In Portugal, as in other countries, a common characteristic of many of the novels published in the past twenty years is the recourse to a repertoire of literary devices that recall those of the historical novel.                 On the basis of critical studies published in the 1990’s, and in particular Fernández Prieto’s Poética de la Novela Histórica, this thesis undertakes a study of the Portuguese historical novel with the aim of defining, to the extent possible, the limits of this literary genre, and to examine in detail some of its intrinsic—and pertinent—semantic and pragmatic traits: the setting of a fictional narrative in the past, the introduction of historical persons and events and, not the least, the transtextual relationship between the fictional and the historiographic text.        Special attention is given to some of the more innovative forms of the contemporary historical novel, to highlight how by emphasising certain generic traits —that refer to the reader’s acquired knowledge— the author can compensate for the absence of others. Despite the inherent ”heterodoxy”, this device justifies grouping these novels under the general heading of the historical novel. The thesis explores the analogies between some of these innovative narrative strategies of the contemporary historical novel with transtextual practices characteristic of literature predating the 19th Century and by which a certain ”historical knowledge” is requisite for decoding the text. The thesis also establishes a set of generic traits that the historical novel shares with epic poetry. In light of these analogies, the thesis proposes a reading of Os Lusíadas as a historical poem. With this the author hopes to provide a contribution to a theory of historical fiction, understood as a genre encompassing, in addition to the novel, all forms of fictionalisation that rely on the historical discourse. © Mauro Cavaliere                                           ISBN  91-7265-442-2