese bestyging in die moderne wêreld-sisteem, hoofsaaklik vanaf die standpunt van Wêreld-Sisteem Analise. Hierdie studie bevorder die konsepsie van hegemonie hoofsaaklik in ekonomiese en staat terme, en dit het ondersoek, deur middel van ‘n historiese gevallestudie, hoe die Dertig Jaar Oorlog (1618-1648) ingewerk het op die ekonomiese arenas van agri-industriële produksie, handel, and finansies van die Verenigde Provinsies van Nederland, en hul mededinger vir sistemiese leierskap, Spanje. Die veranderlikes wat in die studie ingespan was, was Groot Moontheid Oorlog, en die ‘materiële basis’ van die state in kwessie (onafhanlik), die drie bogenoemde ekonomiese arenas (albei tussenkomend), en hegemonie of nederlaag (afhanklik). Die gevallestudie was hoofsaaklik beskrywend en verduidelikend, en proses-nasporing (oftewel ‘process-tracing’) is in die samestelling daarvan benut, en ‘n metode van gestruktureerde, gefokusde vergelyking (oftewel ‘structured, focused comparison’) is gebruik binne die gevallestudie met die doel om tentatiewe gestandardiseerde en veralgemeende kennis te genereer wat bydra tot die verduideliking van die wyer skakel tussen Groot Moontheid Oorlog en hegemonie buite die geval van die Verenigde Provinsies. Die bevindinge van die studie, hoewel gegenereer aan die hand van slegs een historiese geval van hegemoniese bestyging in the moderne wêreld-sisteem, het sterk steun verleen aan die argument dat Groot Moontheid Oorloë nodig is om die hegemonie van die vernaamste insulêre kern staat te bewerkstellig, wat fisies verwyderd van die gevegte is tydends die oorlog, aangesien die volle mobilisasie van die ekonomie van hierdie staat bewerkstellig word, terwyl die ekonomieë van die meerderheid van die ander kernstate benadeel word, veral die vernaamste kontinentale mededinger om hegemonie. Die opkomende hegemoon moet egter ook oor die vereiste gunstige ‘materiële basis’ beskik. Verdere navorsing in hierdie veld word benodig, gegewe die waarskynlike vernietiging wat gesaai kan word deur ‘n toekomstige Groot Moontheid Oorlog, en die rol daarvan in die daarstelling van hegemonie in die moderne wêreld-sisteem.

This thesis explores E. M. Forster's interest in the politics of music, illustrating the importance of music to Forster's conceptions of personal relationships and imperialism, national character and literary influence, pacifism and heroism, class and amateurism. Discussing Forster's novels, short stories, essays, lectures, letters, diaries, and broadcast talks, the thesis looks into the political nuances in Forster's numerous allusions and references to musical composition, performance, and consumption. In so doing, the thesis challenges previous formalistic studies of Forster's representations of music by highlighting his attention to the contentious relations between music and political contingencies. The first chapter examines A Passage to India, considering Forster's depictions of music in relation to the novel's concern with friendship and imperialism. It explores the ways in which music functions politically in Forster's most ‘rhythmical' novel. The second chapter focuses on Forster's description of the performance of Lucia di Lammermoor in Where Angels Fear to Tread. Reading this highly crafted scene as Forster's attempt to ‘modernize' fictional narrative, it discusses Forster's negotiation of national character and literary heritage. The third chapter assesses Forster's Wagnerism, scrutinizing the conjunction between Forster's rumination on heroism and his criticism of Siegfried. The chapter pays particular attention to Forster's uncharacteristic silence on Wagner during and after the Second World War. The fourth chapter investigates Forster's celebration of musical amateurism. By analysing his characterization of musical amateurs and professionals in ‘The Machine Stops', Arctic Summer, and Maurice, the chapter discusses the gender and class politics of Forster's championing of freedom and idiosyncrasy.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2005.
Title from first page of PDF file. Document formatted into pages; contains x, 555 p. Includes bibliographical references (p. 512-555). Available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center.

This study was designed to identify correlates of success in Supported Employment(SE) programs for persons with psychiatric disabilities. Indiana policy-makers are seriously considering a managed care, or "capitated," system of payment to make SE provider programs more efficient economically. However, many agencies are concerned about providing services to more severely impaired individuals because of the potentially higher costs of serving these individuals. Two studies are included in this project. The goals of the first study were to identify SE consumer (clinical) characteristics that predict (1) successful outcomes, defined as whether the consumer achieves gainful work, and (2) program costs, defined as the amounts of SE service hours utilized by consumers who obtain work. In two large samples of SE consumers with serious mental illness, no clinical characteristics (e.g., diagnosis, rated functioning, hospitalization history) were associated with vocational outcome or service costs. The goal of the second study was to describe the types and amounts of services utilized by SE consumers who obtain work. Specific service categories associated with obtaining work were travel, training, and advocacy that was unrelated to the consumer's job. The implications of these findings are discussed in the framework of the debate over clinical versus empirical prediction. The need for a theoretical model of SE services that allows the use of predictive clinical and consumer driven services is also discussed.
Department of Journalism

This thesis is an examination of euthanasia, eugenics, the ethic of patient care, and linguistic propaganda in the Second World War. The examination of euthanasia discusses not only the history and involvement of the facility at Hadamar in Germany, but also discuss the current euthanasia debate. Euthanasia in World War II arose out of the Nazi desire to cleanse the Reich and was greatly influenced by the American eugenics movement of the early 20th century. Eugenics was built up to include anyone considered undesirable and unworthy of life and killed many thousands of people before the invasion of allied troops in 1944. Paramount to euthanasia is forced sterilization, the ethic of patient care, and how the results of the research conducted on euthanasia victims before their deaths should be used. The Nazis were able to change the generally accepted terms that researchers use to describe their experiments and this change affected how modern doctors and researchers use the terms in current research. This thesis includes research conducted in Germany and the United States from varied resources.

Orientador: Mário Luiz Frungillo
Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem
Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-23T10:32:47Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Bittencourt_RodrigodoPrado_M.pdf: 570719 bytes, checksum: b34aad4dc718b9dd967052de186aef46 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013
Resumo: Este texto busca estudar os aspectos políticos, históricos e sociais trabalhados por João Guimarães Rosa em "A estória de Lélio e Lina", texto presente em Corpo de Baile. Para isso, se analisará como as palavras e ações de Lina servem para resgatar a ordem de um mundo em transformação. Ao se perceber em pleno encontro do moderno com o tradicional na zona rural de Minas Gerais no final do século XIX e início do XX, Lélio sente-se perdido. Ele precisa de Lina para se situar em meio ao dinamismo da História e poder formular/reformular seu papel enquanto agente e sujeito de sua vida. As referências que o texto faz aos processos de transformação histórica são o objeto da pesquisa. O que insere este trabalho na linha de análise dos componentes históricos e sociais presentes na obra de Rosa e, sem desprezar os outros enfoques analíticos, busca analisar tal obra em meio à cultura e à época em que ela se desenvolveu e ver o que ela tem a dizer a respeito de seu mundo
Abstract: This text aims to study the political, historical and social aspects worked by João Guimarães Rosa in his novel "A estória de Lélio e Lina", present in the book Corpo de Baile. To achieve this, it going to analyze how the words and actions of Lina serve to rescue the order of a changing world. Finding himself in full meeting of modern and traditional in rural Minas Gerais in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Lelio feels disoriented. He needs Lina to keep strong himself amid the dynamism of the History and can to formulate / reformulate its role as agent and leader of his life. The references that this text makes to the processes of historical transformation are the object of the research. So, this study falls in line with the analysis of social and historical components present in the books of Rosa and, without neglecting the other analytical approaches, this article seeks to analyze these works in the contexts of the Culture and the History in which his Literature developed itself and see what she has to say about their world
Mestrado
Teoria e Critica Literaria
Mestre em Teoria e História Literária

Thesis (M.A.)--Indiana University, 2010.
Title from screen (viewed on July 19, 2010). Department of English, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). Advisor(s): Karen Kovacik, Peggy Zeglin Brand, Ronda C. Henry. Includes vitae. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 79-83).

This dissertation discusses Gayl Jones’s and Toni Morrison’s characterisation of black women’s journeying towards empowered subjectivity and agency.

Through comparative analysis of eight fictional works, I explore the writers’ idea of female freedom and emancipation, the structures of power affecting the transition from oppressed towards liberated subject positions, and the literary techniques through which the authors facilitate these seminal trajectories.

My research addresses a corpus comprised of three novels and one book-long poem by Gayl Jones, as well as four novels by Toni Morrison. These two writers emerge in the US literary scene during the 1970s, one of the decades of the second black women’s renaissance (1970s, 1980s). This period witnessed unprecedented developments in US black literature and feminist theorising. In the domain of African American letters, it witnessed the emergence of a host of black women writers such as Gayl Jones and Toni Morrison. This period also marks a turning point in the reconfiguration of African American literature, as several unknown or misplaced literary works by pioneering black women writers were discovered, shifting the chronology of African American literature.

Moreover, the second black women's renaissance marks a paradigmatic development in black feminist theorising on womanhood and subjectivity. Many black feminist scholars and activists challenged what they perceived to be the homogenising female subject conceptualised by US white middle-class feminism and the androcentricity of the subject proclaimed by the Black Aesthetic Movement. They claimed that, in focusing solely on gender and patriarchal oppression, white feminism had overlooked the salience of the race/class nexus, while focus by the Black Aesthetic Movement on racism had overlooked the salience of gender and heterosexual discrimination.

In this dissertation, I discuss the works of Gayl Jones and Toni Morrison in the context of seminal debates on the nature of the female subject and the racial and gender politics affecting the construction of empowered subjectivities in black women's fiction.

Through the metaphor of journeying towards female empowerment, I show how Gayl Jones and Toni Morrison engage in imaginative returns to the past in an attempt to relocate black women as literary subjects of primary importance. I also show how, in the works selected for discussion, a complex idea of modern female subjectivities emerges from the writers' re-examination of the oppressive material and psychological circumstances under which pioneering black women lived, the common practice of sexual exploitation with which they had to contend, and the struggle to assert the dignity of their womanhood beyond the parameters of the white-defined “ideological discourse of true womanhood” (Carby, 1987: 25).

Doctorat en philosophie et lettres, Orientation langue et littérature
info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

1. Introduction

Le 10 mai 1940 et pour la seconde fois en vingt ans, la Belgique est envahie par l’Allemagne. Contrairement à l’invasion de la Grande Guerre, il ne faut que dix-huit jours aux armées teutonnes pour écraser l’armée belge et occuper le territoire national tout entier. Peu avant la fin des hostilités, la vie culturelle reprend néanmoins timidement. Dès la fin mai 1940, les cinémas rouvrent leurs portes. La presse reparaît sous surveillance allemande. L’édition du livre, machine beaucoup plus lourde, ne reprend son activité qu’à la fin de l’été de 1940. Avec la signature des conventions bilatérales puis internationales sur la propriété intellectuelle dans la seconde moitié du XIXe siècle, la Belgique a vu le secteur de l’édition du livre s’effondrer. Le public belge marque en outre une certaine désaffection envers les auteurs belges et plus particulièrement envers ceux qui se font éditer localement. N’est-ce pas le mémorialiste français Georges Suarez qui écrivait, en 1932, que « L’écrivain wallon trouve devant lui une route hérissée de difficultés ;son public est clairsemé, épars, capricieux […] ;les snobs locaux, acceptent les yeux fermés tout ce qui vient de Paris […] mais exercent un contrôle hautain sur leurs auteurs nationaux » (Georges Suarez, La Belgique vivante. Préface d’André Tardieu. [Louvain, Editions Rex, 1932], p.28-29). Toutes catégories confondues – presse quotidienne ou périodique, livres et brochures diverses –, la production éditoriale belge – domaines francophone, néerlandophone, germanophone et dialectal wallon confondus – connaît pourtant entre 1936 et 1939 une courbe ascendante ;puis, de 1941 à 1945, une inflexion avant de voir remonter lentement la production de 1946 à 1949. Le pic de l’année 1938 ne sera pas égalé dans les dix années qui suivent. En 1939, nous constatons une très infime baisse de l’offre de titres :1,1%. Les sommets atteints par l’éventail de titres proposés en 1938 et 1939 s’explique par la mobilisation des réservistes qui n’ont d’autres loisirs que la lecture. En 1940, le chaos qui suit la Campagne des Dix-Huit Jours contraint la plupart des éditeurs à l’inactivité. La reprise de certains secteurs de l’édition au début de l’été permet toutefois de maintenir une production de titres supérieure aux années 1935-1936. La production reprend de façon spectaculaire en 1941, dépassant le niveau de 1939 et se rapprochant de celui de 1938. Nous interprétons cette remontée du nombre de titres par l’effet de la fermeture des frontières et donc par la nécessité de présenter de nouveaux titres au public belge avide de lecture. De 1942 à 1944, la chute spectaculaire s’explique sans doute par la disparition d’une grande partie de la presse périodique et par le caractère de plus en plus contraignant de la censure allemande. Celle-ci réduit le nombre de titres publiés à cause de la raréfaction croissante du papier disponible. Remarquons que la raréfaction des titres disponibles sur le marché n’implique pas obligatoirement une diminution quantitative des tirages. A partir du mois de septembre 1944 et en 1945, un certain nombre d’éditeurs sont placés sous les projecteurs de la Justice militaire et interrompent ou cessent leurs activités. Par ailleurs, une série de petits éditeurs occasionnels qui publiaient n’importe quoi sous n’importe quelle forme disparaissent du champ éditorial. De plus, la pénurie de papier, les ruptures de fourniture d’électricité industrielle qui fait tourner les rotatives et la réouverture des frontières aux importations françaises, puis néerlandaise dans la seconde moitié de l’année 1945, incitent les éditeurs belges à la frilosité. Enfin, en 1946, la reprise peut s’expliquer par la stabilisation économique.

2. L’épuration des bibliothèques et des librairies

Même si la liberté de presse est garantie par la Constitution, la loi belge organise les délits de presse. Les circonstances exceptionnelles de la déclaration de guerre de la France et de l’Angleterre à l’Allemagne à la suite de l’invasion de la Pologne provoquent la création d’un éphémère Ministère de l’Information nationale (1939-1940), puis d’un Service d’Information du Premier Ministre (1940). Une censure larvée, justifiée par la sécurité du territoire et le respect de la neutralité de la Belgique, est d’ailleurs exercée dès le mois de septembre 1939 afin d’éviter tout prétexte d’intervention de la part des belligérants. Durant les premiers mois de l’Occupation, une épuration anarchique s’exerce à l’encontre des bibliothèques privées et des librairies. Ce sont tantôt des soldats qui brûlent des livres trouvés sur les rayonnages de leur logement réquisitionné, tantôt des officiers qui prennent la mouche en découvrant chez le libraire de leur nouveau lieu de résidence un opuscule de l’espèce J’ai descendu mon premier Boche. Dès le 13 août 1940, la Militärverwaltung ordonne l’épuration systématique des bibliothèques publiques et des librairies. Tout livre ou brochure anti-allemand ou anti-nazi doit être immédiatement mis sous clef et bientôt déposé entre les mains des services allemands. Le soin de déterminer ce qui tombe ou non dans cette catégorie particulièrement vague est laissé à la seule appréciation des bibliothécaires et des libraires. Ceux-ci doivent attendre le mois de septembre 1941 pour que la Propaganda Abteilung daigne publier une liste de 1800 titres interdits. Des compléments sont ensuite régulièrement insérés dans le Journal de la Librairie de la Gilde du Livre et dans les Mededeelingen van het Boekengilde. Le Ministère de l’Instruction publique charge de surcroît des enseignants et des inspecteurs d’épurer les manuels scolaires de tout propos anti-allemands. Cette mesure a pour but d’éviter que l’occupant ne s’en charge lui-même et n’impose le manuel unique à l’instar de ce qui se passe Outre-Rhin. Le 8 octobre 1940, sans en avoir soumis le texte aux autorités allemandes, le Ministère de l’Instruction publique crée donc une Commission chargée de la révision des ouvrages classiques pour l’enseignement normal, moyen, primaire et gardien, plus communément désignée sous le nom de Commission pour la Révision des Ouvrages Classiques. Composée de collaborationnistes notoires mais également d’authentiques résistants, la Commission examinera près de 5000 titres entre la fin octobre 1940 et la fin mai 1944 ;elle interdira l’usage de 564 manuels et en fera modifier 182 autres.

3. La censure des livres

Au début de l’été, les Allemands chargent l’Union des Industries Graphiques & du Livre (UNIGRA), le syndicat des imprimeurs belges, d’exercer une censure préalable générale et d’empêcher ainsi la publication de tout propos anti-allemand. Cette censure est ensuite circonscrite, à partir du 20 août 1940, à la littérature qui traite de sujets militaires et politiques (en ce compris les questions concernant la race, le judaïsme et la Franc-maçonnerie). Le 24 septembre 1940, la Propaganda Abteilung prend le relais de l’organisme belge. Le Referat Schrifttum est dirigé par le Sonderführer Pr Dr Hans Teske et par son adjoint le Sonderführer Leutenant Bruno Orlick. Durant son premier exercice, ce bureau de la littérature refuse 100 manuscrits sur les 600 qu’il examine. A partir du 15 janvier 1943, invoquant le manque de papier, le Referat Schrifttum impose aux éditeurs de soumettre tous leurs manuscrits. Chaque demande est établie en triple exemplaire. Le premier est conservé dans les dossiers de la Propaganda Abteilung, les deux autres exemplaires sont transmis à l’Office Central du Papier - Papier Centrale (OCP-PC). Celui-ci y appose un numéro correspondant à un bon de consommation de papier. L’un est conservé dans les archives de l’OCP et l’autre est retourné à l’éditeur qui doit le présenter à l’imprimeur. Sans ce bon de consommation, l’imprimeur ne peut entreprendre le travail puisqu’il doit justifier les quantités utilisées dans ses ateliers. Tout le processus de contrôle apparaît dans les livres sous la forme de numéros précédés des mentions « Autorisation PA n° » / « Toelating PA nr » / « Zulassung Nr… » et « OCP n° » / « PC nr ». Parfois encore, le numéro d’affiliation de l’imprimeur auprès de l’OCP figure dans le colophon du volume. Chaque numéro est lié à un titre et à l’éditeur qui le demande. En cas d’annulation du projet par l’éditeur, le numéro est alors perdu. Du côté de la SS, l’Abteilung III C 4 de la Sicherheitsdienst se charge notamment de la surveillance des Editions autorisées. Contrairement à la Propaganda Abteilung qui intervient le plus souvent en amont, la SD intervient essentiellement en aval. Celle-ci saisit les ouvrages « séditieux » qui auraient pu échapper à la sagacité des censeurs de la Propaganda Abteilung, ou à l’autocensure des éditeurs belges.

4. La pénurie de papier

Avant la guerre, la Belgique importait la quasi-totalité des matières premières destinées à la fabrication du papier et du carton. Mais le déclenchement des hostilités a rendu l’approvisionnement difficile et réduit en conséquence la fabrication du papier. La pénurie des matières premières provoque une réaction rapide de l’administration militaire allemande. Dès le 17 juin 1940, elle exige un état des lieux de la production, des stocks et de la consommation qui permette la rationalisation de l’économie. Parallèlement à ces mesures et en complément à celles-ci, le Ministère des Affaires économiques crée en février 1941 un Office Central du Papier pour veiller à la production et à l’utilisation rationnelle du papier et du carton. Près de la moitié de la cellulose est alors consacrée à la fabrication de produits ersatz comme le carton-cuir pour les chaussures ou le « Balatum » et l’« Unalit ». En mai 1941, l’OCP interdit la fabrication de produits de luxe tels les confettis, les sous-bocks et le papier-dentelle pour tarte. Les besoins en papier et carton augmentent cependant :pour les emballages en replacement d’autres matières devenues rares, pour le papier d’occultation, ou encore pour la paperasserie administrative occasionnée par la rationalisation de l’économie. En avril 1942, le Referat Papier, sous prétexte de rationalisation, ordonne la fermeture de près de la moitié des papeteries. Mais celles qui restent en activité souffrent de la pénurie de matières premières et de combustible qui entraîne une baisse de la production. En octobre 1942, prétextant cette fois la pénurie de papier, le Referat Schrifttum interdit la publication de livres à plus de 5.000 exemplaires mais autorise des dépassements aux éditeurs suffisamment bien en cour. La consommation de papier est alors contrôlée par l’OCP. En avril 1943, le spectre de la pénurie permet encore le recensement des stocks de papier chez les imprimeurs. Or personne n’est la dupe de ces dernières mesures qui relèvent plus de la censure que de l’économie.

5. La restructuration économique et professionnelle

Dès le début de l’été 1940, la Militärverwaltung commence de saisir les biens ennemis, c’est-à-dire français et britanniques. Grâce à la mise sous séquestre des avoirs du Groupe Hachette, l’actionnaire français de l’Agence Dechenne, le principal distributeur de presse en Belgique est administré par un Allemand, représentant des intérêts du groupe éditorial allemand Amann. Celui-ci obtient le monopole de l’importation de quotidiens étrangers et de la distribution des journaux belges. Il réussit également à devenir le principal grossiste en livres, imposant aux éditeurs le choix de certains titres, le tirage et parfois la couverture des livres. En novembre 1940, tous les éditeurs de livres et de périodiques ainsi que les libraires doivent s’inscrire au Cercle belge de la Librairie ou à son homologue flamand. En juin 1942, le Ministère des Affaires Economiques institue la Gilde du Livre / Boekengilde qui détient, par le biais de ses deux chambres linguistiques, le monopole de la représentation professionnelle. En 1941, l’Occupant suscite la formation d’un organisme de collaboration, la Communauté culturelle wallonne (CCW) qui devrait investir le champ culturel, à l’instar de la Deutsch-Vlämische Arbeitsgemeinschaft (DeVlag). Dirigée par l’écrivain prolétarien Pierre Hubermont, la CCW tente de regrouper les auteurs au sein d’une Chambre des Lettres françaises et d’une Chambre des Lettres dialectales. Très peu d’intellectuels se rallieront à cet organisme rapidement démonétisé. A la suite du congrès européen des écrivains tenu à Weimar en octobre 1941, une Europäische Schriftsteller Vereinigung est par ailleurs fondée le 27 mars 1942. Cette Société Européenne des Ecrivains (SEE), destinée à remplacer le PEN-Club international, encourage les traductions et la diffusion des ouvrages de ses membres. Pierre Hubermont est désigné pour tenir le rôle de porte-parole de la Section wallonne et belge de langue française (SWBLF) qui commence d’être organisée dans le courant du mois de mars 1942. Seule une poignée d’écrivains répondront aux sirènes de Weimar. En 1943 la Communauté Culturelle Wallonne fonde une nouvelle structure plus discrète, et surtout, moins discréditée :la Fédération des Artistes wallons et belges d’expression française (FAWBEF) dont l’intitulé est très proche de celui de la section locale de la SEE. Il ne s’agit pas d’un repli stratégique de la part de Pierre Hubermont – qui est cependant contraint de constater le semi échec de la CCW – mais d’une tentative d’officialisation de la structure corporative ébauchée par la CCW sous l’œil attentif du Ministère de l’Instruction publique. La FAWBEF ébauche la création d’une Chambre de Littérature subdivisée en Chambre des Ecrivains d’expression française, en Chambre des Ecrivains d’expression wallonne, en Chambre des Traducteurs et en Chambre des Editeurs. Le but est d’aboutir à une adhésion obligatoire et ainsi à un contrôle de l’accès à la profession. Depuis l’instauration de la législation et la signature des conventions internationales sur la protection des droits d’auteur dans la seconde moitié du XIXe siècle, les redevances sont essentiellement perçues en Belgique par des sociétés de droit français. Face à cette situation de perceptions multiples, l’administration militaire allemande impose une perception unique par une société de droit belge. Dans un premier temps, la Militärverwaltung place sous séquestre les sociétés françaises qui disposent du monopole de fait de la perception des droits d’auteur en Belgique francophone. Dans un second temps, au début du mois de janvier 1941, la Nationale Vereeniging voor Auteursrecht (NAVEA) est réquisitionnée et désignée pour détenir le monopole de la perception des droits. Toujours en janvier 1941, une tentative de rallier l’Association des Artistes professionnels de Belgique (AAPB) à la société unique afin d’en faire sa section francophone échoue grâce à la résistance de ses dirigeants. L’AAPB est alors dissoute par les Allemands. Le monopole de la NAVEA pose de nombreux problèmes juridiques. Pour toucher les droits de suite, les artistes et leurs ayants droit doivent devenir membre de la NAVEA, alors que les sociétés françaises interdisent la double appartenance sous peine de perdre les droits à la pension. Après d’âpres pourparlers, la NAVEA s’engage à payer les pensions pour les artistes qui la rejoindraient rapidement. La NAVEA ne collabore pourtant pas avec l’occupant puisque, clandestinement, celle-ci noue un accord avec la société anglaise The Performing Right Society, via Lausanne et Lisbonne, et répartit en secret les droits des auteurs anglais et américains. Elle tente de surcroît de protéger ses affiliés juifs en refusant de livrer la liste des ses adhérents.

6. La production

Malgré les contraintes liées à la pénurie de papier et celles qu’impose la censure, les éditeurs belges profitent des circonstances pour éditer à tour de bras tout et n’importe quoi, puisant essentiellement dans le vivier des littérateurs locaux. En effet, les Belges s’adonnent au loisir peu onéreux de la lecture. La fermeture des frontières bloque les importations de livres français et néerlandais. D’une part, la culture flamande est revalorisée alors que toute velléité pan-néerlandaise est combattue. D’autre part, la littérature française est contingentée :les Lettres françaises sont systématiquement dénigrées car on les juge délétères. Enfin, la germanisation rampante va bon train grâce à la promotion des Lettres scandinaves et allemandes :il s’agit de remodeler les structures mentales des lecteurs grâce aux traductions. Les tirages sont énormes pour des valeurs sûres comme le Leeuw van Vlaanderen (200 000 exemplaires) d’Hendrik Conscience et De Vlaschaard (100 000 exemplaires) de Stijn Streuvels. La plupart des maisons d’édition développent ou inaugurent des collections de lettres étrangères. A la suite de pressions du Referat Schrifttum, rares sont les grands éditeurs qui ne publient pas de traductions de l’allemand. Aux quelques éditeurs rétifs, le chef du Referat Schrifttum suggère de remplacer les textes allemands par des traductions d’auteurs scandinaves et finno-estoniens. C’est ainsi qu’une maison anti-allemande éditera des romans du prix Nobel norvégien Knut Hamsun pourtant rallié à la collaboration la plus dure. Mais les éditeurs ne peuvent pas publier toutes les traductions :les auteurs slaves du nord (Russes et Polonais), anglo-saxons contemporains et juifs sont considérés comme indésirables et interdits. Le Referat Schrifttum autorise la publication de romans anglo-saxons qui ne sont pas encore tombés dans le domaine public. Ces autorisations exceptionnelles ont trait à des textes qui dénigrent systématiquement le modèle social britannique et américain. Curieusement sont ainsi traduits des romans remettant en cause un ordre social ou moral comme Babbitt (1943) de Sinclair Lewis, The Grapes of Wrath (De Druiven der gramschap, 1943 et Grappes d’amertume, 1944) de John Steinbeck, The Picture of Dorian Gray (Le Portrait de Dorian Gray, 1944) d’Oscar Wilde ou encore The Rains came (La Mousson, 1944) de Louis Bromfield. La réédition de The Scarlet Pimpernel (Le Mouron Rouge, 1943) de la baronne Emmuska Orczy dénonce le fanatisme de la Révolution Française et stigmatise l’hédonisme de la Gentry anglaise. A titre d’exemple, les Editions de La Toison d’Or, financées par les Allemands, publient 26 % de traductions, les Editions Les Ecrits sortent 31,75 % de traductions. A l’Uitgeverij De Lage Landen qui publie en langues néerlandaise, allemande et française, les traductions constituent 44 % du catalogue néerlandais.

7. Les éditeurs

La demande permet à une nouvelle génération d’éditeur de se manifester. Certaines maisons d’édition sont créées avec l’appui de l’un ou l’autre service allemand. D’autres, qui ne s’inscrivent pourtant pas dans une politique de collaboration, sont fondées sous le regard attentif de la Propaganda Abteilung. Des maisons jugées hostiles au national-socialisme sont mises sous séquestre. Enfin, des administrateurs provisoires et des directeurs littéraires inféodés au nouveau pouvoir sont nommés. Comme le reste de la population, les acteurs du champ éditorial adoptent un éventail de positions qui va de la Résistance à la Collaboration avec, pour le plus grand nombre, une accommodation à des degrés divers. Si certains choisissent de résister et freinent la politique allemande du livre dans la mesure de leurs moyens, aucun toutefois n’entre dans la clandestinité. A partir du 15 janvier 1943, tous les manuscrits doivent toutefois passer entre les mains de l’administration allemande ;ce sera souvent la seule compromission des éditeurs. La grande majorité des maisons reste patriote, à l’instar des Editions Casterman, des Editions Dupuis ou des Editions Charles Dessart. Un réseau éditorial d’Ordre nouveau est en revanche composé par Léon Degrelle et des rexistes. Le 25 août 1940, la s.a. La Presse de Rex obtient de pouvoir sortir à nouveau son quotidien de combat, Le Pays Réel (1936). La ligne éditoriale outrancière du journal ne parvient pas à fidéliser son lectorat (moins de 10 000 exemplaires vendus en 1942) et Degrelle renfloue les caisses de la rédaction grâce aux bénéfices du Palais des Parfums, une entreprise juive spoliée, et à des subventions de la SS. En 1943, Degrelle finance un nouveau quotidien, L’Avenir, inspiré de Paris Soir. Le groupe de presse de Degrelle publie également des hebdomadaires :une version collaborationniste du Pourquoi Pas ?intitulée pour l’occasion Voilà ;Tout, copié sur les géants Match, Tempo et Signal ;Indiscrétions, un magazine de mode qui prend rapidement le titre Elle et Lui ;et une revue pour jeunes gens, Mon Copain « volé ». La Presse de Rex possède encore trois maisons d’édition :les Editions Rex (1929), les Editions Ignis (1939), l’Uitgeverij Ignis (1941) et les Editions de L’Archer (1944). La s.a. Editoria, dirigée par le critique d’art Paul Colin, fait également partie du même réseau. Editoria regroupe la Nouvelle Société d’Edition (1934), l’hebdomadaire Cassandre (1934) et Le Nouveau Journal (1940). Des journalistes rexistes participent à la création de maisons littéraires :Claude Chabry fonde, en 1943, les éditions du même nom, les Editions du Rond-Point (1943) puis les Editions de La Mappemonde (1943) ;Victor Meulenijzer s’associe au caricaturiste de Cassandre René Marinus pour monter Les Editions du Dragon (1944) ;Eugène Maréchal relance en 1941 les Editions Maréchal (1938) et participe à la création des Editions du Carrefour (1943). Julien Bernaerts, le fondateur des Editions de la Phalange (1934) et de l’Uitgeverij De Phalanx (1938), se rallie à l’Ordre nouveau. Il est bientôt remarqué par le SS-Hauptsturmführer Hans Schneider qui travaille pour l’Ahnenerbe, le cercle académique de la SS. En 1943, Schneider persuade Bernaerts de créer l’Uitgeverij De Burcht. Dans le même cadre, Franz Briel, Léon Van Huffel et René Baert mettent sur pied les Editions de La Roue Solaire (1943). Proche de la SS, le directeur de l’Uitgeverij Steenlandt (DeVlag), Jan Acke, est abattu par la résistance. Il n’est pas le seul puisque Paul Colin est bientôt exécuté par un étudiant de l’Université libre de Bruxelles, Arnaud Fraiteur. Toujours dans l’orbite de la collaboration, les deux grands trusts de presse allemands Mundus et Amann essayent de pénétrer le marché belge. Tandis que le groupe germano-slovaque Mundus finance la création des Editions de La Toison d’Or (1941), fondées par Edouard Didier, Guido Eeckels et Raymond De Becker, Amann tente de s’emparer de l’Uitgeverij De Lage Landen (1941) de Guido Eeckels, puis Mundus devient un temps actionnaire de l’entreprise qui publie alors des ouvrages pour le compte du Deutsche Institut. Rappelons que, par l’entremise d’administrateurs provisoires, Amann pèse sur l’édition grâce à l’Agence Dechenne et signalons que Mundus a fait tomber le quotidien mosan La Légia (1940) dans son escarcelle. Les Editions de Belgique de Maximilien Mention, qui porte pourtant l’uniforme noir des cadres rexistes, ne semblent pas exprimer les idées nouvelles. Les journalistes rexistes Jules Stéphane et son épouse Marguerite Inghels dirigent la coopérative Les Auteurs Associés (1942) et Het Boek (1943) qui ne sont pas non plus d’obédience nazie. A la marge de ce réseau, mais très impliquées dans le réseau national-catholique, figurent les Editions L’Essor (1939) de Léon Renard. Comme toutes les coopératives ouvrières, les Editions Labor d’Alexandre André sont placées sous séquestre. André est maintenu à la direction commerciale de la maison tandis que le chef de la CCW est propulsé par l’occupant à la direction littéraire.

8. La Libération

A la Libération, l’Etat Belge instaure à nouveau un régime de censure larvée dans le but d’empêcher la diffusion des idées ennemies :des auteurs réputés inciviques sont interdits de publication dans la presse, des livres sont saisis et des maisons d’édition sont placées sous séquestre et leurs livres mis à l’index. Quelques éditeurs de la nouvelle génération quittent Bruxelles pour Paris en prétextant la mauvaise conjoncture économique mais en réalité ils fuient un climat qu’ils jugent répressif. Plusieurs retrouvent une place importante dans les champs éditorial et littéraire parisiens où leur passé est ignoré. Notons que la Justice militaire belge a rarement poursuivi un éditeur pour ses activités, comme si les éditeurs n’étaient pas responsables des idées qu’ils ont mises sur le marché. Le refus de livrer la liste de ses adhérents juifs et les accords clandestins avec The Performing Right Society permettent à la NAVEA de survivre après la Libération sous une nouvelle appellation :la Société des Auteurs Belges-Belgische Auteursmaatschappij (SABAM). L’Etat de droit rétabli, les sociétés françaises reprennent leurs activités en Belgique, restaurant ainsi le système de la perception multiple. L’Association des Artistes professionnels de Belgique constitue un jury d’honneur pour sanctionner ses membres qui auraient fauté. L’Association des Ecrivains belges exclut de ses rangs les auteurs compromis. Les Académies expulsent des immortels et en blâment d’autres, les écartant provisoirement de leur honorable société. Des écrivains, peu ou prou impliqués dans la collaboration, suivent le chemin des éditeurs et posent leurs valises sur les bords de la Seine. Les uns deviennent conseillers littéraires de grandes maisons parisiennes, d’autres, comme Paul Kenny, deviennent millionnaires en publiant des romans d’espionnage. Plusieurs exilés ci-devant anti-bolchevistes se lancent dans la traduction de romans anglais et américains. D’aucuns inventent la solderie de livres neufs à prix réduit s’ils ne revêtent pas l’habit vert. La réouverture des frontières aux livres d’écrivains français, néerlandais et anglo-saxons repousse la plupart des littérateurs belges dans l’ombre dont ils étaient sortis à l’occasion de circonstances exceptionnelles. On pourrait croire que l’âge d’or de l’édition est terminé. Or la crise du papier va entraîner l’émergence d’une nouvelle littérature et la création de nouvelles sociétés d’édition :les imprimeurs sont tenus de prendre deux qualités de papier, l’une bonne et l’autre médiocre. Celle-ci est alors utilisée pour des publications à destination de la jeunesse. Naissent ainsi une quinzaine d’hebdomadaires parmi lesquels figurent Franc-Jeu (1944), Lutin (1944), Perce-Neige (1944), Story (1945), Wrill (1945), Cap’taine Sabord (1946), Jeep (1945), Annette (1945) et Tintin (1946). Les deux derniers deviendront de véritables « blanchisseries » pour les réprouvés de l’Epuration… La bande dessinée belge et ses deux écoles, Marcinelle et Bruxelles, ainsi que les sociétés qui éditent leurs albums vont bientôt dominer le marché francophone.

Doctorat en philosophie et lettres, Orientation langue et littérature
info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

This thesis seeks to investigate the various forces that have shaped modern Persianate children‘s literature - history, revolution, political climate, government, institutions, writers, education, and so on. The historical origins of tales popular in modern times, and of themes recurrent in stories from past times to present are analyzed, along with other factors which have shaped Persianate children‘s literature. The thesis begins with a historical and theoretical overview relating to change and continuity in Persianate children‘s literature. It examines the influence of ancient texts on modern Persianate children‘s stories. The cultural development reflected in the organizational infrastructure of institutions is also examined, as well as other contemporary influences, both social and political, in order to assess how these have affected modern Persianate children‘s literature. The contents of children‘s books are analyzed from different aspects, including their representation of social values. Concerns of children themselves are shown in examples of their own work; in addition, works of illustrators of children‘s books, and examples from the extended body of Persianate children‘s literature in Tajikistan are analyzed. Modern children‘s literature is the product of a number of influences and while differences can be perceived between historical periods, underlying similarities can also be seen which show a continuity of socio-political purpose, either supporting the status quo or challenging it. The thesis is concerned with this interplay between the recurring uses of children‘s literature; moralistic, didactic, the political agenda of its authors, criticism of the status quo, etc. and the surface changes which attract attention and which create an appearance of change in its underlying purpose. Fashions and styles may change, but children still read, firstly in order to learn to read, and then for information and amusement. The author contends that, in reality a limited number of changes are possible in the purpose of children‘s literature, and the age-old arguments likewise continue about what those are: entertainment or preparation for the harsh realities of life, retreat into fantasy and acceptance of one‘s place or incitement to rebel and change the world.
Information Science
D.Litt. et Phil.

This study reviewed how networks, entrepreneurs and narratives were intertwined in keeping a policy process moving and preventing it from stagnating. By applying Roe's narrative analysis theory (as developed in Narrative Policy Analysis - 1994), along with Kingdon's theory of entrepreneurs (as developed in Agendas, Alternatives and Public Policies - 1995) and Kickert's explanations of networks (as developed in Managing Complex Networks - 1997) the study attempted to uncover how a complex policy issue is managed by the stakeholders involved. The Children's Bill was the case study used to show the usefulness of these three theories in understanding the intricate engagements and relations of participation around a complex policy. By applying qualitative data collection and analysis techniques, the case study illustrated how a complex policy is able to move through the policy and legislative processes despite the conflict and difficulties encountered. The dominant narratives were identified, the narrative of the Working Group (WG) (to hold the Bill over to the next parliament and to include a National Policy Framework), and the counternarrative of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (to fast track the Bill through parliament and to make excisions), as were the non-stories (on issues of poverty). The research also identifies the policy entrepreneurs (the WG secretariat and in particular the Children's Institute and Paula Proudlock) and the networks in which they operated. This information provided the basis to identify the meta-narrative to hold the Bill over to the next parliament for further deliberations on the excisions that had been made, which allowed the Children's Bill process to continue. Some recommendations for further evaluation and research into this policy process are noted.
Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu- Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2006.

This dissertation is based on two years of field research in Sudan, in Khartoum; the three capitals of Darfur; and Bentiu, Unity State, at the border between North and South Sudan. Building on a now substantial literature in critical humanitarian studies, my work focuses on the emergence of new economic forms, circuits, and entitlements that accompany humanitarian aid. These include the influx of ration cards, trade routes that deliberately shadow humanitarian convoys and draw in aid recipients, and entitlements based on kinship ties to injured or displaced victims of conflict. For well over a decade anthropologists have studied the social and political work humanitarianism does in excess of its stated intention to relieve the suffering of civilians in regions of national and political disasters. As numerous scholars have shown, humanitarian discourses and practices intentionally and unintentionally transform local and regional political values and institutions by altering the social relations that subtend them. I pursue how these transformations intervene into core categories of how people understand themselves to have status in a social world. The manuscript focuses on the one ways in which people and events are evaluated as having status within humanitarian logics. It explores the nexus between this logics and the creation of novel economic subjects, values, and institutions that are neither foreign nor local, neither neoliberal nor traditional. They are, rather, a glimpse of something the manuscript refers to as humanitarian economies, with all dimensions of the economic intended. These include new forms of dependency and altered structures of political authority. But they also include new strategies of local speculation based on humanitarian rubrics of recognizing need. For instance, I track the circulation and resale of objects of material necessity, such as grain, cooking oil, or work tools distributed by aid agencies. I demonstrate the ways in which such objects begin to function as general equivalents; they become a form of currency, and a vehicle for the storage, accumulation and transmission of wealth. But on the other hand, the manuscript is just as focused on the circulation of universal values of protection, and their transformation as local actors pick them up and deploy them in their social worlds. In other words, as local actors come to understand how humanitarian actors assess crisis, they produce a second order assessment of where aid is likely to go and thus what would be a profitable investment. They also produce second order deployments of how injury and livelihood is evaluated. Such practices transform basic dynamics of social entitlement. And they also change how people think of themselves and their neighbors as economic and political subjects. Meanwhile, critical infrastructures - from irrigation channels to pharmacy supply routes to radio transmitters - become the objects of heightened ethical scrutiny. Infrastructure comes to stand in for good governance, stability, and sustainable political relationships. What we witness is the emergence of what I call a speculative investment in crisis that binds crisis, livelihood, and life-value into a troubling knot.

by Elaine Chiu-ling Yam.
Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1997.
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 162-181).
Acknowledgments
Abstract
Chapter Chapter 1: --- Introduction - On Literature and Public Sphere --- p.1
Chapter Chapter 2: --- Cultural Communication and Chinese Writers in Deng Era --- p.24
Chapter Chapter 3: --- A Master of Irony - Wang Shuo's Wanzhu Literature --- p.42
Chapter Chapter 4: --- A Race of Heroes - Mo Yan's Ideal Lifeworld --- p.77
Chapter Chapter 5: --- In Search of the Self - Jia Pingwa's City of Decadence --- p.111
Chapter Chapter 6: --- Conclusion - The Generation of Alternative Values --- p.144
Bibliography --- p.162

How does history turn into memory? Specifically, how has the Spanish Transition been memorialized in the last ten years? Between the death of the dictator Francisco Franco in 1975 and the landslide victory of the Socialist Party in 1982, Spain slowly transitioned to a standardized European democracy. This historical period of seven years, officially labelled as the “Spanish Transition,” has been subjected to archivization—production and record of this process—since the eighties up until the present. My dissertation unveils how the transition has become a discourse, that is to say, an archive, particularly paying attention to the post-recession scenario (2010 onward, when the limits of its mythified success were publicly exposed). Through the study of autobiographies, documentaries, and museum exhibitions, I demonstrate the impossibility of separating the cultural performance of the transition from its archivization. In other words, we cannot separate the history of the transition, as shaped through these cultural objects, from the memory it has become. I have set up a methodology that is rooted in the concepts of performance and archive. I argue that these concepts are inextricable from one another. I use performance as a lens to penetrate the socio-political and cultural transition from dictatorship to democracy. Performance, then, functions as an episteme in which the categories of history and memory converge. Through this approach, history can be perceived as an ongoing process, which connects with the intervention of cultural historians in the public sphere. This vision of history as a continuum, in addition, allows us to focus on the processes of memorialization, which chart the transformation from the specificity in time and space of a cultural performance—a concrete experience—to its archivization as an event and a fact. In this vein, performance (history) shapes the archive (memory) and opens up a dynamic reading of history, a history that is still under construction and is drawing on a contingent memory. Each chapter focuses on a different medium that have in common their hybrid nature: respectively, autobiographies, documentaries, and museum exhibitions. The first chapter is about autobiographies by popular icons in which memory is a stage for the self to re-perform. A case in point is the Fabiografía, Fabio McNamara’s auto-hagiography in which Fabio, aided by the media star Mario Vaquerizo, creates a genre of his own and turns his life and version of the transition into a fetish. The second chapter questions the role of performing bodies in the construction of consensus and dissensus on documentaries about the transition. One specific instance is Mi querida España (2015), where we find performing bodies conveying through their actions dissenting ways of understanding the transition. The third chapter analyzes museum exhibitions as branding spaces for the transition. A case in point is Ocaña’s museum in his hometown, Cantillana del Campo (Seville); despite being empty of objects, this museum legitimizes Ocaña’s presence in the village, making of him an Andalusian standard-bearer of freedom. These three media show history and memory as coterminous and contingent, embodying the cultural performance of the transition and its reconfiguration in the archive.

This dissertation offers a history of the perilous American present. Through a series of timely case studies I investigate the constitutive force and present-day regeneration of political and racial violence in the United States. Drawing on a range of contemporary critical thought, "Afterlives of Violence" constellates scenes from recent works of memoir, fiction, poetry, nonfiction, and film, my principal interest in each case being to excavate the temporalities, the effects, and the disavowals of American carnage—understood less as a damaging deviation from a “great” past than as precisely that past’s unceasing, pernicious fallout. Where often violence continues to be conceived of as an event, my research and readings draw on examples from twenty-first-century American literature, politics, law, and culture to present it instead as a haunting structure that is enduring at least in part because of the very illegibility and deliberate obscuring of its aftermaths under certain idioms of thought and norms of representation. Bookended by discussions of a white supremacist’s massacre at a Charleston church (in July 2015) and of the national memorial to racial terror lynching established in Montgomery (in April 2018), the dissertation offers a series of figures for thinking through history’s afterlives—both in the grim renewal of its violences in the U.S. today and in the imaginative arts of refusal which its inheritance inspires. In the first two chapters of the dissertation, I critically explore the ways that recent African American and Native American literature maps, respectively, the residual afterlives of slavery and ongoing menace of antiblack animus, and, the blind spots in settler colonial law that simultaneously conceal and extend the violence of occupation, in particular exposing the lives of Native women to harm across time. Through extended readings of texts including Saidiya Hartman’s "Lose Your Mother," Dionne Brand’s "A Map to the Door of No Return," Louise Erdrich’s "The Round House," and Layli Long Soldier’s "WHEREAS," I demonstrate how the wounding attachments of history and the longing for a different future they prompt are, in turn, exacerbated and thwarted by injurious mnemonic and political legacies that the authors present as essentially unfinished with their lives. I also show how these texts perform a fundamental critique of liberal gestures of redress and apology, as well as concomitant invocations of closure associated with the politics of recognition. Here, the present is celebrated for its being newly distanced from a past we have come to identify as imprudent, with the meaning or substance of race additionally believed to have been at long last left behind. Quite to the contrary, the texts I analyze have us understand that these efforts too often only seek to acknowledge the traumatic specters of history in order to more quickly forget the tenacious continuing hold of their traces on modern American life. In the work of Hartman and Brand, for instance, the physical and metaphorical abyss which is the Door of No Return ensures that the losses of history remain irreparable, while Erdrich and Long Soldier each demonstrate how the precedents and aporias of settler law guarantee that they survive. Where the opening chapters are in some fashion concerned with the aftereffects of a violence often interpreted as historical, the later chapters of the dissertation shift to examine two emergent technologies of state violence: the drone and the border wall. Beyond the immediately notable racial dimension that ties them to the preceding case studies, these forms of violence also have their own genealogies, too, which I read back into them. Further, I propose that their ominous afterlives are prospectively prefigured in our own destitute times, even as I also insist the future necessarily remains undecided. Concentrating, in the first case, on the visual and temporal regimes of extraterritorial drone killing—which I argue can be revealingly likened to the death penalty in the conception of “future dangerousness” each shares—and, in the second, on the brutalist aesthetics and political rhetoric of walling plans for the U.S.-Mexico border—which in specific ways derealize the lives that this architecture is intended to target—these chapters use primary legal documents to draw out the logic and justification of preemptive and protective violence. I pay particular attention to how these respective forms of harm are frequently legitimated on the basis of their being humanitarian in character. In an extended analysis of a trio of Hollywood “drone films” I show how they troublingly come to adopt this same frame, staging targeted execution as a regrettable necessity and lesser evil, while in readings of executive orders and government reports pertaining to the southern border I unweave the misleading mobilization of human rights discourse to justify wall construction. With the assistance of decidedly more critical texts, including Solmaz Sharif’s "LOOK" and, in the context of the militarized borderlands, Sara Uribe’s "Antígona González" and Valeria Luiselli’s "Tell Me How It Ends," I provide a distinct rejoinder to this mode of thinking. I highlight the authors’ formal efforts to bring back into view, first, the ways of seeing and types of narrating that make possible the conversion of calculated erasure and cruel destitution into ethical action, and, just as importantly, the bodies affected and existences wrought in the wake of political violence. Beside its sustained insistence on the need to truly reckon with the fact that everything which has happened will never not have happened, ultimately at stake in the symphony of reflections offered by "Afterlives of Violence" are questions of how we recognize, think, describe, and, perhaps finally, refuse or resist violence. Inspired in large part by the multitemporal geographies of loss and hope, of suffering and flourishing, traced in the work of American studies and feminist scholars including Saidiya Hartman, Christina Sharpe, Colin Dayan, Avery Gordon, Patricia Williams, and Judith Butler, I wager to break the hold of the past—or to derail the perils of the present—in the service of a more just future, at minimum their multifarious and continuing afterimages of violence must first be properly pictured. Insofar as law, photography, and history must be understood as other names for the transmission of the past, I have found them useful instruments to think with in this endeavor, while literature, broadly conceived, I have interpreted as a site for the performance of thought’s suspension, its undoing, its reinauguration.