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201.More information
The story of the prostitute Rahab who comes to the rescue of two Israeli spies by hiding them, and confesses her faith in the victory of YHWH over Jericho, is worthy of attention. Yet this little account seems, at first sight, wrong in its place in the book of Joshua. Located at the beginning of the conquest, it interrupts the triumphant march of Joshua and the sons of Israel by an episode to say the least burlesque. What is the function of this episode ? What does it bring to the plot of the story, to the characterization of the main characters, and to the theology of the book of Joshua ? This article proposes to reread the history of Rahab from a primarily synchronic perspective, trying to answer these questions.
Keywords: Rahab, Josué, espions, prostituée, Cananéenne, confession de foi, alliance
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203.More information
In 16th century France, Tombeau refers to a compilation of texts from various authors in honour of the memory of a deceased person. A collective work created by « industrious hands », the poetic Tombeau differs from the individual funeral poem in that it pays to the deceased as much a formal tribute as a lyrical one. On the one hand, the diversity of authors of each Tombeau brings back the social nature of the funeral ceremony by staging an afflicted community. On the other hand, the architectural metaphor suggested in the word itself is supported at once by rhetorical figures borrowed from the fine arts, by Horace's topos of the book's value as monument, and by a poetic interpretation of a process by which such an anthology is created.
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205.More information
At the outset of the 15th century, Christine de Pizan joined in an ongoing debate on the literary importance of Jean de Meun. While letters addressed to her opponents are dismissive of this author, according her scant praise, the textual versions of this debate produced between 1402 and 1403 set forth its essential issues. In fact, in the version she supervised Christine claims to have entered the debate solely to work for “l'onneur et louenge des femmes” and she calls on her public to support her in this endeavor. This article draws on Pierre Bourdieu's work on the formation and implementation of cultural codes or “tastes” to examine how Christine formulated her argument by reinventing the criteria used to assess vernacular literature. Examining first the exchange mechanism between the author and her adversaries, this study then turns to the textual mise en oeuvre of the epistolary debate with particular focus on the addition of two dedications introducing the Débat. This approach shows us the various strategies adopted by Christine to marshal a community that will read the debate as a defence of women and also generate a market for future texts in praise of women, such as the Livre de la Cité des dames that Christine would complete three years later.
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206.More information
This paper presents how high school students have adapted excerpts of novels into comic strips and shows how using an alternative medium can have an effect on reading literature. Thanks to this pedagogical project, students were able to read the text in a sensitive and imaginative way, but as soon as they found an idea for its adaptation, they did not feel the need to come back to the original text. Thus, by having associate images, students are more efficient than the adapted work itself to start an interpretative reading. On the other hand, the adaptation process, by redefining the border between the reader and the author, allowed the students to develop reflexivity about narrative strategies through the production of their comic strips.
Keywords: adaptation, roman, bande dessinée, lecture littéraire, adaptation, novel, comics strips, literature reading
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207.More information
In some of Balzac's narratives of the 1830s, notably Le colonel Chabert, La peau de chagrin and Adieu, misfortune produces an astonishing singularization effect. The novel tells of the succession of hardships that a character goes through and makes us aware of the meaning and the strength of his suffering, which, paradoxically, deprives him of any capability to act and compels the story into repetition. Heroization also results from misfortune which appears to endow the figure with a form of lucidity or clairvoyance. The Balzacian novel therefore offers a dual approach to the unfortunate “hero” (as exposed to the hardship, and as exposing the incompatibilities of the times, of the ways of being and feeling), and a double grasp of unhappiness, at the same time the object of the pathetic story and the condition of a broader “seeing,” of a confrontation with the intolerable, with the rips of history, that no narrative or discourse can nor should mend.
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208.More information
This article proposes a close reading of Tristan Corbière's satirical diptych “Duel aux camélias” and “Fleur d'art” from his only poems collection Les amours jaunes (1873). While the humor primarily resides in rire jaune (forced, sour laughter), and can serve as an ethic for the author, these two texts explore what they term as manière noire (dark manner). Although the notion initially refers to the mezzotint technique in etching, in a literal sense, it tends to darken the representation of love and passion by emphasizing sadomasochistic relationships between men and women. Through the stylus, the act of writing is likened to etchings on the metal plate: a violent and ironic gesture, incompatible with lyrical sentimentality.
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209.More information
Keywords: altérisation, bas-fond, colonialisme, orientalisme, prostitution, sexscape, slumming