Learning Chinese characters is challenging for many people, especially for those who were not born in Chinese-speaking countries. Applying the theory of chunking, constructing stories containing compound characters as mnemonic techniques to form associations within the learners, this study examines if this method can facilitate immediate learning and retention of Chinese characters. A case study strategy is adopted and a native language teaching class of Chinese in Sweden with six pupils is chosen as the case. Six participants were divided into an experimental group and a control group. The participants in the experimental group learned Chinese characters with the method of chunking and association, while the control group learned characters with the stroke order. The tests results indicated that the experimental group received better results than the control group, especially in the character tests. The experimental group used chunking, radicals and associative interpretations as strategies in the character and meaning tests. The control group on the other hand passed the meaning tests very well. Surprisingly, the control group also used associative interpretation and only scored lower than the experimental group by a small margin in the meaning tests. The experimental group experienced that chunking a character into its corresponding chunks and radicals facilitates the memorization of characters. Consequently, this case study concludes that the method of chunking and association is beneficial for the understanding and learning of Chinese characters. This case study also concludes that the knowledge of the method of chunking and association can improve the learning of the meaning of characters.

This thesis discusses the relationship between money and character in the novels of Charles Dickens, concentrating mainly on the later novels, from Dombey & Son onwards. Money is extremely important in Dickens's social criticism, and he is always conscious of money-related motives in his conception of character. However, despite its importance and omnipresence, money ought not to be elevated into the key explanatory principle in Dickens's thought. Dickens has been valued for different qualities over the years. Many who value him as an entertainer with a powerful poetic imagination tend to undervalue his social criticism and moralising, and to treat those aspects as non-essential or as belonging to a different side of his life and work. On the other hand those who value him as social and moral critic have combined this with exaggerated claims of thematic coherence. This thesis suggests that we can dispense with such claims while still regarding Dickens's novels as serious contributions to the moral and social debates of his day. A close consideration will be given to most of the later novels, with the intention of placing the money themes alongside other themes, so as to emphasise the many-sidedness of Dickens's social and moral criticism. Other themes explored in the thesis include marriage and the home, and hypocrisy and self-deception. The thesis seeks to do justice to Dickens's thorough-going ambivalence towards money, and to his capacity for revisiting characters and themes from one work to another. The bias of the thesis is towards the personal and individual, but money is inevitably a social topic. Much consideration is therefore given to Dickens's fictional and non- fictional responses to contemporary social problems and attitudes, and also to material not written by Dickens but published by him in Household Words and All the Year Round.

The goal of this master´s thesis is to describe individual characters, especially the main characters, in selected prose of the well-known Czech writer Ladislav Fuks. This thesis will be primarily focused on the unusual behavior, peciliarities, features and the character of the protagonists. The biographical part of the thesis will be focused on the author´s personality and lifestyle. The bibliographical part will be focused on a detailed analysis of the protagonists in selected titles. More than ten characters will be compared. The primary method used in this thesis will be: analysis, interpretation, along with the use of the description and confrontation of the individual protagonists. The prime benefit of this thesis lies in a more detailed description and comparison of the behavior and character of the individual figures.

La façon dont le personnage de Victoire dans Victoire, les saveurs et les mots, de Maryse Condé est représenté et ce qui la rend complexe et énigmatique est l’objet de cette étude. A travers ce roman, Maryse Condé retrace la vie de sa grand-mère, qu’elle n’a pas connue. Depuis son enfance elle a décidé de se documenter sur Victoire Quidal et d’écrire un livre sur elle. La méthode utilisée dans ce mémoire est double à la fois narratologique et biographique. En effet la narratrice alterne les points de vue sur Victoire ce qui fait qu’elle est vue soit de l’extérieur par la société de façon très critique, soit de l’intérieur, perspective qui permet d’avoir une tout autre vision de Victoire. Victoire est aussi vue du point de vue d’autres personnages comme celui de sa fille Jeanne. Le mémoire traite de la personnalité de Victoire et de sa manière d’être avec les hommes, avec sa fille, au travail et montre qu’elle est finalement plus insoumise que soumise et que c’est un personnage complexe et intéressant. / The way the character Victoire in the novel Victoire : my mother’s mother is represented and what makes her complex and enigmatic is the purpose of this study. In this novel, Maryse Condé writes about her grandmother whom she has never met. Since early childhood she has decided to document herself about Victoire Quidal and to write a book about her. The method used in the thesis is double, one method is narratological and the other one is biographical. The narrator switches between different points of view on Victoire, she is sometimes seen from an external point of view by the society, which is very critical, she is also seen internally which gives a very different vision of the character. The character is also seen through other characters, such as her daughter Jeanne. The aim of this thesis is to show Victoire’s personality, to describe the way she is with men, with her daughter, at work and show that she is much more rebellious than she is submissive and that she is a complex and interesting character.

Cette thèse s’intéresse à la manière dont le livre de Jérémie (Jr) insère des oracles dans un récit ; pour cela, elle analyse les oracles destinés à cinq personnages secondaires en les resituant dans leur contexte narratif. Alors que les études diachroniques, majoritaires au xxe siècle, se révèlent insuffisantes pour rendre compte du sens de Jr dans son état final, cette recherche se situe dans le cadre des analyses synchroniques de ce livre, développées depuis quelques décennies. Avant d’aborder l’analyse proprement dite, deux préalables sont nécessaires, où se rencontrent théorie narrative, syntaxe hébraïque, et spécificités de Jr : l’étude des caractéristiques et des rapports entre la forme de la narration et celle du discours rapporté ; l’étude des différents types de personnages apparus au long de l’histoire de la littérature et des catégories adaptées à l’analyse de ceux de Jr. Sont alors étudiés les oracles destinés à Pashehour fils d’Immer, Eved-Mélek, Baruch, Guedalias, et Sédécias. L’effet-personnage manifeste rapidement sa limitation, et appelle à chercher ailleurs que dans la fable des réponses aux énigmesposées par la mise en récit. La découverte d’échos et résonances verbales entre des oracles précédents et la mise en récit des personnages permet de reconstruire la causalité des jugements divins exprimés dans les oracles. Ce résultat exégétique rencontre la catégorie théologique de la révélation, remettant en cause les paradigmes sur lesquels elle s’est construite tant aux débuts du christianisme qu’à Vatican ii. L’interprétation théologique des capacités acquises par le lecteur offre alors une nouvelle assise pour penser la révélation de la paternité de Dieu / This thesis is interested in how oracles are inserted in a narration in the book of Jeremiah (Jr) ; for this purpose the oracles destined to five secondary characters are analyzed by reframing them into their narrative context. Since the diachronic studies, which were the majority in the xxth century, cannot account for the meaning of the final stage of the text of Jr in a satisfying manner, this research takes part to the synchronic way of analyzing this book developed in the last decades. Before the intended analysis, two preambles must be studied, at the crossing of narrative theory, Hebrew syntax, and specificities of Jr : the characteristics and relations of the literary forms of narration and reported speech ; the different types of characters along the history of literature and the best-fitted categories for analyzing Jr’s characters. Then are studied the oracles intended for Pashhur son of Immer, Ebed-Melech, Baruch, Gedaliah, and Zedekiah. The « character-effect » soon appears to be quite limited, calling for a solution situated out of the fabula to the puzzle created by the narration. The causality for the divine judgments expressed in the oracles can be reconstructed thanks to the discovery of verbal echoes and resonances between preceding oracles and the narrativization of characters. This exegetical result intersects with the theology of revelation and challenges the paradigms upon which it was built both at the beginning of Christianism and at Vatican ii. The thinking of the revelation of the paternity of God can be founded anew upon a theological interpretation of the reader’s new capacities

Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-03T12:30:56Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Melody Pablos.pdf: 1078390 bytes, checksum: 65abf9efc4e85517d924a1ca5eab153e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-04-06 / This study focuses the adaptation of the book Estação Carandiru, written by Drauzio Varella, to the movies, concerning the construction of the characters. Therefore, a listing of the characters and their characteristics was made, from both the book and the movie. The main objective is to understand the choices made in this dialog between medias, from where the movie Carandiru, by Hector Babenco, originated, considering that there was a great reduction in the number of characters. For this analysis, the methodological process adopted was the descriptive research. It was verified that most part of the characters origins come from the fusion of literary characters. But it was also found that literary characters were dismembered and some of them were eliminated. No new character was found.(AU) / Este estudo enfoca a transposição da obra literária Estação Carandiru, de Drauzio Varella, para o cinema, no que tange à construção de suas personagens. Para tanto, fez-se um levantamento das personagens e de suas características, de ambas as obras. O objetivo maior é compreender as escolhas feitas durante este diálogo entre mídias, que originou o filme Carandiru, de Hector Babenco, visto que houve uma grande redução no número de personagens. Para esta análise, adotou-se a pesquisa descritiva como procedimento metodológico. Constatou-se que a maior parte das origens das personagens cinematográficas vem de fusões de personagens literárias. Mas também foram encontradas personagens literárias que foram desmembradas e algumas que foram eliminadas. Não se encontrou nenhuma personagem acrescentada.(AU)

Métodos filogenéticos comparativos utilizam informações sobre as relações de ancestralidade entre as espécies para testar hipóteses evolutivas. Neste contexto, a Reconstrução de Caracteres Ancestrais (RCA) pode nos esclarecer muito a respeito dos organismos já extintos. A família Canidae apresenta variada gama de comportamentos, distribuída por quase todo o planeta. Sua rica história fóssil demonstra processos que nos dão pistas sobre a evolução e diversificação destes comportamentos ao longo de 46 Ma. Entender a importância de fatores bióticos e abióticos na evolução de carnívoros tem sido um dos grandes desafios em estudos macroevolutivos nos últimos anos. Aqui foram abordados aspectos evolutivos de Canidae com o intuito de demonstrar o papel de fatores ambientais e comportamentais, além de interações, na diversificação do grupo. Para isso, construiu-se a filogenia para todas as espécies vivas de canídeos e uma espécie recentemente extinta. No total, 37 espécies foram incluídas na árvore filogenética. Foram obtidos 23 marcadores moleculares usados na construção da filogenia. Utilizou-se também 68 caracteres morfológicos. A construção da filogenia foi feita utilizando inferência Bayesiana. O modelo evolutivo escolhido nessa etapa foi GTR + G + I. Também foi utilizado o algoritmo de Monte Carlo Markov Chain (MCMC) para obter a distribuição a posteriori, com 50 x 106 iterações. A datação da árvore filogenética foi feita através do método de Penalized Likelihood, onde foram utilizados 11 registros fósseis de nós conhecidos da filogenia. Após a filogenia feita, obteve-se os dados comportamentais para realização da RCA a respeito dos quatro atributos avaliados. As quatro reconstruções foram criadas com inferência em 1000 árvores cada. Todas análises de RCA foram realizadas com o método de parcimônia. Com o intuito de entender de que maneira os atributos se correlacionam ao longo da filogenia, foi calculada a correlação de Pagel além de Phylogenetic Generalized Least Squares (PGLS). A topologia obtida aqui foi diferente das demais árvores filogenéticas já criadas para Canidae. Além disso, a calibração temporal indica que o split entre Canini e Vulpini se deu há 12.6 Ma, diferente do que é apontado na literatura. A respeito das reconstruções, as linhagens ancestrais dos lobos e das raposas desenvolveram o hábito de viver em áreas abertas. Já os canídeos sulamericanos desenvolveram preferência por áreas florestais. Em relação à dieta, o ancestral de Caninae, assim como os ancestrais diretos das tribos Canini e Vulpini, apresentavam comportamento alimentar hipocarnívoro. O ancestral de todos os canídeos existentes hoje apresentou baixa organização social, enquanto que os lobos desenvolveram alto comportamento social, coincidindo com o surgimento do hábito hipercarnívoro. A respeito do tamanho corporal, o nó ancestral a todos os canídeos possuía tamanho médio, e as duas tribos que surgiram a partir desta linhagem divergiram seus tamanhos. O teste de Pagel demonstrou que há correlação entre dieta e socialidade, mostrando que a alimentação levou a modificações no comportamento Social. Os PGLSs mostram que três tipos de modelos evolutivos explicam as mudanças nos atributos ao longo do tempo. As mudanças no uso de habitat dos canídeos acompanharam as mudanças climáticas no planeta ao longo dos últimos 13 Ma. Já a alimentação meso e hipocarnívora dos sulamericanos se deve ao cenário encontrado na América do Sul ao chegarem, e como reflexo, não desenvolveram alto grau de socialidade. Os resultados sugerem que raposas tentaram evitar a competição com os lobos para não sobreporem seus nichos, sendo o fator fundamental para sua diversificação. / Phylogenetic comparative methods use information on ancestral relationships between species to test evolutionary hypotheses. In this context, the Ancestral Characters Reconstruction (ACR) can shed light on the already extinct organisms. The Canidae family has a wide range of behaviors, distributed throughout most of the planet. Its rich fossil history demonstrates processes that give us clues about the evolution and diversification of these behaviors over 46 Ma. Understanding the importance of biotic and abiotic factors in the evolution of carnivores has been one of the major challenges in macroevolutionary studies in recent years. Here we discuss the evolutionary aspects of Canidae with the purpose of demonstrating the role of environmental and behavioral factors, as well as interactions, in the diversification of the group. For this, the phylogeny was constructed for all living species of canids and a recently extinct species. In total, 37 species were included in the phylogenetic tree. A total of 23 molecular markers were used to construct the phylogeny. We also used 68 morphological characters. The construction of the phylogeny was done using Bayesian inference. The evolutionary model chosen in this step was GTR + G + I. The Monte Carlo Markov Chain algorithm (MCMC) was also used to obtain the posterior distribution, with 50 x 106 iterations. The phylogenetic tree was dated using the Penalized Likelihood method, where eleven fossil records of nodes known from the phylogeny were used. After the phylogeny, the behavioral data were obtained to perform the ACR in relation to the four attributes evaluated. The four reconstructions were created with inference in 1000 trees each. All ACR analyzes were performed using the parsimony method. In order to understand how the attributes correlate throughout the phylogeny, the Pagel correlation was calculated in addition to Phylogenetic Generalized Least Squares (PGLS). The topology obtained here was different from the other phylogenetic trees already created for Canidae. In addition, the time calibration indicates that the split between Canini and Vulpini occurred 12.6 Ma ago, different from what is pointed out in the literature. Concerning reconstructions, the ancestral lineages of wolves and foxes have developed the habit of living in open areas. South American canids have developed preference for forest areas. Regarding diet, Caninae's ancestor, as well as the direct ancestors of the Canini and Vulpini tribes, presented hypocampivorous feeding behavior. The ancestor of all canids present today had a low social organization, while the wolves developed a high social behavior, coinciding with the emergence of the hypercarnivore habit. Regarding the body size, the ancestral node to all canids had medium size, and the two tribes that have emerged from this lineage diverged their sizes. The Pagel test demonstrated that there is a correlation between diet and sociality, showing that diet led to changes in social behavior. The PGLSs show that three types of evolutionary models explain changes in attributes over time. The changes in the habitat use of the canids have accompanied the climatic changes in the planet during the last 13 Ma. The meso and hypocarnivorous feeding of the South Americans is due to the scenario found in South America when they arrived, and as a reflex, they did not develop high degree of Sociality. The results suggest that foxes tried to avoid competition with the wolves to avoid overlapping their niches, being the fundamental factor for their diversification.

Esta dissertação analisa a narrativa do Jornal Nacional, da Rede Globo, sobre o caso Samarco. Iniciado com o rompimento de uma barragem de mineração localizada no município de Mariana, em Minas Gerais, o acontecimento é o maior desastre socioambiental do Brasil. A partir da premissa de que uma narrativa se desenvolve por meio das ações de seus personagens, o trabalho visa investigar que sentidos emergem da construção de personagens e papéis na cobertura do telejornal sobre o assunto. A fundamentação teórica da pesquisa aborda o processo de transformação de um acontecimento em notícia, a cobertura jornalística de desastres socioambientais e as características da narrativa do telejornalismo. Em complemento à abordagem do tema, é apresentado ainda um breve histórico do caso Samarco. Por meio de Análise de Conteúdo, são examinadas reportagens do programa à luz de referenciais sobre narrativa e dramaturgia do telejornalismo, com ênfase nas formas pelas quais personagens e papéis são acionados e construídos. Conclui-se que o telejornal conferiu às vítimas o protagonismo da história narrada e outorgou o papel de principal vilã à Samarco, preservando as suas controladoras (Vale e BHP Billiton). Também se constata que o JN apresentou informações superficiais e descontextualizadas sobre o caso, em uma abordagem não comprometida com o interesse público. / This dissertation analyzes the narrative of Jornal Nacional (Rede Globo) about Samarco case, the biggest socio-environmental disaster in Brazil, that started from the burst of a mining dam in Mariana, Minas Gerais. Based on the premise that a narrative is developed through the actions of its characters, the research intends to investigate which meanings emerge from the construction of characters and roles in television news about that subject. The theoretical foundation is about the process of transforming an event into news, the journalistic coverage about socio-environmental disasters and the characteristics of the telejournalistic narrative. As a complement, a brief history of Samarco case is presented. Through Content Analysis, news reports are examined based on references about narrative and dramaturgy of the telejournalism, with a focus on how characters and roles are activated and built. The dissertation concludes that the program gave the leading roles to the victims and the main villain’s one to Samarco, preserving its controllers (Vale and BHP Billiton). Besides that, the coverage presented superficial and decontextualized information, which demonstrates lack of commitment to the public interest.

A subordem Oniscidea abriga os isópodos terrestres, os quais apresentam uma grande riqueza de espécies em diferentes ambientes com características completamente diversas, desde a zona litorânea até ambientes desérticos. No Brasil há uma diversidade de espécies ainda pouco estudada, sendo que a família Philosciidae representa uma grande parte da fauna de isópodos da América do Sul. O presente estudo tem como objetivos descrever uma nova espécie no gênero Benthana para o estado do Rio Grande do Sul, descrever seus estágios de manca e juvenil, assim como caracterizar sua estrutura populacional com respeito aos aspectos reprodutivos e crescimento. Benthana cairensis foi descrita como uma nova espécie de Philosciidae e tem como caracteres diagnósticos a presença de 17 estetascos na antênula, exópodo do pleópodo 1 do macho alongado apresentando um lobo na margem lateral interna. Essa espécie é semelhante a três outras do gênero em relação a presença do lobo, no entanto diferencia-se de todas elas devido às diferenças no número de omatídeos, inserção dos ramos do urópodo e dimorfismo sexual nos pereiópodos dos machos. A fase imatura e indiferenciada sexualmente apresenta três estágios, chamados de mancas. O estágio de Manca I é caracterizado pela simplicidade de suas estruturas e pela sua rápida duração, de aproximadamente 4 horas; apresenta 6 pares de pereiópodos, esses ainda glabros e o aparelho bucal fracamente desenvolvido ainda sem a presença dos dentes pectinados na maxilula, característicos de Benthana. O estágio seguinte, de Manca II, já apresenta o aparelho bucal mais desenvolvido com os dentes pectinados da maxilula e pereiópodos já com o padrão de setas semelhante ao adulto, inclusive a seta “hand-like” do carpo 1, uma autapomorfia do gênero. O último estágio de manca (Manca III) caracteriza-se pela presença do sétimo par de pereiópodos presente dobrado ventralmente sob o corpo do animal. Os estágios de juvenis caracterizam-se pela diferenciação sexual, mas ainda são imaturos sexualmente. Os três primeiros estágios foram descritos para os machos com destaque para o desenvolvimento da protusão do exópodo do pleópodo 1, outra autapomorfia do gênero, o qual só começa a ficar evidente no segundo estágio (JUII) e somente apresenta-se completamente desenvolvido quando o animal atinge aproximadamente 1.0 mm de largura de cefalotórax (LC). O dimorfismo sexual presente nos quatro primeiros pares de pereiópodos dos machos começa a aparecer após os três primeiros estágios de juvenil e está completamente evidente em machos de aproximadamente 1.2 mm de LC. A população de Benthana cairensis do Sítio Cairé caracteriza-se por apresentar uma reprodução contínua durante o ano. As fêmeas investem menos em uma única prole, no entanto são capazes de se reproduzir mais de uma vez ao longo de sua vida. A proporção sexual operacional da população é de 1:1, mostrando que há um equilíbrio no que se refere ao número de machos e fêmeas aptos para reprodução. Os machos vivem menos que as fêmeas e são menores. As fêmeas possuem o corpo maior, o que aumenta a superfície para abrigar a prole o que foi demonstrado pela correlação positiva do tamanho da fêmea com o número de ovos. As características de desenvolvimento de B. cairensis são semelhantes a outras espécies de Philosciidae, apresentando três estágios de mancas. Suas características populacionais, no que se referem a estação reprodutiva e investimento reprodutivo, são semelhantes a outras espécies subtropicais e, como esperado, diferentes de espécies de isópodos que vivem em regiões temperadas. / Terrestrial isopods are included in the suborder Oniscidea which shows a great species richness living at different places showing diverse environmental conditions, occurring from the littoral zone through desert regions. In Brazil there is a diversity that is still poorly studied in which the family Philosciidae represents a great part of South America’s woodlice fauna. The present study aims to describe a new species of the genus Benthana to the state of Rio Grande do Sul, to describe its manca and juvenile stages as well as to characterize its population structure concerning reproductive aspects and growth. Benthana cairensis was described as a new species of Philosciidae and presents the following diagnostic characters: 17 aesthetascs on the antennula and male pleopod 1 exopod elongated with a lobe on the inner lateral margin. This species resembles other three species of the genus concerning the presence of pleopod lobe; however it is differentiated by the number of omatidia, insertion of uropod endopod and exopod and sexual dimorphism on male’s pereiopods. The immature and undifferentiated phase has three stages, called mancas. The Manca I is marked by the simplicity of its appendages and by its queek duration, of about 4 hours; it presents 6 pairs of pereiopods still glabrous and mouth parts weekly developed still without the presence of the pectinate teeth of maxillula, characteristic of Benthana. The next stage, Manca II, already shows the mouth parts a little more complete, presenting the pectinate teeth of maxillula and the pereiopods showing the setae pattern of the adult, including the hand-like seta on carpus 1, an autapomorphy of the genus. The last manca stage (Manca III) is characterized by the presence of the 7th pair of pereiopods folded ventrally on the pereion. The juvenile stages are sexually differentiated, but still immature. The first three stages were described for males, enphatizing the development of dentiform protusion of pleopod exopod 1, another autapomorphy of the genus which begins to be evident only at the second stage (JUII) and it is completely formed when the animal reaches 1.0 mm of cephalothorax width (CW). Sexual dimorphism at the first four male pereiopods beggins to develop after the three juvenile stages and it is completely formed on males of approximatly 1.2 mm of CW. The population of Benthana cairensis at Sítio Cairé is characterized by showing a continnuous reproduction during the year. Females invest less in a single brood, but are able to reproduce more than once in its lifetime. The operational sex ratio of population is 1:1, which shows that there is an equillibrium concerning the number of males and females that are able to reproduce. Males live less than females and are smaller. Females have a bigger body which increases the surface where the brood develops; this was demonstrated by the positive correlation of female body size with the offspring number. The developmental characteristics of B. cairensis are similar to those of the other species of Philosciidae presenting three manca stages. Its population features concerning reproductive season and reproductive effort resembles those of other subtropical species and as expected, is different from species that occur at temperate regions.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:32:49Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2006-11-29Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T19:22:29Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 correa_lc_dr_assis.pdf: 945947 bytes, checksum: 0a6536631f4d29aaf5436100e0769b36 (MD5) / Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) / A pesquisa de Doutorado intitulada Do real à ficção: a busca de um retrato brasileiro na construção de personagens de João Antônio tem por objetivo estudar os personagens do escritor nas obras posteriores a Malagueta, Perus e Bacanaço (1963) e Leão-de-chácara (1975), tomando como ponto de partida o estudo já realizado no Mestrado Merdunchos, malandros e bandidos: estudo das personagens de João Antônio, a fim de apontar uma inovação referente à construção dos personagens que é a da propensão do autor em ficcionalizar uma galeria de tipos criativos da sociedade brasileira, aproximando-os de seus personagens fictícios já que, como eles, também se encontram marginalizados na maioria dos textos. O autor, no exercício do seu projeto literário, procura trazer ao (re)conhecimento dos leitores alguns traços de nossa cultura que julga estarem esquecidos pela população e, ao mesmo tempo em que presta uma homenagem a determinadas figuras do passado cultural brasileiro, deixa evidente uma relação de espelhamento com as mesmas, a fim de se auto-justificar como um intelectual. / The PhD. research is called From real to fiction: the search for a Brazilian portrait in the construction of João Antônioþs characters. We aim at studying some characters in his masterpieces later than Malagueta, Perus e Bacanaço (1963) and Leão-de-chácara (1975). We begin from the results found in our previous research called Merdunchos, crooks and bandits: a study of João Antônioþs characters. Our goal is to point an innovation concerning the way the author constructs his characters. In other words, he fictionalizes a great amount of marginalized types from the Brazilian society in order to bring them close to his characters. He builds his literary project based on the readersþ recognition of certain important aspects of our culture. At the same time, he pays an homage to some important types of our history and reveals his effort to mirror an image that is able to justify his intellectuality.