Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1973. / Typescript. Vita. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 272-305).

L’œuvre de Juan Carlos Onetti, féconde, diverse et originale, représente un renouveau de la littérature uruguayenne et latino-américaine. C’est dans les pages de la revue Marcha où, entre 1939 et 1941, il était secrétaire de rédaction, qu’il exposera sa vision de la littérature qui nécessite, d’après lui, et avec urgence, un renouvellement. Lui-même va mettre en place ses théories littéraires et, à travers son œuvre et sa ville mythique, Santa María, il va créer une nouvelle littérature urbaine plus en accord avec l’homme et le monde de son époque. En France, pendant les années quarante naît le Nouveau Roman, courant littéraire novateur qui représente une rupture dans les lettres françaises. Souvent appelée « littérature du regard », les textes du Nouveau Roman vont au-delà des formes narratives traditionnelles. Le propos de ce travail est l’étude comparée de l’oeuvre de Juan Carlos Onetti et de certaines oeuvres de deux écrivains du Nouveau Roman : Robbe-Grillet et Claude Simon. À partir de trois axes, l’étude d’un personnage en crise, l’étude des voix narratives, et l’étude des rapports entre l’homme, l’écriture et la fiction, ce travail de recherche interroge et analyse les formules narratives nouvelles qui ont bouleversé les règles du passé. / The work of Juan Carlos Onetti, prolific, diverse and singular, represents the renovation of the Uruguayan and Latin-American literature. When he was assistant editor for the magazine Marcha between 1939 and 1941, he exposed in a series of articles his viewpoint about literature, which needed, as he stated, a renovation urgently. His own work illustrates those theories; and with the mythic city Santa Maria he created, he developed a new kind of urban literature more in accordance with his contemporaries and the world he lived in. In France, the Nouveau Roman, which emerged in about 1940, constitutes a rupture in French literature. This innovative movement, often called "literature of look", went beyond traditional narrative forms. The purpose of this study is to compare Juan Carlos Onetti’s work with certain books written by two representatives of the Nouveau Roman: Robbe-Grillet and Claude Simon. From three axes the study of a character in crisis, the study of different narrative voices and the study of the relationship between man, his writings and fiction, this research work questions and analyses new narrative forms which definitively changed the rules of the Past.

Quel est le processus de création d’un monde de fiction ? Telle est la question qui motive ce travail. Cette thèse s’interroge plus particulièrement sur quels sont les processus mis en place par l’écrivain uruguayen Juan Carlos Onetti (1909–1994) pour créer Santa María, sa ville de fiction. Souvent décrite comme un locus horrendus, Santa María est une ville qui ressemble à plusieurs villes référentielles du Río de la Plata. Elle a été créée à partir des souvenirs et idéalisations d’un auteur qui a connu l’exil et a recréé un univers fictionnel dans lequel il reflète de nombreux éléments constitutifs de cette région d’Amérique du Sud, tout en la dotant de traits fictionnels représentatifs de la poétique onettienne. Cet espace de fiction est devenu le théâtre de la plus grande partie des œuvres d’Onetti, et le lieu de résidence de presque tous ses personnages, qui tentent d’échapper sans succès de ce monde centripète. Pour explorer les arcanes de la création onettienne, ce travail s’attache à étudier la configuration de l’univers diégétique des dix-sept romans et nouvelles ayant pour cadre Santa María, ainsi que les trois récits dans lesquels apparaissent quelques personnages récurrents de la « saga ». Cette analyse permet de déchiffrer des pistes textuelles, parfois cachées, souvent trompeuses, dans le but de déceler les rouages de la création littéraire de Santa María. Cette thèse s’attarde également sur l’importance de l’intertextualité, une constante dans ce corpus, qui participe à la cohésion et à la cohérence de l’univers fictionnel de Santa María. Ainsi, Santa María se déploie comme un monde possible, si non désirable, pour les personnages acteurs de la « comédie humaine » de Juan Carlos Onetti / What is the process of creating a fictional world? This question motivates this work, in particular, what are the processes put in place by the Uruguayan writer Juan Carlos Onetti (1909-1994) to create Santa María, his own city of fiction. Often described as a locus horrendus, Santa María is a city that resembles several referential cities of the Rio de la Plata. It was created from the memories and idealisations of an author who experienced exile and recreated a fictional universe in which he reflects the many constituent elements of this region of South America, while endowing it with fictional traits which are representative of Onettian poetic. This space of fiction has become the theatre of most of Onetti's works, and the home of almost all his characters, who try to escape without success from this centripetal world. To explore the mysteries of Onettian creation, this work focuses on the configuration of the diegetic universe of the seventeen novels and short stories of Santa María, as well as the three narratives in which some recurring characters appear. This analysis makes it possible to decipher textual tracks, sometimes hidden, often misleading, in order to detect the inner workings of the literary creation of Santa María. This thesis also focuses on the importance of intertextuality, a constant in this corpus which participates in the cohesion and coherence of the fictional universe of Santa María. Thus, Santa Maria deploys as a possible world, if not desirable, for the characters actors of the "human comedy" of Juan Carlos Onetti.

[pt] Ao construir uma literatura moderna e, assim, baseada no pressuposto da solidão e do desaparecimento do autor, Juan Carlos Onetti (1909-1994) termina criando para si um personagem público que sustenta ao longo de sua vida e que reflete sua ética da literatura e suas idéias sobre a função do escritor. Esta tese se ocupa do modo como surge esse personagem, suas principais marcas, o modo como ele se expressa, partindo do contexto em que Onetti se forma, passando pela construção de sua figura de escritor, para então tratar dos personagens escritores dentro de sua obra ficcional e terminar com os personagens de seus personagens, observando as marcas de sua concepção de autor na construção narrativa. Para tanto, foi utilizado um corpus composto por textos críticos e entrevistas diversas do escritor na imprensa, sua biografia e seus textos ficcionais, em especial alguns dos romances que compõem a chamada Saga da Santa María. / [en] Writing a modern literature, based on the values of solitude and the disappearance of the author, Juan Carlos Onetti (1909-1994) created a public character that accompanied him along his life and which mirrors his ethics of literature and his ideas about the role of the writer. This dissertation studies the origins of this character, its main characteristics, and the way it expresses itself. The text begins by the context in which Onetti starts writing, and then discusses the construction of a writer figure, the writer characters in Onetti’s fiction and, finally the characters created by other characters. The corpus includes critical texts, interviews, Onetti’s biography and his fictional texts, particularly the novels that integrate the Saga of Santa María.