This study will argue that visual art and the making of images share much With other languages. If writing can be deoonstructed, visual Imagery can be deconfigured, for figuring an image is much like structuring a sentence. The process of deconfiguration however relies on repetition. DeconflguratiOn therefore denies any claim of a primary creator. It will be argued though that deconfiguratlon remains creative as it engages the imagination in a process of transference and through association. Moreover, deconfiguration shows how binary opposites are essential In the making of artworks. The repetitive process takes place when the artwork Is made and continues during the appreciation and/or interpretation of the artwork. For the interpretation to really deconfigure, it would mean that the image constituted by the artist has metaphorical, allegorical and even symbolical implications. The interpreter will thus always remain a partidpant in the creative process suggested by the artwork. / Art History, Visual Arts & Musicology / M.A. (Visual Arts)

When the Irish writer Samuel Beckett (1906-1989) wrote Waiting for Godot in 1948-1949 he was in a state of artistic depression and confusion. He had already turned to French instead of English and with a manuscript for the stage he made an effort to get away from what he called ”the awful prose” he was working on at that time. Waiting for Godot had its first opening night in Paris in 1953, and during the years since then many different interpretations have been made of this challenging work of art. In this essay, with the meta textual elements in Waiting for Godot as a foundation, I’m reading the drama as a writer’s struggle with his material – not strictly biographical, but with Beckett as an artistic example. Vladimir and Estragon, as well as Pozzo and Lucky, then become personalizations of the voices in the mind of the author, where intellect/reason/analysis on one hand and intuition/feeling/fantasy on the other are working side by side, or as a pair of opposites, to try to get along through conflict and cooperation; conferring, clashing, and complementing one another. Godot will then function as the mystical and driving force, the necessary lack of purpose or fundamental meaning that keeps the artist in touch with art. In this aspect Godot has not to come; his absence is an absolute condition to get the play going, to keep the writer writing, to make all artists continue their lonely, tiresome, difficult work. Waiting for Godot tells us something about the struggle every writer has to face when writing a play, or a novel, or a poem, where he, or she, has to speak with and listen to the inner voices of intuition and intellect and try to get by in spite of the overall sense of hopelessness of it all. Art is at the same time without meaning and of infinite value and I believe that this paradox is alive and working in Waiting for Godot.

This thesis in two volumes is a study of the paintings of David ill Ryckaert (1612- 1661 ). Ryckaert grew up in a family of artists, and painted within a close community of fellow artists. According to several twentieth-century critics, Ryckaert was no more than a minor imitator of other Flemish painters. Underlying such relegation of Ryckaert is an uncritical and distinctly Modernist glorification of originality, or merely novelty. The chief argument of this thesis is that a careful reconstruction of the socio-cultural circumstances ofRyckaert's work calls into question the destructive employment of originality as a criterion of artistic greatness. Much of the vocabulary of Flemish art of the time was established. Artists thus proved their excellence both to fellow painters and a public fully conversant with the artistic traditions of subject and style, if such pictorial conventions were notably refmed or treated with a remarkable grace. Embracing the criteria of personal style and the beauty of the work, this environment is clearly averse to the blank veneration of new or original art. I argue that the term originality is itself dangerous therefore and that to neglect Ryckaert's work as that of a minor imitator is invalid and unhelpful. A careful examination of Ryckaert's known oeuvre reveals that his work is distinguished by a fine modelling, harmonious composition and a warm palette with colourful highlights. Although he relied on an established iconographic repertory, he maintained creative variation, thereby ensuring a steady demand. Ryckaert's imitation of other artists' work requires us to adjust twentieth-century criteria which tend to be pejorative of those who borrow from fellow artists. In fact Ryckaert could be said to have refmed his individuality as a painter through the testing creative encounter with and imitation of other artists. / Art / D.Litt. et Phil. (History of Art)

當過去歷史透過電影重現，電影以特定的形式與內容重新編排將會使歷史有著不同意義，影響行動者認知及將某種行為成為可能。因此，探討電影如何再現歷史對閱聽人相當重要。 本研究探討影視文本如何再現歷史，以1984年印度黃金廟事件為例，採用《火柴》（Maachis,1996）、《阿畝》（Amu, 2005）及《旁遮普 1984》（Punjab 1984, 2014）三部電影為研究個案，取徑影視史學與民族寓言理論並透過文本分析法，探討三個面向：第一，電影拍攝時空環境與歷史事件時空環境兩者之間的辯證關係。第二，電影文本如何再現過去歷史並呈現其關鍵要點；第三，書寫歷史與影視歷史間呈現的關係。 研究發現，當歷史以影視文本再現時，呈現出以下幾個特點。第一，影視文本歷史再現關注現在。第二，影視文本歷史再現反映當代主流觀點。第三，以角色人物為主之民族寓言。第四，敘事安排製造懸疑感、凸顯關鍵要點。第五，影視文本歷史再現開啟換位思考。 / This study aims to analyze how films reproduced history by using Maachis, amu and Punjab 1984 as case studies which focus on the history of the “Golden Temple Incident of 1984” in India. The methodology of this study is based on concepts of historiophoty by Haden White and national allegory by Fredric Jameson. Textual analysis is adopted to explore three films for the following questions. First, what is the relevance between the filmic background and the historical incident? Second, how does the film text represent history and focus on key points? Third, what is the relationship between Historiography and Historiophoty? This study finds that, first, the historiophoty focuses on present situations. Second, historiophoty reflects the dominate perspectives in present time. Third, the films represent characters as the figures in national allegory. Fourth, arrangement of narrative creates suspenses and foregrounds crucial moments. Lastly, historiophoty opens the possibility for the audience to identify with characters in films.

Thesis (MPhil)--University of Stellenbosch, 2003. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: In this thesis, 'shadow' is investigated as an object of thought and (analogically connected to this) of perception. This dialectical process is structured through means of a series of experiments and Plato's allegory of the cave, which is interpreted as a process directed towards selfconciousness. This process is further explained through thinkers such as, Blumenberg, Heidegger, Levinas en Voegelin. The purpose of this study is to break with the self-evident way in which 'shadow' is 'normally' treated and to bring back about a sense of astonishment for it. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: In hierdie tesis word die 'skaduwee' as waarnemingsobjek en (analogies verwant daaraan) as denkobjek ondersoek. Hierdie dialektiese proses word gestruktureerd met behulp van 'n aantal eksperimente en Plato se grotgelykenis, wat geinterpreteer word as programmaties van die proses van selfbewuswording. Hierdie proses word verder toegelig aan die hand van denkers soos Blumenberg, Heidegger, Levinas en Voegelin. Die doel van die ondersoek is om die vanselfsprekendheid waarmee daar met die fenomeen van die skaduwee omgegaan word te deurbreek en weer verwondering daarvoor op te roep. / NEDERLANDSTALIGE SAMENVATTING: In deze thesis wordt de 'schaduw' als waarnemingsobject en (analogisch verwant daaraan) als denkobject onderzocht. Dit dialectische proces wordt gestructureerd met behulp van een aantal experimenten en Plato's grotvergelijking, die geïnterpreteerd worden als een proces gericht op zeltbewustwording. Dit proces wordt verder toegelicht aan de hand van denkers zoals, Blumenberg, Heidegger, Levinas en Voegelin. Het doel van het onderzoek is om de vanzelfsprekendheid waarmee met het fenomeen van de 'schaduw' omgegaan wordt, te doorbreken en er opnieuw verwondering voor op te roepen.

本論文主要是對一九九○年代過後所攝製的七部敘事背景有關中國文化大革命（簡稱文革）的電影進行分析，探討這些電影裡頭對中國文革的刻畫，更試著勾勒出這些文革的再現與當代中國的文化情境的關聯性。中國自文革後一九八○年代以來，它的文化情境已經產生了頗多變化。這些文化情境，筆者主要是分成三個階段或者部份來闡述。首先是文革過後「新時期」的「文化反思」和「歷史反思」思潮。第二階段是一九九○年代中國高速邁進全球化和市場經濟化的「後新時期」。最後筆者試圖將討論放在邁入兩千年新世紀中國在政治和經濟上崛起的脈絡上。 筆者發現，由三位「第五代」導演田壯壯、陳凱歌和張藝謀所執導的的《藍風箏》、《霸王別姬》和《活著》，其實是受一九八○年代「文化反思」和「歷史反思」的影響，再加上這三位導演年輕時期的生活曾籠罩在文革時候的革命話語中，使到他們的作品散發出濃厚的「文化反思」和「歷史反思」意識。在這些作品中，中國的歷史尤其是文革，成為了他們反思中國民族文化的梏結的寓言敘事策略，更成為了他們尋求為民族國家的文化、政治與經濟上的定位的言說工具。這些在電影中所描繪的個人經歷，都被投射在集體民族的經歷中，折射出對民族集體歷史命運的反思和批判，所呼喚的是一種對社會拯救的理想，一種為國家民族建立一個嶄新文化主體的實踐。 然而，筆者卻發現，另外三部電影，即《陽光燦爛的日子》、《巴爾札克與小裁縫》以及《美人草》卻遠離一九七○、八○年代中國「新時期」「文化反思」和「歷史反思」思潮下的「啟蒙」、「救贖」等的人道傳統話語。這三部電影並沒有呈現出文革的殘酷的一面，反而注重在年輕主人公們朝氣勃勃，充滿激情奔放的青春成長經歷上。同時，《陽光燦爛的日子》通過刻畫人類記憶的建構性和不確定性，來表示我們無法通過記憶來重構一種「絕對的」和「整體的」的文革歷史圖像。而這種現象，是一九九○年代大眾文化在中國的出現與消費社會的成形不無關係。 本論文的最後一個部份，是針對《太陽照常升起》進行分析。筆者發現，這部電影是在「國族寓言」與「反國族寓言」的元素中滑動。首先，它通過絢爛艷麗色彩的攝影，再加上獨特的場面調度，把它的時空背景處理得充滿夢幻色彩，更創造了一個如夢如幻的文革時代。其次，這部電影也通過對文革樣板戲中的女性形象的戲仿，搗毀了女性扮演「國族寓言」的文化角色。然而，這部電影裡頭卻增添了從國外回歸「祖國」的兩個華僑角色。他們在文革時候的遭遇，卻又可以化身為寓意中國現今處境的國族寓言，而這國族寓言跟一九八○年代的文化反思和歷史反思思潮下的國族寓言以及第五代導演的寓言策略有所不同。這部電影中的國族寓言所寓意的，更是和二十一世紀的中國在全球政治和經濟上的崛起有關。而中國在政治經濟上的崛起，卻又和「大中華」的文化認同息息相關。 / This essay focus on analyzing the portraits of China’s Cultural Revolution in seven Chinese Language films made during and after the 1990s. This essay points out that three films made by the “fifth generation” directors namely Blue Kite, Farewell My Concubine and To Live, tend to treat the history of Cultural Revolution as a “national allegory”. These “fifth generation” directors are trying to articulate their narrations of Cultural Revolution to the “cultural reflection” ideological trend of the New Era in the late 1970s and 1980s which searched for the “enlightenment” and “salvation” for the Chinese culture. But this essay also points out that the other three films namely In the Heat of the Sun, Balzac Et La Petite Tailleuse Chinoise and The Foliage, didn’t display the harsher aspects of the Cultural Revolution. Instead they focus on the vigorous and enthusiastic adolescence life of the young protagonists. In the Heat of the Sun also displays the construction and the uncertainty of the human memory, to express that we can’t recapture an “absolute” and a “total” historical image of Cultural Revolution. The portraits of Cultural Revolution in these three films also distance themselves away from the “enlightenment” and “salvation” cultural discourse during the New Era in the late 1970s and 1980s. Lastly, this essay focuses on the film The Sun Also Rises directed by China’s famous actor-cum-director JIANG Wen. This film slides between elements of “national allegory” and “anti-national allegory” for China. Firstly, this film through its brightly colorful cinematography and unique mise en scene, created a film space that is full of fantasy and a dreamlike historical events of Cultural Revolution. Secondly, this film through its parody of the revolutionary model theater of women images, destroys the role of the women in performing the national allegory. But this film added two characters of overseas Chinese returned to China. Their unpleasant experiences during the time of Cultural Revolution can be read as the national allegory of China. Lastly, this film through its unique narrative structure put the ethnic consciousness of “Chineseness” and the concept of “Greater China” into a process of continuing deconstruction and reconstruction.

Scénarios d’aveuglement dans la littérature d’Orhan Pamuk, d’Ernesto Sábato, et de José Saramago analyse trois œuvres importantes de trois auteurs contemporains : Mon nom est Rouge d’Orhan Pamuk ; « Rapport sur les aveugles » du roman Héros et tombes d’Ernesto Sábato ; et L’aveuglement de José Saramago. Malgré leurs différences, ces romans ont des points communs évidents, synthétisés dans la figure de l’aveuglement. Cette figure signale l’avènement, dans les textes, d’un régime de connaissance alternatif, centré moins sur le primat de la raison et du visuel que sur une nouvelle capacité cognitive, basée sur une logique spéciale du destin. L’aveuglement s’ouvre également sur une nouvelle compréhension de l’histoire, grâce à une capacité du récit de fiction qui passe par le point de fuite de la cécité. Pour Pamuk, l’aveuglement est le couronnement paradoxal d’une vision du monde, gravement mise en crise à la fin du XVIe siècle par le perspectivisme et le réalisme de la Renaissance, la voie d’entrée vers un monde imaginal qui n’est plus accessible à l’imaginaire occidental. Pour Sábato, il représente la variante renversée d’une quête de l’absolu qui passe par les antres de l’inceste, de l’enfer et du crime, tandis que le monde décrit par Saramago est un monde qui sombre sur la pente de la déchéance, en suivant une logique implacable. Il est l’équivalent de plusieurs formes de cécité qui menacent le monde contemporain, comme le fondamentalisme religieux, l’homogénéité préconisée par la société de masse, l’exclusion raciale, l’oppression idéologique. La thèse se divise en trois parties, La violente beauté du monde, Un mythe hérétique de la caverne et Une épidémie à cause inconnue, chacune d’entre elles analysant l’œuvre d’un auteur, mais établissant également des liens avec les autres chapitres. L’approche adoptée est interdisciplinaire, un croisement entre études littéraires, philosophie et histoire de l’art. Dans leur quête de nouveaux concepts et de nouvelles formes de pensée qui s’écartent du modèle rationnel dominant de la modernité, les trois auteurs partent de la présupposition que regarder les choses n’est pas du tout l’équivalent de voir les choses. Ils tentent d’articuler une logique du voir qui ressemble plutôt à la vision et à la clairvoyance qu’à la conformité logique. La figure de l’aveuglement sert de tremplin vers le monde imaginal (Pamuk), la pensée magique (Sábato) et la vision dystopique (Saramago) – des espaces ontologiquement différents où les auteurs mènent leurs attaques contre la rationnalité à tout prix. C’est précisément ces espaces que nous avons choisi d’explorer dans les trois romans. Nous soutenons également que ces trois textes proposent un nouveau régime de « connaissance » qui met en question les règles de pensée héritées de la Renaissance et surtout des Lumières, qui constituent un discours dominant dans la culture visuelle et philosophique moderne. / Blindness in the Literature of Orhan Pamuk, Ernesto Sábato, José Saramago examines three important texts by three well-known contemporary authors: My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk; the chapter « Report on the Blind » from the novel On Heroes and Tombs by Ernesto Sábato; and Blindness by José Saramago. The trope of blindness is a common theme in these novels, despite their significant differences. Blindness introduces an alternative regime of knowledge, centered less on the primacy of the rational and the visual than on a new cognitive capacity, grounded in a specific logic of destiny. It proposes new understandings of history, due to a fictionalizing capacity, which passes through the fault lines of blindness. For Pamuk, blindness represents the paradoxical culmination of a traditional, Islamic world view, which was challenged in the 16th century by the perspectivism and the realism of Renaissance. This conception is regarded as the royal road to an imaginal world that remains inaccessible to the western imaginary. In Sábato’s novel, blindness prompts the reversed version of a quest for absolute, which passes through incest, hell and crime. In the dystopic world depicted by Saramago, this trope is symptomatic of a continuous decay, which follows an implacable logic. It also points to the many forms of blindness that threaten the contemporary world, such as religious fundamentalism, the leveling produced by mass culture and mass society, racial exclusion, ideological oppression. The thesis is divided in three chapters: The Violent Beauty of the World, A Heretical Myth of the Cave and An Epidemic with an Unknown Reason. Each chapter examines one of the three novels, but connections and cross-links among the individual chapters are also established. My investigation provides an interdisciplinary approach, which relies on paradigms from literary studies, philosophy and art history. All three authors examined in the dissertation start from the assumption that looking is not equivalent to seeing. Their texts attempt to formulate a logic of seeing indebted to vision rather than to logical accuracy. The figure of blindness serves as a springboard towards the imaginal world (Pamuk), magical thought (Sábato) and dystopia (Saramago) – ontologically different spaces where the authors counter rationality with new modes of vision. The dissertation explores the articulation of these spaces in the three novels. It argues that these texts on blindness propose a regime of « knowledge » that challenges the dominant discourses on vision, rationality, and the mind – the legacy of the Renaissance and the Enlightenment – in modern visual culture and modern philosophy.

Cette thèse étudie la façon dont trois romans latino-canadiens utilisent le trope de l’exil comme allégorie d’un trauma historique qui comprend plus que l’expérience individuelle de ses protagonistes : la transition forcée de l’État vers le Marché en Amérique latine effectuée par les dictatures. Cobro revertido (1992) de José Leandro Urbina; Le pavillon des miroirs (1994) Sergio Kokis; et Rojo, amarillo y verde (2003) de Alejandro Saravia, explorent divers aspects de ce processus à travers les exercices de mémoire de leurs personnages. L’exil oblige les protagonistes de ces oeuvres à se confronter aux limites des structures sémiotiques par lesquelles ils essaient de donner un fondement idéologique à leur existence sociale. Ils découvrent ainsi qu’il n’est pas possible de reproduire des hiérarchies, des valeurs, ni des relations de pouvoir de leur pays d’origine dans leur pays d’accueil, non seulement à cause des différences culturelles, mais aussi à cause d’un changement historique qui concerne la relation du sujet avec la collectivité et le territoire. Ces œuvres abordent l’expérience de ce changement par un dialogue avec différents genres littéraires comme le roman de fondation, la méta-fiction historique du Boom, le roman de formation et le testimonio, mis en relation avec divers moments historiques, de la période nationale-populaire aux transitions, en passant par les dictatures. Cela permet aux auteurs de réfléchir aux mécanismes narratifs que plusieurs œuvres latino-américaines du XXème siècle ont utilisé pour construire et naturaliser des subjectivités favorables aux projets hégémoniques des États nationaux. Ces exercices méta-narratifs comprennent le rôle de l’écriture comme support privilégié pour l’articulation d’une identité avec le type de communauté imaginaire qu’est la nation. Ils servent aussi à signaler les limites de l’écriture dans le moment actuel du développement technologique des médias et de l’expansion du capitalisme transnational. Ainsi, les auteurs de ces œuvres cherchent d’autres formes de représentation pour rendre visibles les traces d’autres histoires qui n’ont pas pu être incorporées dans le discours historique officiel. / This thesis studies how three Latino-Canadian novels use the trope of exile as an allegory of a trauma that goes beyond the individual experience of their protagonists: the transition from State to Market led by the dictatorships in Latin-America. José Leandro Urbina’s Cobro revertido (1992), Sergio Kokis’s Le pavillon des miroirs (1994), and Alejandro Saravia’s Rojo, amarillo y verde (2003) explore different aspects of this process through the memory of their characters. Exile forces these characters to confront the limits of the different semiotic structures that they try to use as an ideological foundation for their social lives. They discover that it is not possible to recreate the same hierarchies, values and power relations of their home countries in their host country, not only because of cultural differences, but also because of a historical turn that has changed the relationships between the subject, the community and the territory. These novels work-through the experience of this change by entering a dialogue with different genres, such as the foundational romance, the Boom’s historical meta-fiction, the Bildungsroman and the testimonio, covering various historical periods, from the national-popular to the dictatorships and the democratic transitions. Thus, these authors reflect on the mechanisms used in several works of 20th century Latin-American fiction to create and naturalize subjectivities aligned with the hegemonic projects of the nation-states in the region. These meta-narrative exercises also cover the role of writing as the privileged media for the articulation of an identity based on the type of imagined community that is the nation. They point to the limits of writing in the present state of media’s technological development and the expansion of transnational capitalism. This allows these authors to explore other forms of representation that make visible the traces of other stories that could not be dialectically incorporated into the official historical discourse. / Esta tesis estudia la manera en que tres novelas latino-canadienses utilizan el tropo del exilio como alegoría de un trauma que va más allá de la experiencia individual de sus protagonistas: la transición forzada del Estado al Mercado operada por las dictaduras en América Latina. Cobro revertido (1993) de José Leandro Urbina; Le pavillon des miroirs (1994) de Sergio Kokis; y Rojo, amarillo y verde (2003) de Alejandro Saravia exploran diversos aspectos de este proceso a través del ejercicio de memoria de sus personajes. El exilio obliga a los protagonistas de estas obras a confrontar los límites de las matrices semióticas con las que intentan dar un sustento ideológico a su existencia en sociedad. Ellos descubren que no es posible reproducir las jerarquías, valores y relaciones de poder de sus países de origen en el país de acogida, no solo por las diferencias culturales, sino también a causa de un cambio histórico que atañe a la relación entre el sujeto, la colectividad y el territorio. Estas obras elaboran la experiencia de este cambio a través de un diálogo con distintos géneros literarios como los romances fundacionales, la meta-ficción histórica del Boom, la novela de formación y el testimonio, abarcando diversos momentos históricos, desde el periodo nacional-popular hasta las transiciones, pasando por las dictaduras. De este modo, sus autores reflexionan sobre los mecanismos narrativos con los que muchas obras del siglo XX latinoamericano han servido para construir y naturalizar subjetividades favorables a los proyectos hegemónicos de los Estados nacionales. Este ejercicio metanarrativo se extiende al papel de la escritura como medio de articulación de una identidad con el tipo de comunidad imaginada que es la nación, señalando sus límites en momento actual del desarrollo tecnológico de los medios de comunicación y la expansión del capitalismo transnacional. De este modo, los autores de estos textos exploran otras formas de representación que hagan visibles los residuos de otras historias que no pueden ser incorporadas por la dialéctica del discurso historiográfico oficial.

The master thesis presents and analyses a range of different ways in which the motif of the forest was treated in late-medieval literary sources as an element of thematic and compositional construction of the text. At the theoretical basis of the thesis is the concept of diachronic text reception and adaptations which bring along the transmission and simultaneous transformation of the use of topoi, while this process is being related to the development of the literary chronotopos signalizing a change in the public's horizon of expectation. The majority of sources for analysis are drawn from Czech sources of the long 14th century - courtly and chivalric romance, the Old Czech verse legend of St. Procopius and the Dalimil Chronicle - while a shorter part of the thesis is devoted to the presentation of individual tendencies in the development of the use of the forest topos in English and French literary allegory of the 14th and 15th centuries. In detailed comparison of specific passages from Old Czech texts with their actual models in other languages (Old Middle German, Latin), the thesis demonstrates, upon the example of the forest topos, that topoi do not represent fixed, inalterable clichés, but actually exhibit intense shifts in function, content and theme.

A tese estuda a composição de Esaú e Jacob, o penúltimo romance de Machado de Assis, publicado em 1904. Para isso concentra-se, inicialmente, no mapeamento de sua fortuna crítica. Em seguida, constrói um panorama histórico da lógica do duplo e da duplicidade estruturante de sua forma e estilo, desdobrados pelas figuras da ironia, da alusão e da alegoria, antes de poder colocar em questão o narrador e sua frenética oscilação de perspectivas. A reavaliação crítica do ponto de vista desse narrador irônico com um pensamento interior e único , aqui identificados ao conselheiro Ayres e à ideia de nada em cima de invisível, reconstrói o entendimento de vários episódios e movimentos da obra, fornecendo uma outra visão de personagens como Flora e de toda a composição. Um narrador que posto em seu contexto revela-se como faccioso ou como um verdadeiro impostor, a ponto de poder encobrir e liquidar toda esfera da alteridade, dando sinal exato, através da fantasia literária, da forma das relações sociais no país. O título e o subtítulo deste trabalho referem-se tanto à violência da representação tecida por esse narrador quanto à invisibilidade estrutural das práticas reificadas de uma sociedade cindida e completamente desigual, numa formação capitalista periférica, ainda fortemente marcada pelo escravismo e o paternalismo. O objetivo maior do trabalho é compreender como seu princípio construtivo deita raízes profundas, totalmente inaparentes à primeira vista, no solo desta formação social malograda, na longa transição do Império à República. / This thesis studies the composition of Esau and Jacob, Machado de Assiss next-to-last novel, published in 1904. In order to pursue this goal, the study concentrates initially on the mapping of the works critical fortune. Before questioning the narrator and his frenetic oscillation of viewpoints, a historical panorama is constructed of the logic of the double and of the duplicity structuring its form and style, which are unfolded by the figures of irony, allusion and allegory. Critical reappraisal of this ironic narrators perspective of a unique interior thought , here identified with counselor Ayres and with the idea of the nothing, on the top of the invisible reconstructs the understanding of various episodes and movements of the work, providing a new view of characters such as Flora and the whole composition. A narrator who, within his own context, reveals himself as factious or a true impostor, to the point of covering up and liquidating the whole sphere of otherness, yielding the exact trace, by means of the literary fantasy, of the form of social relations in the country. The title and subtitle of this study refer to the violence of the representation weaved by this narrator as well as to the structural invisibility of reified practices of a torn-apart and completely unequal society in a capitalist peripheral formation, still strongly marked by slavery and paternalism. The main objective of the thesis is to understand how the novels constructive principle takes deep roots, totally unapparent at first sight, into the soil of this failed social formation, in its long transition from Empire to Republic.