According to Philippe Lejeune’s “autobiographical pact,” a text can only be considered an autobiography when the author, narrator, and character all share the same proper name. Any exceptions are thusly designated as works of fiction, regardless of whatever biographical resemblance may be detected between the author and character. This thesis aims not to challenge this useful generic distinction, but to develop an authoritative system for approaching the oft-neglected side of the equation: works of autobiographical fiction, and autobiographical dramas in particular. I propose to develop a reception-based methodology (the Biographical Grid) for assessing author-character resemblance with as much empiricism as possible. This is done by extracting the author’s biographical material in relation to the chosen fictional character (often the play’s protagonist) via their characterization within the text, and organizing this material within a specially-designed table. Each of these units is then assigned a numerical score based upon its correspondence with the author’s publicly-known biographical data. The result is not only a qualitative value assigned to the degree of resemblance between the character and its author, but moreover indicates precisely which character traits enforce the autobiographical kinship, and which represent conscious deviations from the biographical record as part of the process of fictionalization. This information can then be applied to well-informed analyses of the text’s use of its autobiographically-inspired content. Using Tolstoy’s play, The Light Shines in Darkness, as a case study, I demonstrate the process of building, testing, and applying the grid to assess a work of autobiographical drama. My systematic approach to autobiographical dramas of this kind supports the development of further research into methods of biographical criticism while strengthening analytical readings of individual plays.

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The lack of literature and studies concerning the role and functionality of the ellipsis, not only as a rhetorical figure but also as a narrative tool of analysis, is a fact that deserves to be addressed, questioned and repaired. Yet the question arises how to do this. In the following thesis, the resource of the narratological method is applied, which allows us to immerse ourselves in the elliptical depths of Borges's fictionality. The different types of ellipses (explicit, implicit, and hypothetical) present in the text were surgically extracted, and anachronies and focalizations were also indicated. Next, we moved on to the analysis and interpretation of the material. The results obtained after the analysis were revealing and their contributions were an emulating incentive for future research. Especially in this new and paradigmatic era of hypertexts and mutants, of ghostly identities and digital avatars, the in-depth study of the ellipsis, due to its philosophical scope and, why not, indispensable for the emergence of new theories in accordance with current reality.

This dissertation examines the central use of implicature within the Victorian novel. 'Implicature' denotes a communicative strategy in which a reader must infer the primary meaning of an utterance from that utterance's relationship to its context, rather than 'decode' explicitly presented information. While all communications rely on implicature to an extent, the novels examined in this thesis contain large gaps in their explicit narration and rely primarily on implicature to communicate central elements of their plots. If readers do not recognise these texts' implicatures, the texts will often appear incoherent: their implicatures must be acknowledged in order for the text to be understood. Because little has been said about the central role implicature can play in fictional narration, this thesis contributes to interpretations of these novels that are currently being discussed in Victorian literary scholarship, as well as literary pragmatic debates about the use of implicature within fictional texts. The dissertation's secondary aim is to examine the implicatures which may be generated by the author's exploitation of certain reader assumptions. It focuses on the reader's potential assumption of narratorial omniscience, and relates it to the reader assumption of the narrative's fictionality. This secondary emphasis contributes to literary pragmatic conceptions of fictionality, and contributes to narratological discussions of narratorial omniscience. Chapter One examines represented illegitimate pregnancies in Victorian novels, and illustrates implicature's use as a politeness strategy. It explains how this use of implicature is called for by the novels' fictional and Victorian contexts. Chapter Two discusses implicatures which communicate characters' semiconscious romantic desires, and relates these representations to Victorian discourses on the unconscious and narratological scholarship on consciousness representation. Chapter Three discusses the central use of implicature in sensation fiction to create narrative 'puzzles', and connects the ensuing playful, sometimes offensive tone to these implicatures' satire of the realist mode.

Esta tese reflete em seu contexto gerador, um processo profissional contínuo aplicado à academia que se desenvolve com a aplicação de teorias fílmicas e oportunidades de captação e registro de imagens em depoimentos testemunhais. Valendo-se da experiência acumulada, este trabalho tem a intenção de evidenciar o registro audiovisual de cunho testemunhal como ferramenta-chave na pesquisa científica em Ciências da Comunicação da atualidade, mostrando o potencial de interação entre o pesquisador e seu público, entre o condutor da captação testemunhal, líder do processo de registro, e seu objeto de pesquisa, com todas as articulações e preceitos de ficcionalidade e atualização de discurso que a oportunidade audiovisual suscita na instância ao vivo. O trabalho explicita e detalha o Processo de tomada dessas entrevistas e os experimentos de contato público-pesquisador conduzidos em um período de dois anos para defender sua relevância e essencialidade na pesquisa em Ciências da Comunicação. / This thesis reflects, in its generating context, a continuous professional process applied to the Academia that develops with the application of filmic theories and opportunities for the registration and recording of images and testimonials. Backed by such accumulated work experience, this document has the purpose of evidencing the testimonial-style audiovisual record as a key tool in the scientific research in current Communication Sciences. The thesis wants to show the interaction potential between the researcher and his public, between the one conducting the testimonial, the leader of the process, and his subject, with all the articulations and precepts of fictionality and speech revision and updating that the audiovisual opportunity has raised in the live instance. The paper makes explicit and details the Process behind those interviews and the public-researcher experiments conducted within a time span of 2 years to defend its relevance and the essentiality in the research in Communication Sciences.

Esta tese reflete em seu contexto gerador, um processo profissional contínuo aplicado à academia que se desenvolve com a aplicação de teorias fílmicas e oportunidades de captação e registro de imagens em depoimentos testemunhais. Valendo-se da experiência acumulada, este trabalho tem a intenção de evidenciar o registro audiovisual de cunho testemunhal como ferramenta-chave na pesquisa científica em Ciências da Comunicação da atualidade, mostrando o potencial de interação entre o pesquisador e seu público, entre o condutor da captação testemunhal, líder do processo de registro, e seu objeto de pesquisa, com todas as articulações e preceitos de ficcionalidade e atualização de discurso que a oportunidade audiovisual suscita na instância ao vivo. O trabalho explicita e detalha o Processo de tomada dessas entrevistas e os experimentos de contato público-pesquisador conduzidos em um período de dois anos para defender sua relevância e essencialidade na pesquisa em Ciências da Comunicação. / This thesis reflects, in its generating context, a continuous professional process applied to the Academia that develops with the application of filmic theories and opportunities for the registration and recording of images and testimonials. Backed by such accumulated work experience, this document has the purpose of evidencing the testimonial-style audiovisual record as a key tool in the scientific research in current Communication Sciences. The thesis wants to show the interaction potential between the researcher and his public, between the one conducting the testimonial, the leader of the process, and his subject, with all the articulations and precepts of fictionality and speech revision and updating that the audiovisual opportunity has raised in the live instance. The paper makes explicit and details the Process behind those interviews and the public-researcher experiments conducted within a time span of 2 years to defend its relevance and the essentiality in the research in Communication Sciences.

R/Nosleep is a digital publishing platform for horror literature. A unique quirk that defines this platform is the common understanding between its authors and readers that any story published to the platform is to be treated as a recollection of actual events. In other words, the fiction is to be treated as plausible non-fiction, both by those who write the texts and those who comment on them. This collaborative performance is enforced by a series of rules that authors and readers need to abide by. In this thesis I examine what exactly it is that authors and readers on r/Nosleep engage in when they treat the fiction as plausible. To do this I have conducted two analyses. First I have done analysises of three different stories posted to R/Nosleep, where I examine paratextual and narratological elements in each text to find if they either make a claim for authenticity or fictionality. And second I have analyzed the top comments for each of these stories to determine what sort of readings the users of r/Nosleep engage in and whether or not these readings play along with the rules established by the platform and its performance. From my analysises of the literature as well as the reader response I come to the conclusion that the seemingly strict rules enforced by R/Nosleep still leave a lot of wiggle room for authors and readers alike to engage in a rich variety of creative expressions both when it comes to writing and interacting with works of fiction.

Este estudo propõe-se a ampliar a compreensão do conceito de drama na obra de Fernando Pessoa, para quem o elemento dramático constituiria o traço distintivo das grandes criações literárias, bem como um dos pilares da heteronímia. Um dos eixos centrais da dissertação consiste em repensar a equivalência das expressões poeta dramático e dramaturgo, constantemente empregadas pelo autor em referência a seu processo criativo. Sustenta-se que Pessoa terá relativizado as fronteiras entre essas categorias ao conceber pelo menos dois meios distintos de lidar com a forma dramática: por um lado, prevê a criação de um drama que se situe fora da esfera dramatúrgica propriamente dita, composto pela série de livros que daria origem às suas obras completas, abrangendo diversos gêneros literários e um único universo de relações; por outro lado, empenha-se na composição de dramas que, sendo dramas em sentido estrito, escapam às principais convenções do gênero, ao desestabilizarem categorias tradicionais como as de ação, diálogo, enredo e personagem. / This study proposes to expand the comprehension of the concept of drama in the work of Fernando Pessoa, for whom the dramatic factor would determine traces of grand literary creations, as well as of the bases of heteronymy. One of the key intentions of this dissertation is to rethink the equivalence of both terms dramatic poet and dramatist, which were constantly used by the author to make reference to his own creative process. It is stated that Pessoa would have relativized the boundaries between those terms by conceiving at least two different ways of approaching the dramatic form: on the one hand he presupposes the creation of a drama that is situated outside the dramaturgic sphere per se, which would comprise the books, including many different literary genres and a single relation between different authors that were to be compiled in his complete works; on the other hand he engages himself in the composition of dramas, in a strict sense, that escape the common places of the genre by destabilizing traditional categories such as action, dialogue, plot and characters.

Este estudo propõe-se a ampliar a compreensão do conceito de drama na obra de Fernando Pessoa, para quem o elemento dramático constituiria o traço distintivo das grandes criações literárias, bem como um dos pilares da heteronímia. Um dos eixos centrais da dissertação consiste em repensar a equivalência das expressões poeta dramático e dramaturgo, constantemente empregadas pelo autor em referência a seu processo criativo. Sustenta-se que Pessoa terá relativizado as fronteiras entre essas categorias ao conceber pelo menos dois meios distintos de lidar com a forma dramática: por um lado, prevê a criação de um drama que se situe fora da esfera dramatúrgica propriamente dita, composto pela série de livros que daria origem às suas obras completas, abrangendo diversos gêneros literários e um único universo de relações; por outro lado, empenha-se na composição de dramas que, sendo dramas em sentido estrito, escapam às principais convenções do gênero, ao desestabilizarem categorias tradicionais como as de ação, diálogo, enredo e personagem. / This study proposes to expand the comprehension of the concept of drama in the work of Fernando Pessoa, for whom the dramatic factor would determine traces of grand literary creations, as well as of the bases of heteronymy. One of the key intentions of this dissertation is to rethink the equivalence of both terms dramatic poet and dramatist, which were constantly used by the author to make reference to his own creative process. It is stated that Pessoa would have relativized the boundaries between those terms by conceiving at least two different ways of approaching the dramatic form: on the one hand he presupposes the creation of a drama that is situated outside the dramaturgic sphere per se, which would comprise the books, including many different literary genres and a single relation between different authors that were to be compiled in his complete works; on the other hand he engages himself in the composition of dramas, in a strict sense, that escape the common places of the genre by destabilizing traditional categories such as action, dialogue, plot and characters.

L’avancée considérable des dispositifs de vraisemblance, l’imposante combinaison de l’art et du virtuel, le souci d’archives, la volonté de réalité etc. qui marquent notre temps ont mis la question de "pourquoi la fiction ?" au centre des réflexions poétiques et philosophiques. Question qui, à ses deux extrémités, implique le discours littéraire et le discours historiographique. Pour y répondre, la pensée en Occident fait traditionnellement appel à ses origines grecques. De manière quasiment invariable, la réponse a été recherchée dans un cadre bipolaire et référentiel constitué du réel et du fictionnel. Dans le présent travail, il s’agit de remonter jusqu’aux Grecs, à la recherche d’une pensée de l’art et du fictionnel qui ne se contenterait pas du cadre référentiel. Ainsi, sont repérés les éléments d’une autre lecture grecque qui se trouve être à l’origine de la poétique élaborée au sein de l’islam iranien : une poétique orientale qu’il faut considérer comme un autre devenir de la poétique grecque. À partir des discours théorique, littéraire et historiographique irano-islamiques, il est montré comment cette poétique orientale exige de penser la fiction dans le cadre d’un schème tripartite : le rapport du réel au fictionnel fait immanquablement entrer en ligne de compte un troisième pôle qu’on appelle la vérité ou le réel de la réalité. D’un point de vue comparatif, le schème tripartite permettra de penser la question de la fiction sous un nouveau jour. / The ingenious progress of the means of likelihood, the required combination of art and the virtual, the interest for archives, the will of reality ect., that characterize our time, have given a particular interest to the question of "why fiction?", both in the philosophical reflections and the poetical investigations. In its two end-points, this question concerns both literary and historiographical discourses. Western thought has traditionally referred to its Greek origins in order to answer the question. Yet most of the time, the answer is formulated in a bipolar, referential framework consisting of the real and the fictional. Instead, in the present work, the issue is to move back up the Greek legacy in search of some art and fiction thought which goes beyond this referential framework. Doing this, we can identify the elements of a different reading of Greek thought which is actually involved in the very starting point of the poetics developed within the Islamico-Iranian cultural world : an oriental poetics which is to be considered another becoming of Greek poetics. Through theoretical, literary and historiographical discourses in Post-Islamic Iran, the author tries to show this oriental poetics requires thinking fiction now in a tripartite schema : the relationship between the real and the fictional takes necessarily into account a third pole that one can call the truth or the real of reality. From a comparative perspective, the tripartite schema could help to think the general issue of fiction in a different way.