[pt] Esta dissertação analisa as reflexões de Heráclito de Éfeso sobre o par de contrários vida-morte a partir da compreensão de Alexandre Costa dos conceitos heraclíticos de logos e thanatos, descrita em Thanatos: da Possibilidade de um Conceito de Morte a partir do Logos Heraclítico (Costa, 1999). Partindo de uma ótica singular de Costa, Heráclito é destacado como o precursor das indagações a respeito das virtudes e das coisas humanas. É ressaltado um Heráclito ético e político, que estaria tentando entender a dificuldade do humano em decifrar o mundo a sua volta e a si mesmo. Esta dificuldade se daria devido a uma surdez humana, que impediria os humanos de escutar a fala do logos, isto é, a fala do cosmo, o que os tornaria uma espécie de mortos-vivos. Sublinha-se a dimensão humana do pensamento do efésio e a lógica heraclítica da contradição, que abraça a ideia da inseparabilidade e interconectividade dos contrários na compreensão do cosmo como tudo-um. Na busca pela compreensão de qual seria o lugar do humano, Heráclito estaria escutando o logos comum/universal que estaria expressando um processo inescapável de relação e cooperação entre contrários. O humano estaria diante de um aparecimento processual de interconexão e interdependência entre tudo e todos. Este trabalho que se inicia com a análise das reflexões de Heráclito, um filósofo grego do século VI a.C., acaba por se desenrolar na direção das atuais circunstâncias, quando se torna inadiável que se perceba a existência de um humano morto-vivo contemporâneo. Heráclito estaria apontando a existência de uma morte exclusiva dos humanos, uma morte ética, um humano morto em vida que estaria buscando uma gratificação imediata para si, egoísta e autocentrado, sem compromisso com o outro, separando o inseparável, isto é, que não compreende a interdependência cosmológica do tudo-um. Nesta dissertação, será descrito o morto-vivo heraclítico, mas o mesmo será facilmente identificado contemporaneamente nestes tempos de pandemia e pandemônio. E daí? disse o presidente. / [en] This work aims to analyze the heraclitic reflections on the pair of opposites life-death, from the comprehension of Alexandre Costa about the concepts of logos and thanatos developed in the work Thanatos: of the Possibility of a Concept of Death from the Heraclitic Logos (Costa, 1999). Starting from Costa’s singular perspective, the work intends to highlight Heraclitus as a precursor of the inquiries about virtues and human things. It aims to illuminate an ethical-political Heraclitus who would be trying to understand the human difficulty in deciphering themselves and the world around them. This difficulty would be due to a deafness that would prevent us from hearing the speech of the logos, the speech of the cosmos that is expressing the inseparability and interconnectivity of all beings, the difficulty in the understanding the all-one, that the human is in an unstable place between opposites which are in constant movement. The ignorance about the idea that we belong to a cosmos that expresses cooperation and not isolation. This work, which begins with the analysis of the thought of Heraclitus, a Greek philosopher from the 6th century BC, inevitably unfolds in the direction of the 21st century when it becomes unavoidable to associate the heraclitic living dead to the contemporary living dead. The current politics of separating us and them has transformed us into true zombies, deaf beings for the speech of nature that screams to be all-one. Heraclitus would be pointing out the existence of a death, exclusive of humans, that would be an ethical death, a human who would be looking for an immediate gratification for himself, who has no commitment to the Other. I will be describing the heraclitic living dead but that will be easily identifiable in our pandemic and pandemonium times. So what? asked the president.

This thesis looks at occurrences of "living death" – a liminal state that exists between life and death, and which may be approached from either side – in early modern English drama. Today, reference to the living dead brings to mind zombies and their ilk, creatures which entered the English language and imagination centuries after the time of the great early modern playwrights. Yet, I argue, many post-Reformation writers were imagining states between life and death in ways more complex than existing critical discussions of “ghosts” have tended to perceive. My approach to the subject is broadly historicist, but informed throughout by ideas of stagecraft and performance. In addition to presenting fresh interpretations of well-known plays such as Thomas Middleton’s The Maiden’s Tragedy (1611) and John Webster’s The White Devil (1612), I also endeavour to shed new light on various non-canon works such as the anonymous The Tragedy of Locrine (c.1591), John Marston's Antonio's Revenge (c.1602), and Anthony Munday's mayoral pageants Chruso-thriambos (1611) and Chrysanaleia (1616), works which have received little in the way of serious scholarly attention or, in the case of Antonio's Revenge, been much maligned by critics. These dramatic works depict a whole host of the living dead, including not only ghosts and spirits but also resurrected Lord Mayors, corpses which continue to “perform” after death, and characters who anticipate their deaths or define themselves through last dying speeches. By exploring the significance of these characters, I demonstrate that the concept of living death is vital to our understanding of deeper thematic and symbolic meanings in a wide range of dramatic works.