O objetivo deste estudo é fornecer uma análise dos dois principais movimentos dentro da ficção científica em língua inglesa vinculados ao pós-modernismo, a New Wave da década de 1960 e o Movimento Cyberpunk da década de 1980, estabelecendo comparações com a produção de ficção científica do mesmo período, dentro das Primeira e Segunda Ondas da Ficção Científica Brasileira. Questões de política literária serão sempre evocadas, como maneira de relativizar o peso teórico das discussões, tentando estabelecer que intenções, procedimentos e programas literários existem inseridos em contextos pessoais, sociais e mesmo nacionais. Essa abordagem é amparada pelo conceito do Campo de Poder, do sociólogo francês Pierre Bourdieu (1930-2002), e de diversos intérpretes de suas idéias. A partir dos trabalhos de críticos e teóricos como Clive Bloom, Scott McCracken, Ken Gelder, Michel de Certeau e Robert Scholes, este trabalho propõe que a ficção científica, como gênero literário de raízes populares, é capaz de exercer o papel de uma literatura que faz a crítica da modernidade, sem recorrer necessariamente aos aspectos formais associados à literatura pós-modernista, incluindo o texto fragmentário, a mistura de gêneros e códigos literários. A pesquisa conduz a uma reflexão a respeito da situação da ficção de gênero vis-à-vis a predileção da ficção pós-modernista pela metaficção e pelo experimentalismo. / The objective of this study is to provide an analysis of the two main literary movements in English-written science fiction associated to postmodernism, the New Wave of the 1960s and the Cyberpunk Movement of the 1980s, establishing comparisons with science fictional production of the same periods in the First and Second Waves of Brazilian science fiction. Issues of literary politics will be constantly considered, as a way to relativize the theoretical charge of the arguments, trying to establish that intentions, proceedings, and literary programs exist inserted in personal, social, and even national contexts. This approach is supported by the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieus concept of Field of Power, and also by a number of readers of his ideas. Taking from the works of critics and theoreticians such as Clive Bloom, Scott McCracken, Ken Gelder, Michel de Certeau, and Robert Scholes, this work claims that science fiction as a literary genre of popular roots can play out the role of a literature that performs a criticism of modernity without relying on those formal aspects associated with postmodernist literature, including fragmentary prose and the mixing of genres and literary codes. The research leads to a reflection concerning the situation of genre fiction vis-à-vis postmodernist fictions propensity for metafiction and experimentalism.

Esta dissertação tem como objetivo analisar de que maneira a representação dos eventos históricos referentes ao cerco de Lisboa de 1147 empreendida nos textos historiográficos Conquista De Lisboa aos Mouros (1147) de Osberno, Crónica de cinco reis de Portugal atribuído a Fernão Lopes, Crónica de Dom Affonso Henriques, do Frei António Brandão, e História de Portugal: 1.ª época, desde a origem da monarquia até D. Afonso III de Alexandre Herculano, é reconfigurada na narrativa ficcional História do Cerco de Lisboa, do escritor português José Saramago. Especificamente, tencionou-se identificar, por meio do estudo de fontes históricas referentes à conquista de Lisboa de 1147, aspectos característicos da narrativa histórica oficial de tal evento histórico e da apresentação de suas personagens importantes; determinar em que medida textos historiográficos portugueses são intertextualmente apropriados pelo narrador de História do Cerco de Lisboa; averiguar qual é a atitude do narrador em relação ao discurso histórico oficial referente a tal momento histórico; verificar de que maneira as personagens históricas envolvidas no cerco e na tomada de Lisboa são representadas no romance; e determinar em que medida a reescrita do cerco de Lisboa empreendida no romance é dessacralizadora e paródica. A análise do romance foi norteada teoricamente, por um lado, por estudos referentes às muitas instâncias do cruzamento entre discurso literário e discurso histórico – especialmente por obras dos historiadores Hayden White, Paul Ricoeur, Carlo Ginzburg, Saul Friedländer e Dominick LaCapra – e, por outro, pela atribuição do conceito de metaficção historiográfica, de Linda Hutcheon, à narrativa saramaguiana. Depois do estudo do romance à luz das obras históricas, concluiu-se que o narrador de História do cerco de Lisboa reconfigura o intertexto historiográfico de maneiras distintas, que vão da reprodução literal de excertos e da referência nominal a seus autores até a absorção paródica de grandes blocos das obras de origem. Essas citações aparecem em geral emolduradas por comentários irônicos da instância narrativa, conferindo uma apreciação pouco sacralizada e bastante díspar da observada nas fontes históricas consultadas aos eventos e personalidades históricas importantes. Outra forma de retomada intertextual refere-se ao resgate de figuras menores do passado português, o soldado Mogueime e a princesa moura Oureana, e das vozes mouras silenciadas pela conquista. Além de problematizar o passado lusitano por meio da apropriação intertextual de obras que o enfocam, o narrador saramaguiano questiona os métodos de escrita historiográfica ao ficcionalizar o embate de pelo menos duas concepções de história distintas, uma representada pelo Historiador e outra por Raimundo Silva, bem como de sugerir a leitura do passado mediante a técnica do palimpsesto. / This thesis aims to analyze how the representation of historical events related to the 1147 siege of Lisbon undertaken in the historiographical texts Conquista De Lisboa aos Mouros (1147) by Osberno, Crónica de cinco reis de Portugal by Fernão Lopes, Crónica de Dom Affonso Henriques by Frei António Brandão, and História de Portugal: 1.ª época, desde a origem da monarquia até D. Afonso III by Alexandre Herculano is reconfigured in the ficcional narrative History of the Siege of Lisbon, by Portuguese writer José Saramago. Specifically, we meant to identify, through the study of historical sources concerning the conquest of Lisbon, characteristic features of the official historical record of this historic event and how the its important characters are presented; to determine to what extent Portuguese historiographical texts are intertextualy appropriated by the History of the Siege of Lisbon narrator; to find out what is the narrator's attitude towards the official historical record concerning such historical moment; to verify how the historical characters involved in the siege and conquest of Lisbon are represented in the novel; and to determine to what extent the rewriting of the siege of Lisbon undertaken in the novel is unsanctified and parodic. The novel’s analysis was theoretically guided, on the one hand, for studies related to the various instances of crossings between literary discourse and historical discourse – especially works by historians Hayden White, Paul Ricoeur, Carlo Ginzburg, Saul Friedlander and Dominick LaCapra – and, on the other hand, the assignment of the concept of historiographic metafiction, by Linda Hutcheon, to Saramago’s narrative. After the study of the novel in the light of the historical sources, it was concluded that the History of the siege of Lisbon’s narrator reconfigures the historiographical intertext in different ways, ranging from literal reproduction of excerpts and nominal reference to their authors to the parodic absorption of large blocks of works. These quotes are usually framed by ironic comments of the narrative instance, giving an assessment that isn’t sanctified and is quite disparate from that given by the consulted historical sources to the historical events and its important figures. Another form of intertextual resumption refers to rescue of smaller figures of Portuguese past, as the soldier Mogueime and the Moorish princess Oureana, as well as the Moorish voices silenced by the conquest. Besides questioning the Lusitanian past through intertextual appropriation of sources, Saramago’s narrator questions the historiographical writing methods by fictionalizing the clash of at least two different conceptions of history, represented by the historian and by Raimundo Silva, as well as suggest the reading of the past throught the use of palimpsest technique.

O escritor ganhador do Prêmio Nobel de Literatura John Maxwell Coetzee publicou Foe em 1987. Ao lermos esse romance, somos imediatamente levados à ilha de Robinson Crusoe - e, conseqüentemente, ao mundo ficcional de Daniel Defoe. O objetivo deste trabalho é tomar a leitura da obra Foe, de Coetzee, como um comentário sobre a estética de construção de um romance. Esta é uma dissertação argumentativa, dividida em três partes. O primeiro capítulo introduz o autor e contextualiza as discussões sobre a Escrita, a História e a Ficção. O segundo capítulo traz o suporte teórico, que consiste na apresentação das idéias de Linda Hutcheon sobre Historiografia e nas conceitualizações sobre Meta-ficção, de Patricia Waugh. Ambas conduzem à referência poética ao Anjo da História feita por Walter Benjamin. A terceira parte comenta o romance Foe e o insere no conjunto da obra de Coetzee, apontando elementos compartilhados com os outros romances do autor. Na conclusão, espero validar a tese proposta, de que Foe é realmente um romance auto-reflexivo que reflete as condições de produção de sua época. / Nobel prize winner John Maxwell Coetzee published Foe in 1987. When reading that novel, we are taken back to Robinson Crusoe’s island – and, consequently, to the world of Daniel Defoe’s fiction. The aim of this work is to undertake the reading of Coetzee’s Foe as a study on the aesthetics of novelmaking. This is an argumentative thesis, divided into three parts. Chapter one introduces the author and contextualizes the discussions on Writing, History and Fiction. Chapter two brings the theoretical background, that consists of the presentation of Linda Hutcheon’s ideas about Historiography and Patricia Waugh’s conceptualizations on Metafiction, both of them relating to Walter Benjamin’s poetic reference to the Angel of History. The third part submits an analysis of Foe, and connects this novel with the other works written by Coetzee. In the conclusion, I hope to validate the thesis proposed, that Foe is, ultimately, a self-reflexive novel that reflects the aesthetics of novel making of its own time.

Submitted by Marlene Santos (marlene.bc.ufg@gmail.com) on 2014-12-01T18:32:00Z No. of bitstreams: 2 Tese - Rosângela Aparecida Cardoso - 2013.pdf: 1811150 bytes, checksum: c2905bfa644225a9bc72521b164b1961 (MD5) license_rdf: 23148 bytes, checksum: 9da0b6dfac957114c6a7714714b86306 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Luciana Ferreira (lucgeral@gmail.com) on 2014-12-04T14:33:28Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 2 Tese - Rosângela Aparecida Cardoso - 2013.pdf: 1811150 bytes, checksum: c2905bfa644225a9bc72521b164b1961 (MD5) license_rdf: 23148 bytes, checksum: 9da0b6dfac957114c6a7714714b86306 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-04T14:33:28Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 Tese - Rosângela Aparecida Cardoso - 2013.pdf: 1811150 bytes, checksum: c2905bfa644225a9bc72521b164b1961 (MD5) license_rdf: 23148 bytes, checksum: 9da0b6dfac957114c6a7714714b86306 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-10-16 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / This thesis investigates the reception of Capitu, the character of Machado de Assis, by Capitu – memórias póstumas (1998), the criticism-fiction of Domício Proença Filho, in an attempt to explain, in the field of intertextuality, the notion of author, emphasizing how, a century later, Capitu‟s ressignifications are connected with the aesthetic and ideological context of the end of the 20th century. The attempt of examining, in Dom Casmurro (1899), the affirmation of the character-writer: “everything is found out of a faulty book, friendly reader. So I fill out somebody else's gaps; so you can fill out also mine”, and the attempt to investigate, in Capitu – memórias póstumas, the substitution of the moody-author by the character-writer Capitu, takes us to the problematic of the metafiction. Our scope lies on how the questions of the authorship, of the reader, of the reading and of the parody are interconnected, owing to the fact that Proença‟s novel provokes, in itself, its own aesthetic problematization related to the interference of the point of view in the narrated facts, inviting us to rethink, with him, Machado‟s novel with the voice of Capitu, and as a consequence of that, to rethink Capitu as a character. Such procedure takes us to the critical and theoretical field of investigation, seen as a more recurrent path towards fiction since the end of the 20th century / Esta tese perscruta a recepção da personagem Capitu do romance Dom Casmurro (1899), de Machado de Assis, pela crítica-ficção machadiana elaborada em 1998. Trata-se do romance Capitu – memórias póstumas, de Domício Proença Filho. A investigação desenvolvida discute a problemática da noção de autor no âmbito da intertextualidade, enfatizando como, um século depois, as ressignificações da Capitu machadiana se conectam com as tendências estéticas e ideológicas do contexto finissecular novecentista. Nosso foco de interesse incide sobre a afirmação do casmurro-autor: “tudo se acha fora de um livro falho, leitor amigo. Assim preencho as lacunas alheias; assim podes também preencher as minhas” (MACHADO, 1991, p.57) e a substituição de tal personagem-escritor pela personagemescritora Capitu, no romance de Proença. Nossos esforços se concentram no sentido de pesquisar o modo como as questões da autoria, do leitor, da leitura e da paródia se interconectam, configurando a narrativa metaficcional de Machado e de Proença. Partimos do pressuposto de que o texto Capitu – memórias póstumas apresenta em seu corpus a sua própria problematização estética relacionada à interferência do ponto de vista nos fatos narrados, convidando-nos a repensar com ele a obra de ficção machadiana a partir da voz de Capitu e, consequentemente, a repensar Capitu como personagem. Com tal procedimento, sinaliza o âmbito da investigação teórica e crítica, percurso mais recorrente da ficção desde os fins do século XX.

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / This study aims to investigate the existence of a metafictional poetics developed along the literary production of Sérgio Sant'Anna, which would culminate in the book O voo da madrugada (2003). The main goal is to show how it is possible to think O voo da madrugada as the resumption and systematization of Sérgio Sant Anna s work in which the writer would seek to transform in fictional matter the three instances of the literary process creation, work, reception which are themed, respectively, in the three parts into which the book is divided. For this purpose, first of all we sought to study the phenomenon of textual metafictionality in its relationship with postmodernism in order to check what is the specificity of contemporary metafiction and what modes and forms it may assume; later, the literary production of Sérgio Sant'Anna was analyzed in parallel to contemporary Brazilian literature, in order to investigate what are the metafictional trends assumed by Sant Anna s fiction and what is its position in the Brazilian literary scene, and then study how these trends converge systematically in the book O voo da madrugada. / Este trabalho tem como meta investigar a existência de uma poética metaficcional desenvolvida ao longo da produção literária de Sérgio Sant Anna, que culminaria no livro O voo da madrugada (2003). O objetivo principal é mostrar como é possível pensarmos O voo da madrugada como a retomada e sistematização da obra sant anniana, em que o escritor buscaria transformar em matéria ficcional as três instâncias do processo literário, criação obra recepção, que são tematizadas, respectivamente, nas três partes em que o livro é dividido. Para tanto, buscou-se estudar, primeiramente, o fenômeno da metaficcionalidade textual em sua relação com o pós-modernismo, a fim de verificar qual é a especificidade da metaficção contemporânea e quais os modos e as formas que ela pode assumir; posteriormente, a produção literária de Sérgio Sant Anna foi analisada em paralelo à literatura brasileira contemporânea, no intuito de investigar quais são as tendências metaficcionais assumidas pela ficção sant anniana e qual é a sua posição no cenário literário brasileiro, para então estudarmos como essas tendências confluem sistematicamente no livro O voo da madrugada.

La construction des personnages et de représentations du pouvoir, ainsi que la mise en place d’une écriture métafictionnelle dans sept romans mexicains publiés dans les années 90 sont les thèmes centraux de cette étude. Pour notre analyse de El disparo de argón, Huatulqueños, La lotería de San Jorge, Una de dos, Salón de belleza, Un asesino solitario et En busca de Klingsor, nous nous sommes inspiré des théories de Roland Barthes et de Philippe Hamon concernant l’étude sémiologique des personnages, ainsi que des modes de représentation narrative décrits par Gérard Genette. Nous sommes également parti des idées ce même auteur sur l’écriture métafictionnelle, ainsi que des travaux de Linda Hutcheon et de Patricia Waugh sur la question. Notre analyse montre que narrateurs, personnages et décors sont construits à l’aide de figures telles que l’hyperbole ou la comparaison. Le paysage peut agir comme un personnage de plus, et engendrer des espaces métaphysiques reflétant l’histoire. Pour ce qui est du rapport au pouvoir, l’on distinguera deux types de personnages : des êtres vulnérables, d’une part, possédant le pouvoir de manière éphémère ; et des puissances invisibles et inhumaines, de l’autre, surveillant et régissant les destinées des personnages. Tandis que les premiers partagent des caractéristiques physiques et des comportements plus ou moins similaires, les puissances invisibles correspondent à des figures telles que le Destin, le Hasard, Dieu ou encore le Diable. Les représentations du pouvoir remplissent toutes une même série de fonctions. Chacun des sept romans envisagés par cette étude déploie des moyens visant à souligner la nature réflexive de l’écriture chez le narrateur. L’analyse des mises en abyme, des métalepses et de la transtextualité au sein du récit permet de mettre au jour et d’évaluer de manière systématique la présence effective de la métafiction. / This essay presents an analysis of the construction of characters, the representations of power and the development of metafictional writing through a discussion of seven Mexican novels published in the nineties. The essay utilizes the theoretical advances of Roland Barthes and Philippe Hamon in regards to semiological analysis of characters and Gérard Genette’s modes of narrative representation to analyze El disparo de argón, Huatulqueños, La lotería de San Jorge, Una de dos, Salón de belleza, Un asesino solitario y En busca de Klingsor. Metafictional writing was looked at using the theoretical lens of not only Genette, but also Linda Hutcheon and Patricia Waugh. In conclusion, narrators, characters and setting are constructed by means of techniques like hyperbole or comparison. In addition, landscape comes to function as another character in the story, creating a metaphysical space that reflects history. When speaking of power, there are two identifiable types of characters: vulnerable creatures with an ephemeral authority and invisible, inhumane powers that patrol and decide characters’ destinies. The first group eventually acquires the same physical characteristics and attitudes, while the invisible powers correspond to figures like Fate, Chance, God or the Devil. The representations of power fulfill a series of similar roles. Each of the seven novels studied in this essay uses techniques which emphasize the narrator’s own awareness of the act of writing. The analysis of the mise en abyme, metalepsis and transtextuality in the narrative allows for a systematic determination and evaluation of the effectiveness of metafiction.

In Portugal, as in other countries, a common characteristic of many of the novels published in the past twenty years is the recourse to a repertoire of literary devices that recall those of the historical novel.                 On the basis of critical studies published in the 1990’s, and in particular Fernández Prieto’s Poética de la Novela Histórica, this thesis undertakes a study of the Portuguese historical novel with the aim of defining, to the extent possible, the limits of this literary genre, and to examine in detail some of its intrinsic—and pertinent—semantic and pragmatic traits: the setting of a fictional narrative in the past, the introduction of historical persons and events and, not the least, the transtextual relationship between the fictional and the historiographic text.        Special attention is given to some of the more innovative forms of the contemporary historical novel, to highlight how by emphasising certain generic traits —that refer to the reader’s acquired knowledge— the author can compensate for the absence of others. Despite the inherent ”heterodoxy”, this device justifies grouping these novels under the general heading of the historical novel. The thesis explores the analogies between some of these innovative narrative strategies of the contemporary historical novel with transtextual practices characteristic of literature predating the 19th Century and by which a certain ”historical knowledge” is requisite for decoding the text. The thesis also establishes a set of generic traits that the historical novel shares with epic poetry. In light of these analogies, the thesis proposes a reading of Os Lusíadas as a historical poem. With this the author hopes to provide a contribution to a theory of historical fiction, understood as a genre encompassing, in addition to the novel, all forms of fictionalisation that rely on the historical discourse. © Mauro Cavaliere                                           ISBN  91-7265-442-2

THIS THESIS IS IN THE EXAMINATION PROCESS Christian Frederik Louis Leipoldt was born in on 28 December 1880 in the Rhenish House in Worcester, Cape Province, the fourth child of the Reverend Christian Friedrich Leipoldt and Anna Meta Christina Leipoldt (born Esselen). His father left the mission field to take up the position of the dominee in the Dutch Reformed Church in Clanwilliam where the Leipoldt family went to live, from 1884. Leipoldt received his education from his father at home, on a broad range of subjects, including several languages and also in the natural sciences. He became interested in writing from a very young age and sent pieces of his writing for publication when still a boy. When he was fifteen he began sending dried plant specimens to Professor McOwan in Cape Town, from Clanwilliam. It was through his interest in botany that Leipoldt met Dr Harry Bolus, a life-long friend. Leipoldt wrote the Civil Service examinations in 1897 after which he went to Cape Town to work as a journalist. Living in Cape Town he served on the staff of the pro-Boer newspaper, The South African News from 1898 until it was closed down by the British authorities in 1902, when he travelled to Britain to look for work as a journalist in London. Soon after arriving there he took up the offer from Bolus who would lend him money to study medicine at Guy’s Hospital. It was more or less at this time that some of his early literature on the South African War was written, for instance, his well-known poem, Oom Gert Vertel (published in 1911). After successfully obtaining his MRCS medical qualification in 1907, winning gold medals for medicine and surgery in the process, he briefly served as Acting House Surgeon at Guy’s until 1908 when he travelled to Europe to work in a number of hospitals to receive further training. Later the same year he took up a post as medical adviser to J D Pulitzer, the American newspaper owner. Thereafter he worked as a doctor in London except for the time he proceeded on a four month visit to the East in 1912, the experience of which he penned in a manuscript entitled ‘Visit to the East Indies.’In 1914 he returned to South Africa to take up a post as Medical Inspector of Schools with the Transvaal Education Department. During the First World War in South Africa, he was drafted into the army as the personal medical doctor to the Prime Minister at the time, Genl Louis Botha. He resigned from his post as Medical Inspector in 1923 to take up an offer from Dr F V Engelenburg to serve on the editorial staff of the pro-Smuts newspaper De Volkstem,. He worked there until 1925 when he and the newly appointed editor Gustav Preller did not see eye to eye and it was then that he decided to return to Cape Town. His second Cape Town period (1925 – 1947) was characterized by the most prolific writing, during which he published a great many works across a broad range of topics. Furthermore, though he never married, he adopted Jeffrey Leipoldt, and took in a number of boys as boarders in his home ‘Arbury’ in Kenilworth, Cape Town. At the same time as he wrote most prolifically for a wide range of publications including many novels, he taught pediatrics at the University of Cape Town Medical School and practised as a pediatrician in the city. C Louis Leipoldt was a versatile person who published across a wide range of fields, to include literature, medical studies, letters to friends and associates, the history of wine and cookery, and what few seem to be aware of, his three English historical novels that make up The Valley, written in English between 1928 and 1932. Whilst Leipoldt’s early work such as Oom Gert Vertel gave voice to the suffering of the Afrikaner people, in The Valley, his voice is one of protest against the isolationist policies of the National Party of the 1920s.</p/> Whilst Leipoldt will be known for his work as the inaugural medical inspector of schools of the Transvaal Education Department, the inaugural lecturer in pediatrics at the University of Cape Town and Cape Town’s first practising pediatrician, he will also be known for his wide oeuvre as a writer. For example, he served as the Medical Association of South Africa’s first editor of its South African Medical Journal, a post he held for 18 years. Leipoldt never married and died on 13 April 1947 in Cape Town. His ashes were scattered in the Pakhuis Pass near Clanwilliam, where there is a memorial to his life. / Thesis (DPhil)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Historical and Heritage Studies / unrestricted

Notre recherche s’intéressera à la composition sophistiquée de ce que nous allons dénommer « la maison livresque frésanienne » ou « série intertextuelle ». À travers notre étude, il s’agira de montrer que les neuf ouvrages de Rodrigo Fresán, sans égard à leurs appartenances génériques et leurs thématiques diverses, forment un tout cohérent et ils ne peuvent pas, par conséquent, être étudiés de façon séparée. Nous mettrons en évidence la continuité, la logique et, surtout, le caractère systématique du projet littéraire unissant tous les livres de l’auteur dans une série intertextuelle unique, fractale et « en devenir ». Eu égard au fait que cette écriture génériquement hybride est caractérisée par une tension entre les techniques d’unification et celles de discontinuité, nous effectuerons une présentation des procédés d’intégration et d’atomisation mis en place dans les collections de nouvelles intégrées et dans les romans de l’auteur. Ensuite, nous dégagerons la stratégie principale d’édification du continuum de la maison livresque : le principe de répétition et de variation. Nous explorerons plusieurs domaines d’application du mécanisme de la répétition/variation à différents niveaux de toute la série. Notre étude sera focalisée notamment sur les structures narratives, la dimension métafictionnelle, les hybridations génériques et les modèles extralittéraires de l’écriture frésanienne, c’est-à-dire ses inspirations musicales, picturales, photographiques, cinématographiques, scientifiques et religieuses. / The aim of this thesis is to examine and interpret the sophisticated composition of Rodrigo Fresán’s “house of books” or “intertextual series”. Our research will demonstrate that the nine books of the Argentinean writer, in spite of their different generic classifications and their significant thematic diversity, form a coherent whole and they cannot be therefore analyzed separately. The continuity, the logic and, most importantly, the systematic nature of this literary project, that unites all the books of the author in an original and fractal intertextual series “in progress”, will be showed. Considering the fact that this work is characterized by a generic hybridity and a tension between the unification and discontinuity techniques, the processes of literary integration and atomization utilized in the integrated story collections and in the novels of the author will be presented. Then, a repetition and variation principle will be investigated as a main construction strategy of this continuum. Many fields of application of the repetition/variation mechanisms on various levels of the series will be explored. Our study will be concentrated mostly on the narrative structures, the metafictional dimension, the generic hybridity and the extraliterary models of the Fresán’s books, that is, his musical, pictorial, photographic, film, scientific and religious inspirations.

Thesis Abstract The present thesis investigates correlations between a selection of metafictional texts and narrative theory. The selection consists in two sets of self-reflexive texts. The first one explores metafictional tendencies in the 17th and 18th century novels. To achieve this, the selection largely ignores their provenience. In addition to Henry Fielding's Tom Jones and Laurence Sterne's Tristram Shandy, it also examines Cervantes's Don Quixote. The latter set of texts focuses on post-War American metafictions (John Barth's Lost in the Funhouse, Donald Barthelme's Snow White, Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five). These represent a coherent body of works from a particular period. Metafiction is generally understood as fiction about fiction. The present thesis challenges those assumptions and suggests interpreting metafiction within the framework of Michel Foucault's epistemes. Metafiction is not conceived of as a separate genre of literature but in the context of broader cultural tendencies in the understanding of representation. Representation is a key concept in metafiction and the increasing degree of narrative self-awareness is viewed in this light. The thesis emphasizes this contrastive and interdisciplinary approach. The text is divided into five chapters. Chapter one is a theoretical...