Femmes fatales en devenirs : les femmes vampires face à la domination masculine dans "Byzantium" (2012, Neil Jordan)

Ce mémoire est l'occasion d'établir une courte généalogie des femmes vampires au cinéma, en mettant en avant la manière dont la figure de la femme vampire résonne avec celle de la femme fatale, dans la mesure où elle constitue à la fois une vision négative de la femme émancipée, tout en offrant une manière d’échapper au modèle féminin traditionnel. En me demandant si le vampirisme peut être une source de pouvoir émancipatoire pour les femmes, j’analyse attentivement Byzantium (2012) de Neil Jordan. À travers l’étude successive des deux personnages principaux, Clara et Eleanor, je montre comment le film résonne avec la généalogie des femmes vampires établie préalablement, ainsi qu’avec certains enjeux féministes. Surtout, l’accent est mis sur la manière dont les personnages féminins contestent le pouvoir masculin, à travers la performance des stéréotypes, pour Clara, et la prise de contrôle du récit, pour Eleanor. Enfin, je me concentre sur la manière dont, à travers des mouvements de devenirs, ces personnages sortent du cycle fatal de l’oppression masculiniste, qui mène habituellement à l’extinction de la femme vampire en fin de récit, mais qui ici aboutit à une tentative de réconciliation entre les sexes. Mon travail s’appuie sur de larges recherches concernant la figure du vampire, ainsi que sur les études féministes et gender studies relatives aux textes vampiriques. Je m’appuie également sur les réflexions de Judith Butler, les travaux deleuziens sur la notion de « devenir », et les considérations de Derrida sur le don.

La souffrance féminine chez Huysmans, Bloy, Bernanos et Mauriac : catholicisme et maladie mentale

Silence et soumission aux valeurs patriarcales dominantes : ainsi peut être brossée dans son ensemble et sans pour autant la déformer l’image de la condition féminine encore pleinement opérante à la fin du XIXe siècle et au début du XXe siècle en France. La femme, ouvrière, bourgeoise ou noble, est destinée à la maternité, et ses désirs sont méprisés au profit de ceux de son (futur) époux. En littérature cependant, à partir de Madame Bovary (1857) et parallèlement à la montée timide du féminisme, apparaissent plusieurs figures féminines éminemment tragiques qui contestent la condition féminine. Louise Marles, Véronique Cheminot, Mouchette et Thérèse Desqueyroux – et tant d’autres encore… – sont autant de (jeunes) personnages féminins qui rejettent plus ou moins violemment la mise sous tutelle de la femme et l’impossibilité d’avoir un statut social et juridique accepté en dehors du mariage. Pourtant, parce qu’en ces figures de femme – et souvent malgré elles – refuse de se taire une torturante aspiration à la liberté, elles sont fatalement vouées à la folie et à la mort, deviennent prostituées, criminelles, internées ou suicidaires, voire les quatre. Selon nous, la folie est l’état dans lequel ces personnages féminins s’enlisent car ils remettent profondément en question les valeurs établies par des hommes et pour des hommes. Nous pensons que la folie est le moyen littéraire utilisé par les écrivains pour montrer l’ampleur de leur souffrance existentielle et son unique langage possible ; en ce sens, la folie serait la représentation extérieure d’une écrasante souffrance morale et psychologique. Enfin, la possession diabolique est une autre cause portée par Bernanos pour répondre à la question de la folie des femmes. Notre étude portera sur quatre figures tragiques de personnages féminins imaginées par quatre écrivains catholiques : Louise dans En rade (Huysmans, 1887), Véronique dans Le Désespéré (Léon Bloy, 1887), Mouchette dans Sous le soleil de Satan (Bernanos, 1926) et Thérèse Desqueyroux dans le roman éponyme de Mauriac (1927).

Les Violettes rouges suivi de L'échec du système des genres dans La Maladie de la mort de Marguerite Duras

Le roman, Les Violettes rouges, met en scène une jeune femme cherchant vengeance à l'époque de la conquête de l'Ouest américain. Il joue sur les codes du western, tout en les transgressant, puisque le héros cow-boy et vengeur est une femme, Lou. Plus libre encore que les héros du western traditionnel, Lou s'approprie des éléments du « masculin » et du « féminin » pour incarner un corps puissant et sensuel qui sera vecteur de violence. Les systèmes hiérarchiques et injustes érigés par l'homme blanc se voient ébranlés par les actes de révolte de Lou. L'essai L'échec du système des genres dans La Maladie de la mort de Marguerite Duras explore, par le biais de la pensée de certains théoriciens féministes et par l'entremise de certaines questions sur les identités sexuées selon la catégorie d'analyse du gender, l'impossible rencontre entre l'homme et la femme du récit de Duras. L'échec du système double et duel entre le masculin et le féminin est exprimé, entre autres, par un système de voiles et de voilements, de regards aveugles, par un féminin fuyant et, ultimement, par un renversement des pouvoirs. Ici, la conception double des genres se voit remise en cause puisqu'elle rend stérile toute rencontre entre l'homme et la femme du récit et ultimement, entre le masculin et le féminin.

The dialectic of silence and remembrance in Lily Brett’s ''Things could be worse''

The dynamics of silence and remembrance in Australian writer Lily Brett’s autobiographic fiction Things Could Be Worse reflects the crisis of memory and understanding experienced by both first and second-generation Holocaust survivors within the diasporic space of contemporary Australia. It leads to issues of handling traumatic and transgenerational memory, the latter also known as postmemory (M. Hirsch), in the long aftermath of atrocities, and problematises the role of forgetting in shielding displaced identities against total dissolution of the self. This paper explores the mechanisms of remembrance and forgetting in L. Brett’s narrative by mainly focusing on two female characters, mother and daughter, whose coming to terms with (the necessary) silence, on the one hand, and articulated memories, on the other, reflects different modes of comprehending and eventually coping with individual trauma. By differentiating between several types of silence encountered in Brett’s prose (that of the voiceless victims, of survivors and their offspring, respectively), I argue that silence can equally voice and hush traumatic experience, that it is never empty, but invested with individual and collective meaning. Essentially, I contend that beside the (self-)damaging effects of silence, there are also beneficial consequences of it, in that it plays a crucial role in emplacing the displaced, rebuilding their shattered self, and contributing to their reintegration, survival and even partial healing.

Modernidad narrativa en Ecuador. Personajes femeninos de tres novelas de Alfredo Pareja Diezcanseco (Del Fabulador)

La autora revisa brevemente las características de la modernidad narrativa en Latinoamérica, para contextualizar la ocurrencia de dicho fenómeno en Ecuador, así como la contribución de Alfredo Pareja Diezcanseco al mismo. Resalta el papel del autor en la consolidación de los logros de tres generaciones de narradores ecuatorianos. Al referirse a las novelas de Pareja, a propósito de Baldomera estudia la representación de la ciudad de Guayaquil en proceso de modernización, así como los vínculos de la misma con este personaje femenino, estudia también otros dos personajes, de las novelas El muelle y El aire y los recuerdos, para sustentar el interés que el autor mantuvo, en las diferentes etapas de su producción novelística, en crear personajes femeninos muy bien estructurados y perdurables.

Lecturas personales: reflexiones nada académicas sobre Los poderes-omnímodos (Del Fabulador)

En el presente ensayo la autora reflexiona sobre varios aspectos de Los poderes omnímodos, de Alfredo Pareja Diezcanseco. Primero, el equilibrio entre las historias personales y la historia del país, más que de la vida del presidente Velasco Ibarra, parece ocuparse por reconstruir la memoria de una época de trágica importancia en el Ecuador, en el contexto de la historia mundial. Por otro lado, el personaje Pablo Canelos representa el arquetipo de una conciencia intelectual crítica, atenta, a veces incluso apegada al sentimiento, aunque padece de cierto desarraigo afectivo. En tercer lugar, los personajes femeninos por momentos parecen, otra vez, arquetipos, se destacan varios rasgos de Juanita Rincón: sus sentimientos casi siempre confusos respecto de sus relaciones y sus búsquedas afectivas, marcada por el parricidio y la orfandad materna temprana. Balbina Carrillo, construida a partir de valores femeninos tradicionales: afectuosa, sensible y sentimental, movida a complacer y a hacer feliz al hombre más allá de sus propias necesidades, pulsiones y deseos. Finalmente, en lo temático se reflexiona sobre el desencanto de los ideales revolucionarios frustrados. La novela puede considerarse una representación de cómo los ecuatorianos de la primera mitad del siglo XX enfrentaban la historia y la vida intelectual, política y social de su tiempo.

Textual Differences in Game Reviews Written by Men and Women

The aim of this essay is to examine the differences in language use between the genders in game reviews, to find whether there are differences in the use of the language depending on gender. Both sexist language and technical aspects are examined, the technical aspects of writing have been chosen from previous research about gendered differences in writing. The reviews are randomly chosen but the games are selected. There is an equal amount of games with male and female main characters, and the number of reviews is chosen according to the number of reviews written by females, as there are fewer of them, and thus easier to find a matching number of reviews written by males rather than vice versa. The reviews are then examined to find sexist language and differences. This essay finds that there is sexist language in the writing of both genders, such as marked language, but only when the main character of the game is female. Both genders tend to focus on the appearance of female characters and the characteristics of male characters, but there is no known previous research about male and female game characters to compare these results to. However, the technical differences remain consistent with previous research on the same subject, such as female reviewers using more pronouns than male reviewers, and male reviewers using fewer verbs than female reviewers.

Who Is the Shrew? : Irony as deconstruction in The Taming of the Shrew

In this thesis William Shakespeare’s comedy The Taming of The Shrew is analyzed from a feminist perspective. It is argued that the female characters Katherina and Bianca are mainly constructed through language expressed by male characters as binary oppositions. By an act of deconstruction within the play, these images, or constructed representations, are adjusted and somewhat reversed in the end. In addition, it is shown how the Induction, an introductory part of the play, adds aspects of construction and deconstruction, which supports an ironic reading and a questioning of the constructed gender roles.

Ausencia, prohibición y carencia : Estudio de los personajes y el deseo frustrado en tres obras de García Lorca

In this thesis, the main male characters in three of the plays written by Federico García Lorca are analysed with the aim of seeingthe role they play in the frustration of desire. After two chapters dedicated to a review of published critical studies on Lorca and tocertain theoretical considerations, Chapter Three examines desire drawing on Ubersfeld's actancial model and observes that thesemale characters can be divided into two groups: those who are desired and those who are undesired.In Chapter Four this classification is linked to an analysis of absence, prohibition and lack. Absence is here defined not asrelated to their non-appearance on stage but rather to their non-presence in the lives of the desiring female protagonists. It isobserved that a number of male characters are absent in the plays mainly due to death or a journey. As far as prohibition isconcerned, in two of the works, there is a moral code associated with concepts such as "honour" and "decency", which blocks thefemale characters' access to the males they desire. Chapter Four also shows how several characters can be considered as lacking inthe sense that they do not possess the ideal male qualities contained in the plays. This chapter reaches the conclusion that desiredmale characters are either absent or forbidden in the world of the desiring female, whereas undesired male characters are lacking inthe sense that they fail to live up to the ideal highlighted in the plays.Chapter Five analyses the female characters' perception of the male figures, making use of René Girard's notion of"transfiguration", which alludes to a process of idealisation of the object of desire. Our analysis reveals a connection betweendesire, denied access to the object of desire and transfiguration in the main subjects of desire. The phenomenon of "transfiguration"has several functions in the play: firstly, the creation of hyperbolical male characters; secondly, that of transmitting the intensity ofthe desire experienced and, finally, the highlighting of the lack of certain qualities in several male characters.We thus observe that, in these three plays written by García Lorca, Girard's pessimistic view of desire is confirmed, since desireneeds a series of obstacles, such as absence or prohibition, to survive. However, this is not the only explanation for the frustrationof desire: other factors, like the actions of certain male characters or destiny, also play a decisive role.

Un estudio de La Sombra del Viento de Carlos RuizZafón desde una perspectiva de género

Esta tesina tiene el propósito de analizar las características de algunos de lospersonajes principales de La Sombra del Viento de Carlos Ruiz Zafón desde un punto de vistade género. El estudio se basa en diferentes teorías de género que pretenden funcionar comoherramientas para poder destacar las diferencias entre las descripciones femeninas y lasmasculinas que aparecen en la obra. Primero, definimos y concretamos el término género conla ayuda de las teorías de Yvonne Hirdman. En segundo lugar, presentamos la teoría deldualismo, de acuerdo con la cual Lena Gemzöe hace una división entre las cualidadesmasculinas y femeninas. El objetivo de nuestro estudio ha sido hacer un análisis de lascaracterísticas de algunos de los personajes principales de para demostrar si existenconstrucciones de identidad de género desde una perspectiva dualista. Como resultado denuestro estudio podemos afirmar que Zafón refuerza la división entre las cualidadesmasculinas y femeninas. Los personajes masculinos son descritos como fuertes, valientes,lógicos, intelectuales e independientes. Paralelamente, las mujeres son descritas como débiles,cobardes, intuitivas y dependientes. Además, consideramos que Zafón da a todos lospersonajes masculinos mayor espacio, estatus y protagonismo en el desarrollo de la historia.En todo momento, queda claro que Zafón crea de forma inconsciente el orden de género yrefuerza así las diferencias sexuales.

La thématique de l’eau dans l’œuvre de Marguerite Duras

The aim of this thematic study is to examine how the water motif is used in Marguerite Duras’s literary work. The study shows that water has multiple functions in these texts: it is linked to major themes and creates an enigmatic atmosphere by its association with the unknown, the inexplicable and the unconscious. The strong presence of water in Duras’s texts is striking. References to the water element can be found in several titles throughout her career, from early works such as Un barrage contre le Pacifique (1950) to La mer écrite (1996), published just after her death. Almost all of her fiction take place near water – and the rain or the sound of waves serve as leitmotifs in specific novels. The water motif can play a metonymic as well as a metaphoric role in the texts and it sometimes takes on human or animalistic characteristics (Chapter 4). Several emblematic Durassian characters (e.g. the beggar-woman, Anne-Marie Stretter and Lol V. Stein) have a close relationship to water (Chapter 5). The water motif is linked to many major Durassian themes, and illustrates themes with positive connotations, for example, creation, fecundity, maternity, liberty and desire, as well as themes with negative connotations such as destruction and death (Chapter 6). A close reading of three novels, La vie tranquille (1944), L’après-midi de Monsieur Andesmas (1962) and La maladie de la mort (1982), shows that the realism of the first novel is replaced by intriguing evocations of the sea and the pond in the second text, motifs which resist straightforward interpretation. The enigmatic feeling persists in the last novel, in which the sea illustrates the overall sombre mood of the story (Chapter 7). Finally, the role of the water element in psychoanalytic theory is discussed (Chapter 8), and a parallel is drawn between the Jungian concept of the mother archetype and the water motif in Duras’s texts. The suggestion is made in this last chapter that water is used to illustrate an oriental influence (Taoist or Buddhist) of some of the female characters in Duras’s work.

Mermaids and sirens as myth fragments in contemporary literature

This thesis examines three works: Margaret Atwood's The Robber Bride and Alias Grace, and Angela Carter's Nights at the Circus. All three novels feature female characters that contain elements or myth fragments of mermaids and sirens. The thesis asserts that the images of the mermaid and siren have undergone a gradual process of change, from literal mythical figures, to metaphorical images, and then to figures or myth fragments that reference the original mythical figures. The persistence of these female half-human images points to an underlying rationale that is independent of historical and cultural factors. Using feminist psychoanalytic theoretical frameworks, the thesis identifies the existence of the siren/mermaid myth fragments that are used as a means to construct the category of the 'bad' woman. It then identifies the function that these references serve in the narrative and in the broader context of both Victorian and contemporary societies. The thesis postulates the origin of the mermaid and siren myths as stemming from the ambivalent relationship that the male infant forms with the mother as he develops an identity as an individual. Finally, the thesis discusses the manner in which Atwood and Carter build on this foundation to deconstruct the binary oppositions that disadvantage women and to expand the category of female.

Re-visioning Australian social realism through a feminine lens

This research explores the unique ways in which female film practitioners in Australia are utilising social realist politics in examining the stories of women in marginalised spaces. The findings add to the much needed gravitas of the female voice in contemporary Australian film.

Os contos de fadas: suas origens histórico-culturais e implicações psicopedagógicas para crianças em idade pré-escolar

Esta dissertação tem como objetivo principal elucidar as implicações de se relatar contos de fadas às crianças em idade pré-escolar, destacando-se suas origens histórico- culturais e a sua função psicopedagógica. Com subsidios obtidos em obras de alguns autores da área de história, literatura, filosofia, psicologia e pedagogia, foi feita uma análise considerando-se alguns tópicos, dentre os quais a possibilidade de serem os contos mitos transformados, cuja evolução ou construção da narrativa tem uma característica análoga aos ritos iniciáticos das sociedades consideradas "primitivas" ou pré-letradas. Neste sentido, trazem em seu bojo a nossa herança cultural. Além disso, possuem função psicopedagógica, que possibilita à criança em idade pré-escolar identificar-se com a imagem arquetípica do herói ou heroina, na medida em que estes passam por provações, e adotar uma postura positiva frente às mesmas. Argumentou-se, ainda, quanto às criticas de que estas narrativas têm sido alvo, como, por exemplo, a sua "crueldade", a visão de mundo "deturpada e irreal" que elas promoveriam de acordo com alguns autores que privilegiam o racionalismo, e o papel "degradante e passivo" destinado a algumas personagens femininas de algumas histórias. Conclui-se o trabalho avaliando-se o papel doscontos de fadas no contexto pré-escolar, e de que forma a experiência de relatá-los às crianças pode ser enriquecedora do ponto de vista pedagógico. Apoiando-se na abordagem junguiana, trata-se de um trabalho de pesquisa e análise teórica que visa ampliar, esclarecer, bem como justificar o papel dos contos de fadas na educação pré-escolar, levando-se em conta suas funções psicopedagógicas e o seu caráter socializante, na medida em que a criança tem acesso a valores sócio-culturais que predominaram e ainda repercutem nas relações sociais contemporâneas.

Folha rota, de Machado de Assis: Mulheres livres e pobres na ordem patriarcal

This article analyzes the short story Folha rota (1878) by Machado de Assis, taking to account the transformation process of the patriarchy, bearing in mind it's decadence within the increasing urbanization context through 19th century. From the representation of female characters and their everyday's life in the narrative, we discuss the violence experienced by free and poor women involved in the inherent power relations in that society. In this perspective, we intend to indicate an interpretation of literary work as an important device of social criticism, as much as, to give a contribution to an accurate comprehension of Machado de Assis's work, especially his short stories.