The purpose of this essay is to study the role and function of literature and literary texts in Dragon Age, the fictive world experienced through computer games, novels, comics, movies and other media, created by the video game developer company BioWare. My starting point is the question of how history of literature and literary canon are created and depicted in the games and the novels. From there, I examine what the concepts of ‘history of literature’ and ‘canon’ implicate in the real world, and how they can be translated into the fictive world of Dragon Age, and the different media of computer games and novels. The width and depth of the fictive world’s literature is shown through a study of different types of texts and how they appear in the games and novels respectively, but also through an examination of how real world genres are represented in the games. The issue of representation is also brought up in a discussion about how the in-world literary canon excludes socio-economical classes, as well as the issue of religion restricting the availability of literature free from religious or political bias. Nearing a conclusion, I argue that given the parallels between the literature of the real world and fictive world respectively, the literature and literary texts in the Dragon Age games and novels should be understood as canonical representations of the history of literature of the real world. I also suggest that the literature and literary texts of Dragon Age can be used as prompters of memory: while we explore a fictive world, we also have a chance to reexamine our knowledge of the real world.

This thesis provides the first account of complaint in Older Scots literature. It argues for the coherent development of a distinctively Scottish complaining voice across the fifteenth century, characterised by an interest in the relationship between amatory and ethical concerns, between stasis and narrative movement, and between male and female voices. Chapter 1 examines the literary contexts of Older Scots complaint, and identifies three paradigmatic texts for the Scottish complaint tradition: Ovid’s Heroides; Boethius’s De Consolatione Philosophiae; and Alan of Lille’s De Planctu Naturae. Chapter 2 concentrates on the complaints in Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Arch. Selden. B. 24 (c. 1489-c. 1513). It considers afresh the Scottish reception of Lydgate’s Complaint of the Black Knight and Chaucer’s Anelida and Arcite, and also offers original readings of three Scottish complaints preserved uniquely in this manuscript: the Lay of Sorrow, the Lufaris Complaynt, and the Quare of Jelusy. Chapter 3 focuses on the relationship between complaint and narrative, arguing that the complaints included in the Buik of Alexander (c. 1438), Lancelot of the Laik (c. 1460), Hary’s Wallace (c. 1476-8), and The Buik of King Alexander the Conquerour (c. 1460-99) act as catalysts for narrative movement and subvert the complaint’s traditional identity as a static form. Chapter 4 is a study of complaint in Robert Henryson’s three major works: the Morall Fabillis (c. 1480s); the Testament of Cresseid (c. 1480-92); and Orpheus and Eurydice (c. 1490-2), and argues that Henryson consistently connects the complaint form with the concept of self-knowledge as part of wider discourses on effective governance. Chapter 5 presents the evidence that a text’s identity as a complaint influenced its presentation in both manuscript and print witnesses. The witnesses under discussion date predominantly from the sixteenth century; the chapter thus also uses them to explore the complaints’ later reception history.

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In the introduction, I discuss the problems scholars experience in trying to define the concept of Roman friendship. I argue that amicitia cannot be equated with patronage, and present justification based on some primary literature. Brief words are then offered on the sociology of friendship, and an attempt is made to relate ideas from modern sociology to ancient friendship. The first chapter is based on the Letters of Pliny the Younger, and begins with an analysis of the vocabulary employed by Pliny in describing his friendships. This is considered in conjunction with prosopographical data in order to establish the connection between vocabulary and practice. The derived results are used to conclude that friendship in the Roman world was more involved than simply patronage, and that it was one of the driving forces behind Roman social behaviour as it helps to integrate different levels of society. Chapter two follows a similar methodology, with the correspondence of Fronto as its focus. The conclusions drawn in this chapter are used to reinforce the arguments presented in the first. Also included in chapter two is a brief discussion of the ancient philosophical approaches to friendship, and a solution is presented to resolve the differences between philosophical ideals and the reality of friendship. The third chapter begins with an examination of the secondary literature on the concept of friendship with the emperor. I maintain that scholarship is lacking in this field because it neglects the personal nuances such relationships could have. The chapter then turns to Pliny’s Panegyricus to determine his attitude regarding this issue, which is used as evidence against some modern interpretations of aristocratic perceptions of the emperor. Pliny’s exchanges with Trajan are subsequently analyzed, and it is argued that it was as subject/ruler that Pliny and Trajan defined their association. Chapter four discusses the relationship Fronto shared with the Antonine emperors. I contend that Fronto related differently with each and experienced different levels of intimacy, which points to the importance of personal connections, even with people as uniquely powerful as emperors. I also conclude from this that even emperors were not above the rules and practices of friendship. The concluding remarks draw attention to the advantages of exploring Roman social relationships through the prism of friendship, as opposed to the traditional perspective of patronage. Some future avenues of research are also suggested.

Le principe de diversité culturelle ouvre bien des perspectives concernant le statut de la littérature et de son objet. Singularité littéraire, connaissance érudite ou pratique engagée, le rôle de la littérature peut se démultiplier au fil du temps et des époques, à travers les auteurs et leurs écritures respectives. Une seule constante conduit l’unicité de l’étude en lettres : la base linguistique qui fonde l’unité du moment littéraire autour d’une langue dite littéraire. / Cultural studies are dedicated to new literatures. How to distinguish practical sciences from cohesion underlying within subtexts when it implies and engages global orientalist meanings … Few linguistical drawings deserted had set upmodern influences. The ideal matrix is not yet engaged : how should literatures have one particular rule to end up with minorities when basics interpretative still misrepresent its singular patterns. Modernized, the linguistics structure have been instrumentalist. Developing relationships and exchanging transferal traditions was increasing the scientist attraction level ; thanks both to contacts in‐between some other european languages the whole modernity that was crossing cultural literaturies made unity (currents are in merged nations).

Breaking the Frames of the Past examines recent visual and literary work about the periods of historical violence in Argentina, Chile, and Peru. In my dissertation, I argue that these cultural productions can challenge the linear conception of historical time, and reveal the existent tensions and blind spots present within the cultural memory realm of each nation. By examining the specificity of the materials and the aesthetic strategies present in the works, I hope to elucidate a necessary introspective turn in memory- what I have nominated metamemory, present in works that not only seek to interrogate official national paradigms, discourses of the past, productions of knowledge, and memorial imperatives, but also works that are profoundly aware of their condition as memory objects within a cultural memory realms. Breaking the Frames of the Past is divided into two parts, Part One: Images, engages with memory at a broader collective level, and analyzes the different ways the photographic medium has been used to represent the past and craft a sense of national belonging. Part Two: Texts is concerned with subjective memory, and the overlap between childhood memories lived simultaneously within the frame of a period of historical violence. I discuss literary work written by those born during these periods of violence in order to see how from their subjective experience and through their works they can assert to the existing tensions within cultural memory paradigms. In examining novels by those who are “the Secondary Characters” of history, I argue that their use of metafictional strategies is able to counter the feeling of displacement and sense of belatedness that is present in postmemory works.

[pt] Os estudos da literatura, da história e da história da história atuais tendem a considerar inadequado abordar seus problemas e conceitos fundamentais isoladamente dos seus contextos e não visualizá-las como redes de interações que emergem de complicados processos psico-biosociais nos quais a figura curiosa e criativa do observador ocupa lugar central. A partir destes pressupostos, esta tese objetiva sugerir um modelo para a construção de uma história da literatura, descrevendo os fundamentos meta-teóricos que sustentam a construção dos conceitos principais a serem utilizados neste modelo, as teorias subjacentes às noções de literatura, história, história da literatura e os elementos importantes destes conceitos. / [en] Nowadays Literary studies, history and history of history consider inadequate approaches to their basic concepts that do no take into consideration their contexts and their emergence as interactive networks derived from complex psychobiosocial processes generated by a curious and creative observer. Based on these presuppositions, this thesis aims to suggest a model to construct a history of literature. In order to reach its aims, I will describe its main concepts metatheoretical fundamentals applied to build this model, as well as theories that deal with the concepts of literature, history and history of literature and the relevant elements of these concepts.

[pt] Partindo da herança deixada pelo panorama poético do século XX, desde o movimento modernista, passando pelo impacto cabralino, até a chegada da poesia dos anos 90, esta dissertação analisa os poetas nascidos a partir de 1975 e estreantes em livro no século XXI, numa tentativa de mapear e marcar o primeiro momento poético brasileiro que vem se formando na primeira década deste novo milênio. / [en] Taking the legacy of 20th-century poetry as a starting point - from the Modernist movement through João Cabral de Melo Neto up to the poetry of the `90s - this thesis analyzes the works of poets born in 1975 or later who published their first books in the 21st century, attempting to map out the early stirrings of Brazilian poetry in the new millennium.

[pt] A presente dissertação de mestrado, Elementos teóricos para o ensino da literatura, tem por objetivo uma compreensão do fenômeno literário que transcende a sua configuração textual, em vista de uma atualização do ensino da literatura em escolas de Nível Médio. Para alcançar este fim, a pesquisa analisa ferramentas teóricas desenvolvidas pela Estética da Recepção e pela chamada Ciência Empírica da Literatura, avaliando a oportunidade de transferir os seus modelos para o espaço escolar, como estratégia pedagógica inovadora capaz de revigorar o próprio ensino. Neste sentido, a dissertação pretende oferecer caminhos de mediação entre uma tradição ainda vigente e propostas de renovação no campo da didática com respeito ao fenômeno literário e suas formas de historiografia. / [en] The present M.A. thesis, Theoretical elements on literature teaching, aims at understanding the literary phenomenon which transcends its textual configuration. It keeps in sight the update of literature teaching in high school (medium level). In order to achieve such goal, this research analyses theoretical tools developed by the Reception Aesthetics and the so called Empiric Science of Literature. It evaluates the opportunity of transferring those models to the space of the school, as an innovative pedagogical strategy capable of renewing the act of teaching. In such sense, this thesis intends to offer ways to deal with a still present tradition and the renewal proposals in the field of didactics concerning the literary phenomenon and its historiography.

Esta dissertação se propõe a analisar a trajetória dos romances ingleses no Rio de Janeiro nas três primeiras décadas do século XIX. Para tanto, utilizamos os documentos de requisição de liberação de livros da Mesa do Desembargo do Paço com a finalidade de apontar os responsáveis pela importação dessas obras literárias, bem como indicar quais romances ingleses tinham maior circulação. Visando esboçar o percurso dos romances, examinamos os anúncios de compra, venda, aluguel e leilão de dois periódicos importantes: a Gazeta do Rio de Janeiro (1808 1821) e o Diário do Rio de Janeiro (1821 1831). / The purpose of this dissertation is to analyse the circulation of English novels in Rio de Janeiro in the first three decades of the nineteenth century. The documents of the Mesa do Desembargo do Paço (the institution responsible for the censorship and liberation of books) in Rio de Janeiro will be used in order to bring light to the booksellers who were responsible for the importation of English novels as well as to highlight which of these novels were bestsellers. For an overview of the trade of English novels in Rio de Janeiro, the advertisements of two of the most important newspapers of the beginning of the nineteenth century will be taken into account: the Gazeta do Rio de Janeiro (1808 1821) and the Diário do Rio de Janeiro (1821 1831)