This creative thesis is a retelling of events as a collection of poems. Struggling with mental illness most of my life, I base most of my writing in this odd juxtaposition—the struggle for life alternating with my delight in its splendor. I find myself writing about the most challenging times in my life along with the most magnificent. The critical introduction explores and elaborates on the context and influences of my writing. Every line of poetry on every page has been a journey of reconciliation with my past and present—a journey deciphering who I am among all the leftovers of what I have been. An undeniably essential expedition.

This Terrible Silence is a collection of nineteen stand-alone stories. The work largely focuses on characters on the fringe of society—alcoholics, gamblers, thieves, liars, cheaters, and loners, who feel trapped or destined to repeat their troubles. In the struggle to break free, either by self-fulfillment or outside interference, these stories showcase the characters’ hearts and wills in the face of often daunting or insurmountable desperation. The stories in this collection are influenced by the work of Raymond Carver, and the Dirty Realism of Larry Brown, Breece DJ Pancake, Jayne Anne Phillips, and others. With minimal exposition, the characters are laid bare with cutting dialogue and active, scenic description. In the title piece, the narrator intends to tell a man vs. nature story of his encounter with a cougar, but quickly dissolves into a battle with his own slipping mental health in the face of a failing relationship. In the first-person point of view, the act of telling the story holds its own exigency for the narrator’s need to understand his or her motives and desires, as is most evident in Carver’s work, such as “Cathedrals.” In theme and style, I’ve sought to put together a collection that might allow readers to find truth and empathy from common, low, sometimes immoral, but largely human characters.

The Ends of Smaller Worlds is a collection of short stories set in Indiana. The preface is about the representation of the information age using elements of dirty realism and Gothic fiction.

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / A tese analisa a obra de Rubem Fonseca e Pedro Juan Gutiérrez sob o ponto de vista da abjeção, do nojo, do choque e do trauma, suas aproximações e diferenças, partindo das várias noções de realismo até chegar ao realismo sujo, termo cunhado para designar toda uma a geração de jovens escritores americanos e latino-americanos, surgidos a partir dos anos 80. Aborda ainda as estratégias utilizadas por Fonseca (nas décadas de 60, 70 e 80) e Gutiérrez (nos anos 90 e 00) para lidar com a ditadura, respectivamente no Brasil e em Cuba, traçando um breve panorama do cenário literário cubano contemporâneo. Por fim, o trabalho discute o realismo vazio, que se caracteriza pela perda da fé nas utopias. O trabalho se apóia nas categorias teóricas utilizadas por Hal Foster, Julia Kristeva e Mário Perniola. / The thesis analyses Rubem Fonsecas and Pedro Juan Gutiérrezs fiction under the point of view of abjection, disgust, shock and trauma, their similarities and differences, starting with the different notions of Realism and reaching dirty realism expression used to identify a generation of young American and Latinamerican writers that started to publish in the 1980s. It also broaches the strategies to deal with dictatorship in Brazil and in Cuba, drawing a brief map of the contemporary Cuban literary scenario. Finally, the work discusses the empty realism, which is marked by the loss of the faith in the Utopia. The project is supported by the theoretical categories used by Hal Foster, Julia Kristeva and Mário Perniola.

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / A tese analisa a obra de Rubem Fonseca e Pedro Juan Gutiérrez sob o ponto de vista da abjeção, do nojo, do choque e do trauma, suas aproximações e diferenças, partindo das várias noções de realismo até chegar ao realismo sujo, termo cunhado para designar toda uma a geração de jovens escritores americanos e latino-americanos, surgidos a partir dos anos 80. Aborda ainda as estratégias utilizadas por Fonseca (nas décadas de 60, 70 e 80) e Gutiérrez (nos anos 90 e 00) para lidar com a ditadura, respectivamente no Brasil e em Cuba, traçando um breve panorama do cenário literário cubano contemporâneo. Por fim, o trabalho discute o realismo vazio, que se caracteriza pela perda da fé nas utopias. O trabalho se apóia nas categorias teóricas utilizadas por Hal Foster, Julia Kristeva e Mário Perniola. / The thesis analyses Rubem Fonsecas and Pedro Juan Gutiérrezs fiction under the point of view of abjection, disgust, shock and trauma, their similarities and differences, starting with the different notions of Realism and reaching dirty realism expression used to identify a generation of young American and Latinamerican writers that started to publish in the 1980s. It also broaches the strategies to deal with dictatorship in Brazil and in Cuba, drawing a brief map of the contemporary Cuban literary scenario. Finally, the work discusses the empty realism, which is marked by the loss of the faith in the Utopia. The project is supported by the theoretical categories used by Hal Foster, Julia Kristeva and Mário Perniola.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-05-14T13:27:03Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 ArquivoTotal.pdf: 2607611 bytes, checksum: 77e92b6bb7c711322bb06c270f8a85cd (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-11-29 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / This paper aims to discuss the urban marginality in Latin America, representatives from the cinema of marginality and its aesthetic of dirty realism. The films chosen for the analysis are: Amarelo Manga (2002) and Amores Perros (2000). To this end, there will be a reading of modernity, cinema and cities, as well as the very aesthetic of dirty realism and film of marginality. At another point, we discuss issues related to urban studies in, theories of marginality, configuration establisehd/outsiders, and feelings of insecurity, risk and fear, from sociological references. Finally, the analysis will be made of the films, within the guidelines of the methodology of film analysis. / O presente trabalho, visa discutir a marginalidade urbana na América Latina, a partir de representantes do cinema da marginalidade e sua estética do realismo sujo. Os filmes destacados para a análise são: Amarelo Manga(2002) e Amores Perros(2000). Para tanto, será realizada uma leitura da modernidade, do cinema e das cidades, bem como da própria estética do realismo sujo e do cinema da marginalidade. Em outro momento, discutiremos questões relacionadas aos estudos urbanos dentro, das teorias da marginalidade, da configuração esabelecidos/outsiders, e das sensações de insegurança, risco e medo, partindo de referenciais sociológicos. Para finalizar, será feita a análise dos filmes, dentro das orientações da metodologia da análise fílmica.