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Format: Thèse

  • The taming of the devil: A study in the various aspects of Miltonic Satan represented in the heroes of the novels written by women writers from late 18th century to 20th century

    « Adopting the Bloomian and Gilert-and-Gubar-like approach toward a female tradition in English literary history, this thesis examines the influence of the hero figure represented in Satan in Milton’s Paradise Lost and its later metamorphoses upon the construction of the heroes written by women writers from 18th century onward. By this examination, this thesis aims to show the female obsessive adherence to demonic father-lover figures.

    Despite his fall, Milton’s Satan is a father figure with so much masculine power and beauty that male Romantic poets made him their idol. Women writers, however, have transformed him into their own heroes, by emphasising his potential as “father” and “lover”. The result of their rewriting of Miltonic Satan is his literary progeny, such as Radcliffean villains (humanised but villainous), Byronic heroes (human heroes but unattainable) and Rochester (tamable father-lover). These heroes have fiery, penetrating, hard eyes as their recognition factors, because, as in Rochester’s symbolic castration or Freud-Lacan psychology, eyes signify sexual desire. Their 20th century offspring, the heroes of mass-market romantic novels, play the dual roles of father-like protective lover, and villainous enemy. Their father-lover role helps fulfil the female desire of being loved by their fathers. The villainous role emphasises the growing female power in that the heroines eventually overcome the heroes. While the symbolic castration or even death is required to equalise male hero and female heroine in 19th century novels, 20 th century novels only require the heroine’s mastery of the hero’s power. The modern heroines, however, give birth to sons, as Jane Eyre gives birth to her son, to bring about the denouement and to conform to the traditional values that place sons over daughters. The fact that the progeny of Miltonic Satan is given the role of the father-substitutes of the heroines reflects the social construction of Western civilisation, where fathers have absolute power over their wives and daughters. Daughters, who are defined as being “sinister”, pine for the father’s love; their desire is reflected in the women’s novels. » (Résumé)

  • Études sur la figure du Diable dans la littérature française

    Plusieurs études se concentrent sur la figure du Diable, de Satan ou du satanisme dans la littérature française.

  • Études sur l’oeuvre de John Milton

    De nombreuses recherches ont été effectuées sur l’oeuvre phare de John Milton, Paradise’s Lost, qui étudient le personnage de Satan/Lucifer sous plusieurs angles.

  • Devil’s Letters: Their History And Significance In Church And Society, 1100-1500

    « This study treats the origins, evolution and significance of medieval devil’s letters. As satirical polemical literature composed in Latin until late in the Middle Ages, devil’s letters criticized the Church and its unfit clergy by the device of having the Devil thank the clergy for sending souls to hell. In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries devil’s letters appeared as illustrative anecdotes, or exempla, in sermons, chronicles and encyclopedic compendia. Full-length devil’s letters, detached from the exemplum framework, existed before the fourteenth century but proliferated only after 1350.

    The methodology employed in this study consists of close interpretive reading of texts and original manuscript research. Both the content and manuscript tradition of devil’s letters establish their relation to their milieu. The Epistola Luciferi of 1351, the most widely circulated full-length devil’s letter in the later Middle Ages, exists in over 100 copies, of which 51 have been selected for textual analysis. The information provided in rubrics, internal textual variants, and the context in which the letter appears in manuscripts shed light on its uses.

    This study concludes that the Devil’s Letter genre, while entertaining as satire, was primarily aimed at accomplishing ecclesiastical reform. Inspired by the Gregorian reform movement of the late eleventh century, the early “devil’s-letter” exempla criticized the moral and vocational failings of the clergy. With the Epistola Luciferi of 1351, born of the corrupt pontificate of Clement VI, the genre also served as an expression of ecclesiological dissent. The Epistola Luciferi increased its circulation as a result of the Great Schism (1378-1417) and the conciliar movement, and inspired several devil’s letters issuing directly from the politics of the Schism. Copies of the Epistola Luciferi were most numerous in the Germanic lands, where conciliarist sentiments and discontent with church and clergy persisted up to the Reformation. From lampooning clerical conduct to expressing dissatisfaction with church government, the tradition of devil’s letters mirrors the crises and changing critical trends in the history of the medieval Church. » (Résumé)

  • Ouvrages sur la figure du Diable dans la littérature britannique

    Dès l’époque médiévale, le Diable est personnage récurrent dans la littérature britannique, en particulier au théâtre. Plusieurs études se penchent sur les multiples représentations du Diable. Cette liste exclut les analyses entièrement dédiée à John Milton et son poème Paradise’s Lost (voir fiche « Études sur l’oeuvre de John Milton »).

  • Études sur les pratiques sataniques et/ou leurs manifestations en littérature

    Plusieurs analysent se penchent sur les différentes manifestations du satanisme, des pratiques religieuses contemporaines à ses usages comme esthétique en littérature, en passant par l’utilisation du satanisme dans les mouvements politiques.

  • The Devil Is in the Details: Witchcraft Materiality and Systems of Belief in Early Modern France

    « My approach to the early modern French witch figure, as defined by their materiality, considers the representation of things, objects, and substances in texts. It was inspired by the surge in material culture studies, whose genesis in the 1980s and 1990s spurred theoretical approaches to (re)considering human interactions with objects, the way in which materials can be manipulated to serve various ends, and which objects were deemed culturally significant. I employ this approach to a (re)assessment of the witch figure as illustrated in demonologies, medical texts, and imaginative literature as early as the 14th century spanning into the early 17th century. This body of writing provides a unique opportunity to deconstruct the materiality of this imaginary space: how do otherwise “normal” objects and substances fit into the witchcraft imagination? How (and to what aim) were these objects, materials, and substances purportedly used and exchanged among witches, demons, and the Devil? It is thus interesting to delve into the various interactions and associations between witches and their fictitious stockpile, by considering the value and use of the objects and substances in question, while systematically interrogating the ambiguous and fluctuating concept of belief. Indeed, I extend my analysis of “witchcraft materiality”, as I define it, to better understand commonalities and differences between elite and popular culture and which materials and substances derived from each system of belief. A scrutiny of such texts suggests that this type of materiality forms the fabric of an imaginary, yet startingly complex universe, one that mimics our own in hauntingly precise ways and encompasses what we term both elite and (recycled) popular conceptions of culture. » [Résumé]

  • Dancing with the Devil: Witch Hunts and Supernaturalism in Charles Taylor’s Twentieth-Century Secular Society

    « Selon A Secular Age de Charles Taylor, l’Amérique du XXe siècle était sécularisée. Il définit cela comme une société qui permet la possibilité de la croyance et de la pratique religieuses, mais qui ne les exige pas pour une pleine participation à la société ou pour une continuité philosophique. Cela semblerait conduire à un monde où les paniques religieuses, telles que les procès en sorcellerie, sont improbables. Cependant, selon les définitions universitaires du terme « procès en sorcellerie », la Panique Satanique des années 1980 a encouragé de nombreux procès. Comment cela peut-il être possible ? Tout d’abord, une analyse de la définition de « procès en sorcellerie » vis-à-vis des travaux universitaires préexistants sur les procès en sorcellerie et les paniques morales est présentée, suivie d’un examen de la définition de la sécularisation par Taylor telle qu’elle s’applique à l’Amérique du XXe siècle. Ensuite, une étude de cas sur les procès des sorcières de Salem est réalisée, examinant les événements à un niveau micro pour déterminer où et comment la croyance au surnaturel est intervenue dans les procédures. Cela est suivi d’une analyse du procès de l’école préscolaire McMartin des années 1980, posant la même question sur la croyance surnaturaliste. Dans ce procès, des enseignants ont été accusés et jugés pour des abus sexuels présumés sur de jeunes enfants dans le cadre de rituels sataniques. Le dernier chapitre conclut que, bien que le procès McMartin réponde aux critères d’un procès en sorcellerie, en raison de la sécularisation, il contient nécessairement une couche de distanciation entre les procédures et les références au surnaturel, ainsi qu’entre les accusations et la dépendance à la réalité du surnaturel. Dans la salle d’audience, personne n’est accusé d’adorer le Diable (ce qui est légal) mais de maltraiter physiquement des enfants au service du Diable (ce qui ne l’est pas). Les accusations extrajudiciaires alléguaient que des sorcières ou des satanistes commettaient des abus physiques dans le cadre de leurs rituels sataniques, mais souvent d’une manière qui ne nécessitait pas que le Diable soit réel pour que ces actes aient eu lieu. À Salem, de nombreuses accusations impliquaient que le surnaturel existe (comme les accusations selon lesquelles les accusés envoyaient leur esprit tourmenter les victimes). Dans le procès McMartin, les accusations et les chefs d’accusation ont subi un filtre supplémentaire de sécularisation pour être considérés comme plausibles dans le monde sécularisé de Taylor. » [Résumé, traduit avec Notion AI]

  • Something Wicked: Witches and Rhetorics of Resistance

    « This project joins other academic conversations regarding the dynamics of power, modernity, witchcraft, and magic within the contexts of Western hegemony. Occasioned by kairotic cultural events and the reinforcement of ideologies like those found in the Dobbs decision, QAnon conspiracy, and rise of Christian Nationalism, this project contends that evaluating the potential political power residing in witchery is necessary in understanding some of the nuances of hegemonic control and resistance to oppressive authority. Predominantly following rhetorical evaluations of magic found in the works of Gunn and Covino, I maintain a non-universal methodological practice that works to understand the various instrumentality presented in the subjects of analysis. In line with William L. Nothstine, Carole Blair, and Gary Copeland, I too contend that “universal, abstract, methodological strictures and formulae for critics” are ill-suited to/for contemporary rhetorical criticism – especially analyses like this project in which the topic demands attention to idiosyncrasies in order to gauge the discursive ‘bigger picture.’ My methodological praxis engages in what McKerrow (2017) calls the “new instrumentality” of critical rhetoric “that demands alternative approaches, especially in relation to reclaiming the utility of a meaning-centered orientation.” Though this project concerns itself with witchcraft and magic, the methods and theories deployed herein work to demystify dominant power structures by illustrating how, as Mckerrow (1989) states, “rhetoric conceals as much as it reveals through its relationship with power/knowledge.” Magic is a convoluted idea. This project seeks to attend to unpacking some of that mess in addition to analyzing the discourses and rhetoric of contemporary witches doing the same.

    The supposed eradication of witchcraft and magic is the creation myth of modernity; it has and continues to be the foil for standards of propriety, righteousness, civility, and rationality. The witch has picked up many meanings on her/their journeys throughout historical space and time. Some of the witches presented in the chapters of this project exist in different, fictional Elsewheres. Others exist at different points in linear time and different conditions of materiality. There are other practitioners, not of marginalized identities, who are not heretical and instead deploy magic to reinforce the existing power symbolic/social order. Like Covino (2000), I dub the latter magi as “sorcerers, and they are markedly different than their witch counterparts. Unlike sorcerers, witches threaten the status quo because she/they transform the material with their transgression. In the chapters contained herein, I have tried to illustrate that witches all live and transgress differently. There is no singular image of the witch. There is no one generalizable truth for practicing the craft. The consistent characteristic seen among those analyzed is magic as a response to symbolic/social marginalization. The witch is a near-universal idea applied to femme bodies/characteristics, but it has been applied differently based on the conditions of slavery, colonization, neoliberalism, and variations in which epistemic violence has been enacted. The witch shapeshifts but agency remains the evergreen characteristic pinpointing her/their existence. This makes the archetype of the witch a point of identification for marginalized bodies – historically femme bodies – to gather around. Working as a type of discursive umbrella, the historical deployment of the witch archetype as a means to civilize and assimilate others into the standards of European modernity has had the unintended consequence of creating a broad but nuanced symbol for others across intersections to gather under. Witchcraft offers the exiles of society an alternative symbolic/social order that aids in their survival on the peripheries of hegemonic boundaries. Occult languages, connotations, and symbols offer a vocabulary for their experiences that ‘ordinary language’ has made ineffable. Witches’ spells are made impolite because they are deployed from mouths already considered dangerous and clamorous.

    Within this framework we can see witches’ spells as a rhetoric of subalternity. Rhetorical meanings (re)/create in ways that defy traditional delineations of the ‘real.’ Witches’ spells are a priori impolite because they are deployed from twitching tongues already considered dangerous and clamorous. Like the ancient Cynics before them, spellcasting by witches/heretical magi is a form of parrhesia – an expression of truth telling that exposes the simulacra of absolute order conjured by the state. This, in turn, can inspire imagination, fantasy, and invention of a world considered unreal under current material conditions. Rejecting hierarchical placement in the symbolic/social order is in a sense, supernatural, paranormal, other-worldly. When we consider spells as rhetoric, we consider the available means of persuasion and agency for the powerless. These subaltern conjurations enact what Covino (1994) asserts is “the dynamic complexity of celestial and terrestrial intelligences that attend any word [and] render it a calculus of possibilities.” Such possibilities include altering the material conditions of systemic and systematic oppressive forces. » [Résumé]

  • Entre fiction et histoire : la construction de la figure de la sorcière dans la littérature contemporaine

    « Dans le cadre de cette thèse, nous nous intéressons aux représentations de la sorcière dans la littérature d’inspiration historique à partir des années 1970. Nous analysons la construction de cette figure protéiforme et les métamorphoses qu’elle connaît dans l’imaginaire social lors des dernières décennies du XXe siècle. Plus précisément, nous examinons les différentes facettes de la sorcière, telles qu’elles apparaissent dans quatre romans francophones d’inspiration historique, en relation avec les discours historiques, féministes et postcoloniaux, et les autres productions culturelles de la même période. En étudiant les interactions entre les représentations de la sorcière et d’autres œuvres, travaux et tendances de l’époque, notre thèse met en lumière les problématiques abordées à travers cette figure dans les textes littéraires. La figure de la sorcière reprend notamment des enjeux qui marquent les dernières décennies du XXe siècle, tels la place des femmes et des cultures minoritaires dans la société, la représentation du corps féminin, le recul des religions traditionnelles et l’écriture de l’Histoire. Au moyen des approches sociocritique et intertextuelle, nous explorons ces enjeux et analysons la façon dont les œuvres développent ou prolongent ces réflexions en abordant la figure de la sorcière.

    De manière à pouvoir tracer l’évolution de la figure et des questions qui lui sont liées, la thèse est divisée en trois parties, représentant chacune une décennie distincte. Après un préambule brossant un tableau de l’imaginaire de la sorcière au début des années 1970, une première partie se concentre sur la construction de la figure de la sorcière dans les romans Les Enfants du sabbat d’Anne Hébert et La Fontaine obscure de Raymond Jean, parus lors de la décennie 1970. Une deuxième partie, centrée sur la décennie 1980, se penche sur le roman Moi, Tituba sorcière… de Maryse Condé. Enfin, une troisième partie s’intéresse au roman Instruments des ténèbres de Nancy Huston, publié pendant les années 1990. En combinant différentes approches, cette thèse tend à mieux comprendre la fonction de la sorcière dans la littérature et les idées qui lui sont associées dans l’imaginaire social à partir de 1970. » [Résumé]