Submitted by Renata Lopes (renatasil82@gmail.com) on 2016-09-12T17:26:03Z No. of bitstreams: 1 juliapessoavarges.pdf: 2258766 bytes, checksum: 4e93cc17ecc6f9a7932f8f1bcd68d32e (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Adriana Oliveira (adriana.oliveira@ufjf.edu.br) on 2016-10-04T12:35:53Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 juliapessoavarges.pdf: 2258766 bytes, checksum: 4e93cc17ecc6f9a7932f8f1bcd68d32e (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Adriana Oliveira (adriana.oliveira@ufjf.edu.br) on 2016-10-04T12:36:12Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 juliapessoavarges.pdf: 2258766 bytes, checksum: 4e93cc17ecc6f9a7932f8f1bcd68d32e (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-10-04T12:36:12Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 juliapessoavarges.pdf: 2258766 bytes, checksum: 4e93cc17ecc6f9a7932f8f1bcd68d32e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-04-15 / Resumo: Esta dissertação de mestrado analisa os jogos eletrônicos a partir de seu potencial narrativo. A popularização dos consoles de videogames e a disseminação dos computadores pessoais e da Internet ao longo das duas últimas décadas facilitou o acesso a estes produtos tecnológicos, aumentando também o interesse acadêmico em tais jogos. Grande parte da bibliografia referente ao assunto gira em torno do debate Narratologia versus Ludologia; em que teóricos de vertentes opostas acreditam que os jogos eletrônicos podem ser compreendidos ou somente por seus aspectos lúdicos, diretamente ligados à ação do jogador (gameplay); ou apenas pelos narrativos. Ao longo da presente dissertação, apresentaremos os pensamentos dos principais ludologistas (Jesper Juul, Gonzalo Frasca, Espen Aarseth) e também dos narratologistas, dos quais a americana Janet Murray é a principal expoente. Nosso objetivo, ao descrever as duas vertentes, é demonstrar a necessidade de incorporá-las para uma compreensão mais ampla dos jogos eletrônicos, contrapondo o caráter excludente como as duas correntes teóricas vêm sendo concebidas. Desta forma, nossa hipótese é de que somente levando em conta o gameplay e o potencial narrativo é que se pode analisar os videogames no que Marie-Laure Ryan, Santaella e Galloway consideram sua característica mais distintiva: a interatividade. Para isto, utilizaremos o conceito de “narrativas interativas” de Ryan (2009), que propõe que a narratividade nos videogames é diretamente ligada ao gameplay, já que cada elemento narrativo é construído a partir de ações desempenhadas pelo jogador e materializadas no interior do jogo através de um avatar; e, por outro lado, cada ação a ser tomada é determinada pelo enredo narrativo que se forma. Assim, lúdico e narrativo são elementos inextricáveis para a compreensão dos jogos eletrônicos em todo potencial. Como exemplo desta tendência, analisaremos “Red Dead Redemption”, jogo para Xbox 360 criado pela Rockstar Games, que acreditamos agregar todas as características das “narrativas interativas” de Ryan. / This dissertation analyzes videogames from their narrative potential. The popularity of videogame consoles and the spread of personal computers and the Internet over the past two decades have facilitated the access to these technological products, also causing the academic interest in such games to increase. Much of the literature on the subject revolves around the debate “Narratology versus Ludology”, where theorists of opposing sides believe that electronic games can be understood either by their ludic aspects, directly related to the action of the player (gameplay), or only by its narrative characteristics. Throughout this thesis, we present the thoughts of the main Ludologists (Jesper Juul, Gonzalo Frasca, Espen Aarseth) and the Narratologists, of which Janet Murray is the principal exponent. Our goal in describing the two theories is to demonstrate the need to incorporate them both in order to achieve a broader understanding of electronic games, unlike the opposition between the two theoretical approaches proposes. Hence, our hypothesis is that it is only taking into account both gameplay and the narrative potential of videogames that one can analyze these games in which Marie-Laure Ryan, Santaella and Galloway consider its most distinctive feature: interactivity. To do so, we use Ryan’s concept of "interactive narratives" (2009), which proposes that the narrative in video games is directly related to gameplay, as each narrative element is constructed from actions taken by the player and materialized inside the game through an avatar, and, moreover, every action taken is determined by the narrative plot that is designed. As a consequence, ludic and narrative elements are inextricable to the understanding of electronic games in their full potential. As an example of this trend, we will analyze the game "Red Dead Redemption" for Xbox 360, created by Rockstar Games, which we believe aggregates all the characteristics of Ryan’s "interactive narratives".

The aim of this thesis is to analyse certain aspects connecting religion and narration (which is understood here as a common human faculty to think and express oneself in the form of narratives). The first part of the thesis is concerned with methodology; first of all, the issues of defining narrative are introduced and a more elaborate definition is presented. A complete methodology is then formulated with a help of several authors (mainly James W. Pennebaker and Mary Douglas) in order to distinguish particularities and functions of creating narratives in religious contexts. Two main points are stressed here: that the content of the narratives is often concerned with problematic aspects of experience and that the expression of these narratives is beneficial for their creators. The second part focuses on several religious institutions concerned with creation of narratives which are interpreted with the outlined methodology. In this manner, the act of confession in Catholicism, prayer in Christianity and certain healing rituals are described and interpreted. Conclusions of this thesis should help the reader get a basic idea of the way created narratives in religious contexts affect their authors.

Sylvia Plath’s poetry continues to receive considerable attention from a variety of groups and has been the target for such diverse critical approaches as Feminism, Ecocriticism, and Marxism, to name but a few. My paper focuses on a less investigated area of her poems: Space, and more specifically uncanny space in her later poetry. Here, I take a closer look at seven of her poems using as my preferred methods deconstruction and psychoanalytical theory.