How I applied the Licentiate curriculim in English at the Universidad Nacional de México to my 30-year experience in book-publishing. / Licenciatura en Letras Inglesas

With new technology come new possibilities for the creation of artistic works. The invention of sound recording at end of the nineteenth century enabled musical performances to be “written” in the same manner as traditional, printed literature. The status of records as a form of writing and, moreover, as the material for further writing is demonstrated in the work of two hip hop artists, DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist, who assemble new, heteroglossic texts out of a wide array of sampled records. Two concerts, Product Placement (2004) and The Hard Sell (2008) – both of which have been memorialized on DVD – serve as fruitful examples of the potential for artistic production enabled by technology. Indeed, the genre of turntablism, which involves the live manipulation of vinyl records, requires the usage of technology in ways not intended by its original developers – a recurrent theme throughout the history of sound recording. By transforming the turntable from a passive playback device into an active compositional tool, turntablism collapses the distance between consumption and production and so turns the listener into a performer. Furthermore, the exclusive usage of 45 rpm records as the source texts for the two sets dramatizes theories of intertextuality while simultaneously tracing the constraints placed on such artistic piracy by the copyright regime. These texts entail more than just their cited musical content; they also involve visual components. These include not only the video imagery that accompanies and comments on the records being played, but also the physical performance of the DJs themselves and the spectacle of the attending crowds whose response to the music constitutes part of the text itself. Following a theoretical and historical background that will situate these works within the history of hip hop and literature in general, this study will explicate these two multimedia texts and reveal how they demonstrate a concern not only with the history of sound recording, but also such issues as the influence of technology on cultural production, the complication of authorship through intertextuality, and the relationship between culture and commerce. Above all, however, both the form and content of these two performances also serve to highlight the value of physical media as historical artifacts in the face of increasing challenges from incorporeal digital media.

Postmodernity's Search for Postgender: Bropy, Winterson and Place (Abstract) The thesis examines three formally very diverse texts published in 1969, 1993 and 2013 respectively that creatively approach and subvert the gender binary: Brigid Brophy's In Transit, Jeanette Winterson's Written on the Body and Vanessa Place's Boycott. Based on Jean-François Lyotard's conception of postmodernism as modernism in a constantly nascent state, the author advances a hypothesis of "postgender." This however does not mean overcoming gender for good (as it is sometimes understood, for example by Rosi Braidotti), but as a structural momentum, a possibility of subversion at the heart of any gender schema and currently therefore of genderism, i.e. the belief that gender is necessarily binary and that aspects of our gender are inherently linked to our sex assigned at birth. Apart from feminist theory and literary criticism, the thesis also touches on the field of transgender studies, psychoanalysis, philosophy of history and most importantly the work of Jacques Derrida. In so doing it tries to articulate the notion of postgender as part and parcel of the condition of postmodernity and a culmination of the modern split of the subject, leading to a certain cultural gender turn during the 1990s. The work nevertheless remains...

A obra do poeta romano Públio Ovídio Nasão constou entre as mais lidas, copiadas, estudadas e reelaboradas durante o período denominado Idade Média. Para que se possa ter uma compreensão de quanto a poesia ovidiana determinou a poesia medieval, e de que maneira, e o que isso significa em termos práticos, teóricos e literários, é preciso investigar: primeiro, a presença de Ovídio na Idade Média, através dos manuscritos e catálogos, dos comentários e críticas sobre sua poesia, das vitae e das alusões presentes nos autores críticos medievais; em seguida, a relação entre Ovídio e os poetas medievais e seus desdobramentos; e, por fim, a discussão sobre os gêneros poéticos medievais que emerge do confronto entre a poética ovidiana, a prática da poesia na Idade Média e a preceituação poética elaborada nesse período. Como resultado de tais investigações, é possível supor uma hipótese de que as definições técnicas de gênero poético, tão difundidas no mundo clássico, já não são tão relevantes para a composição literária medieval, que elege como princípio basilar e fundador a imitação dos auctores em detrimento da imitação dos gêneros. / The poems of the Roman poet Ovid have stood between those most read, copied, studied and reworked during the so-called Middle Ages. In order to obtain an understanding of how much the Ovidian poetry has influenced the medieval poetry, and in which manner, and what does it mean in practical, theoretical and literary terms, it is necessary to investigate three steps. First, the presence of Ovid in the Middle Ages, through the manuscripts and catalogues of his texts, the commentaries and criticism over his poetry, the vitae and mentions by medieval critics. Second, the relation between Ovid and medieval poets and its consequences. And finally, the discussion on poetic genres which emerges from the comparison between Ovidian poetics, the practice of poetry in Middle Ages and the medieval precepts on poetry. As result, it is possible to propose a hypothesis that the technical definitions of poetic genre, so widespread in the Classical world, are no longer important to medieval literary composition, which on its turn elects as underlying principle the imitation of auctores in detriment of the imitation by genres.

Partindo de uma sensação de desconforto em relação a certo modo de encaminhamento da reflexão crítica contemporânea no Brasil, este trabalho propõe uma análise comparativa de alguns ensaios de dois autores de notória importância para a teoria literária brasileira, a saber, Roberto Schwarz e Silviano Santiago. Por meio de um recorte que privilegia as proposições e avaliações sobre os aspectos socioculturais do país realizadas por eles, pretende-se explicitar como a perspectiva contrastiva que leva em consideração as oposições, mas também as semelhanças entre tais obras pode configurar uma possibilidade de formulações outras para questões que há muito são fundamentais no pensamento nacional. Desse modo, sem nos isentarmos de uma posição na disputa do campo, almejamos flagrar as tensões que os textos críticos estabelecem entre si e vislumbrar nesse procedimento uma potência particular. Deteremo-nos, sobretudo, nos modos como o tópico da subordinação econômica versus (in)dependência cultural (e sua relação com o nacionalismo) são desenvolvidos e envolvem estratégias de autolegitimação, bem como o embate entre pressupostos teóricos de escasso diálogo: a desconstrução e o materialismo dialético. / Motivated by a certain discomfort related to a specific direction Brazils contemporary critical thought has taken, this paper proposes a comparative analysis between a few essays from two highly regarded authors in Brazilian literary criticism: Roberto Schwarz and Silviano Santiago. Through a point of view that privileges the proposals and assessments concerning the countrys socio cultural aspects carried out by them, it is intended to highlight how the contrastive perspective which takes into consideration the oppositions, but also the similarities between the aforementioned works can configure a possibility of formulating other questions that for long have been quintessential in the national thought. Thus, without excusing ourselves from taking a stand in the dispute, we aspire to point out the tensions set between the critical texts and conjecture a common faculty in this procedure. We shall focus, mostly, on the manners the topic economic subordination versus cultural (in)dependence (and its relation to nationalism) are developed and regard self-legitimization strategies, as well as the confrontation between theoretical moulds of rare dialogue: deconstruction and dialectic materialism.

Em um contexto literário contemporâneo atravessado pela escrita de si, este trabalho buscou estudar a obra Um romance russo, de Emmanuel Carrère, à luz das propostas da autobiografia e da autoficção, esta última uma expressão que convoca diferentes definições e justificativas. Para isso debruçou-se sobre a construção do narrador-protagonista, que declara ter como objetivo contar a história de seu avô para romper o silêncio em torno dela, imposto por sua mãe, e, assim, enterrar o fantasma desse homem que continuaria assombrando seus descendentes com sua personalidade amarga. Observamos que o narrador, identificado ao autor, faz uso da metonímia em diferentes instâncias da obra: alinhava narrativas menores que remetem ao mesmo tema, apresenta personagens femininas que remetem à figura materna e o próprio protagonista se constrói em espelhamento com o personagem do avô. Tal recurso, somado a duas narrativas que se entrelaçam, organizando o texto de Um romance russo, age como argumentação em favor de seu objetivo, justificando a necessidade de romper com a proibição da mãe e publicar este livro. Pela responsabilidade implicada na reabilitação da figura do avô, seguindo os moldes do que o crítico Dominique Viart propõe para o récit de filiation, e pela performatividade que objetiva, além das referências sem ambiguidade em seu texto, Carrère estabelece um pacto autobiográfico, como estudado por Philippe Lejeune, que é essencial para a leitura de Um romance russo. Acreditamos que, embora o gênero moderno da autobiografia não se aplique nem a esta, nem a obras anteriores do mesmo autor, um autobiográfico percorre todas elas, recusando as possibilidades de pacto romanesco com que joga a autoficção; ainda, identificam-se em sua produção elementos como o uso comentado da psicanálise, incursões ficcionais demarcadas no texto, estruturas fragmentárias e hibridismo de formas que situam Carrère no debate contemporâneo. / In a contemporary literary context shot through with the notion of writing oneself, this thesis seeks to study the work My Life as a Russian Novel, by Emmanuel Carrère, in light of the proposals put forth by both autobiography and autofiction, the latter evoking a variety of definitions and justifications. As such, the work examines the construction of the narrator/protagonist, who states that his aim is to tell the story of his grandfather in order to break the silence around it imposed by his mother and thus put to rest the ghost of a bitter man left haunting his descendants. We observe that the narrator, identified with the author, turns to metonymy at several points in the work: he lines up several minor narratives that speak to the same theme and presents female characters that evoke his mother, while the protagonist constructs himself as a mirror image of the character of his grandfather. This tack, alongside the two interlocking narratives that structure My Life as a Russian Novel, serves as ammunition towards his ultimate goal: justifying the need to break his mothers ban and publish this book. In terms of the responsibility implied in the rehabilitation of the figure of his grandfather in keeping with the structure that critic Dominique Viart proposes for the récit de filiation and in terms of the performativity he crafts, in addition to the unambiguous references in his text, Carrère establishes an autobiographical pact, as studied by Philippe Lejeune, which is essential for the reading of My Life as a Russian Novel. We believe that, although the autobiography as a modern genre does not apply to this or other works by the author, a thread of autobiography runs through all of them, rejecting the openings towards a novelesque pact that autofiction plays with; moreover, one may identify such elements in his oeuvre as the commented usage of psychoanalysis, fictional incursions clearly demarcated in the text, fragmentary structures, and a hybridity of form that situate Carrère within the contemporary debate on the topic.

In “Patria Mia,” his 1913 series of essays in New Age magazine, Ezra Pound uses a metaphor for modernist cultural production that informs and structures this dissertation. “If it lie within your desire to promote the arts,” he writes, “you must not only subsidize the man with work still in him, but you must gather such dynamic particles together; you must set them where they will interact, and stimulate each other.” Salon hostess Mabel Dodge Luhan, in Movers and Shakers, announces a similar transformation in interpersonal relations: “Looking back on it now, it seems as though everywhere, in that year of 1913 . . . there were all sorts of new ways to communicate, as well as new communications.” I argue that these new forms of communication and interaction described by Pound and Dodge not only characterize the early twentieth century but also empower transnational experiments in literature, art, and politics that we now call “modernism.” Because of dramatic and wide-ranging developments in communications and travel technologies, modernists in the early years of the twentieth century cooperated and communicated regarding their experiments in new dynamic ways that make modernism an especially collaborative project. Before the Great War casts a dark shadow over the promises of modernity, editors, writers, artists, political radicals, hostesses, and intellectuals met in small private salons, published in alternative periodicals, and joined avant-garde movements. Reading these collaborative events illuminates the interactivity that crystallizes modernism as a cultural mode of production. To analyze collaborations in the development of modernism, I construct network graphs that visualize the webs of interaction I study. Rather than rely solely on diachronic readings of modernist texts, these visualizations provide a synchronic model for modernist cultural production as simultaneous connections, constituting a modernist totality. To analyze these network graphs, I apply concepts from network theory and sociology, two disciplines that begin in the modernist moment. Thus, this dissertation is both a theory of cultural production and an effect of that cultural production. The network is itself a modernist concept.

Dans Naissance de Dieu. La Bible et l’historien, Jean Bottéro explique qu’il ne nous est resté que le livret de la pièce : la Bible. L’apocryphe en est le supplément. Outre les livraisons irrégulières et parcimonieuses, venues des sables d’Égypte entre autres, que nous a léguées l’histoire des découvertes archéologiques, il est un fonds incommensurable par lequel d’autres écrits apocryphes chrétiens nous sont parvenus : la littérature du XXe siècle. Borges, par tel poème se présentant comme un fragment de manuscrit apocryphe retrouvé, Boulgakov en insérant dans Master i Margarita [Le Maître et Marguerite] un évangile centré sur Pilate, Saramago avec son roman brûlot O Evangelho segundo Jesus Cristo [L’Évangile selon Jésus-Christ]: tous ont fourni des livraisons supplémentaires à ce que Jean Bottéro appelait la « pièce ». Les textes de notre corpus sont à lire comme des fictions d’évangiles apocryphes ; mais l’histoire de la (non-)réception des écrits apocryphes chrétiens depuis l’Antiquité ne nous enseigne-t-elle pas qu’ils furent très souvent considérés comme de la fiction ? Le canon biblique distingue les textes inspirés des autres, relégués au statut de fables ou d’inventions : et tout le reste est littérature… En outre, les apocryphes, antiques et modernes, attestés et fictifs, constituent autant de midrashim, parfois paradoxaux sur les Écritures. En quoi la notion de midrash, cette forme d’exégèse narrée et de narration interprétative, permet-elle de projeter un regard nouveau sur la théorie de l’intertextualité ? Conformément à ce que le sous-titre annonce, au terme de ces considérations plus théoriques, le dernier temps de la réflexion est consacré à l’étude plus détaillée des textes du corpus, à la lumière des critères qu’avait jadis dégagés Auerbach, dans Mimésis, pour distinguer la Bible des récits profanes. L’apocryphe, dans tous ses états et manifestations, nous invite à scruter les ‘définitions’, au sens étymologique du terme, à savoir les frontières de la Bible et la littérature. Plus encore que de livrer une étude thématique ou intertextuelle sur les réécritures de l’Évangile au XXe siècle, cette thèse entend reposer des questions – canoniques – de littérature générale, à travers un prisme biblique. / In Naissance de Dieu. La Bible et l’historien [The Birth of God. The Bible and the Historian], Jean Bottéro explains that we are left with the play’s libretto: the Bible. The apocrypha is the supplement. Apart from the irregular and parsimonious issues, notably from the sands of Egypt, transmitted to us by the history of archaeological finds, there is an immeasurable collection through which other apocrypha have come to us: XXth century literature. Borges, through his poems presenting themselves as apocryphal manuscripts which are lost and found, Bulgakov by inserting a Gospel centered on Pilate in his Master i Margarita [The Master and Margarita], Saramago with his O Evangelho segundo Jesus Cristo [The Gospel According to Jesus-Christ]: all have given supplements to what Jean Bottéro called the « libretto ». These texts are to be read as fictional apocryphal Gospels; but then again, the history of the (non-)reception Christian apocrypha encountered since Antiquity tells us that they were very often considered and read as mere fiction. The Biblical canon distinguishes the inspired texts from the rest, which is relegated to the status of fables or inventions: and all the rest is literature… Furthermore, the apocrypha, be it antique or modern, attested or fictional, constitute midrashim on the Sacred Scriptures, which are sometimes paradoxical. How does the notion of midrash -- a form of narrated exegesis and interpretative narration -- allow us to see differently the theory of intertextuality? As stated in our subtitle, after these more theoretical considerations, the last part of our dissertation is dedicated to a more detailed study of our body of texts, in the light of the criteria Auerbach used in Mimesis to distinguish the Bible from secular narratives. The apocrypha invite us to examine the ‘definitions’, in the etymological sense of the term, that is, the frontiers between the Bible and literature. More than a thematical or intertextual study, this dissertation strives to give answers to some of the canonical questions tackled by the theory of literature, through a Biblical prism.

Este estudo é, no essencial, uma reflexão acerca da produção, do método e da construção da linguagem crítica de Benedito Nunes. Tal crítica é entendida como uma leitura hermenêutica perpassada por um discurso em confrontação filosófica e literária, em que outras vozes, em vários momentos, misturam-se à sua identidade escritural, como as de Nietzsche, de Heidegger, de Ricoeur... O que se pretende, antes de tudo, é acompanhar os passos da sua hermenêutica, realçar a problemática que ele imprime ao seu texto; qual seja, o repensar crítico das questões do Homem, do Mundo, em um ato de interpretação que, como lembra Foucault, enreda o próprio intérprete e o faz interpretar-se a si mesmo. Assim, no primeiro capítulo, denominado \"Uma incursão à obra e ao pensamento de Benedito Nunes\", a intenção foi a de ressaltar seus principais escritos, a recepção crítica à sua obra e a linha interpretativa em que se move. O segundo, intitulado \"A crítica crítico-reflexiva de Benedito Nunes\", foi dividido em quatro momentos representativos das preponderantes características do seu corpus ensaístico: 1. a crítica definida como tensão entre a escrita dos escritores e a leitura dos críticos; 2. o confronto de idéias estéticas e poéticas; 3. as raízes filosóficas como marcas do discurso teórico-crítico; e 4. o traço da historicização e o uso do ensaio. Por fim, em \"A opacidade crítica: a linguagem na divisa entre o conceitual e a criação de imagens\", a preocupação foi a de pôr em relevo a sua prática de leitura hermenêutica, o modo como tece a sua linguagem crítica, em que se sobressai inscrito, por vezes, o metafórico. / This study is essentially a reflection about the critical work of Benedito Nunes, in what regards its language and its method. Its language is regarded as a hermeneutical reading where the voices of other literary and philosophical authors as Nietzsche, Heidegger, Ricoeur etc. are heard and whose speeches intermingle with the author`s speech. In what concerns its method, we tried to accompany the steps of Nunes` hermeneutics in order to stress what he aims at with his texts: the critical interpretations of the questions of Man and World which - as Foucault puts it - results in the author making his own interpretation. In the first chapter , \" An incursion into the work and the thought of Benedito Nunes\" we first tried to consider his main texts in accordance with his critical interpretation and to make an exaustive review of his critical reception. The second chapter \" Benedito Nunes` critical-reflexive criticism\" was divided into what we consider the four main characteristics of his essays:1. criticism as a tension between the writing of the authors and the reading of the critics; 2. the confrontation between aesthetic and poetic ideas; 3. the philosophical roots of his theorethical-critical speech; 4. the way historicism and essaysm are being used in his work; And finally, in our last chapter \" Critical opacity: language between concept and image\" we wanted to evidentiate the kind of Benedito Nunes` hermeneutical reading and the construction of his critical language where metaphore sometimes emerges in its relevant role.

O objetivo principal de nossa tese é realizar uma leitura comparativa da poesia neobarroca dos poetas-críticos Haroldo de Campos (brasileiro) e Néstor Perlongher (argentino). Para fazê-lo, selecionamos do primeiro alguns fragmentos da obra Galáxias (1984) e o poema Réquiem, escrito em homenagem à Néstor Perlongher; do segundo, escolhemos poemas de Austria-Hungria (1980), Alambres (1987) e Hule (1989). Com o intuito de entender os pressupostos da poesia de ambos os autores, estudamos ainda a teoria desdobrada nos ensaios literários - de cada um deles sobre o barroco: neobarroso, para Néstor Perlongher e transbarroco para Haroldo de Campos. / The main objective of our thesis is to promote a comparative reading of the neobarroque poetry by Haroldo de Campos (Brazilian) and Néstor Perlongher (Argentinian), both of them poet and literary critic. To do so, we selected from Campos book Galáxias (1984) and poem Réquiem, which was written to pay homage to Néstor Perlongher; and from Perlonghers poems in Austria-Hungria (1980), Alambres (1987) and Hule (1989). To understand the poetry basis of both poets, we also studied the theory developed in literary essays - of each of them related to baroque: neobaroque to Néstor Perlongher and transbaroque to Haroldo de Campos.