Mémoire numérisé par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.

Este trabalho tece uma comparação entre as obras de João Guimarães Rosa e Mia Couto, contemplando as semelhanças e diferenças entre seus projetos estéticos, tendo como fio condutor a tradição oral. Segundo Walter Benjamin, todos os grandes escritores hauriram da tradição oral e, Ángel Rama parece corroborar com isso, quando diz que os escritores da modernidade recorrem a essa vertente para tecerem as suas narrativas. Rosa e Mia se voltam para o passado e seus olhares se cruzam ao recriarem as lendas, mitos, ritos, provérbios e chistes na elaboração de seus textos. É certo que, a tradição oral em suas narrativas não representa os costumes de seus povos na íntegra, uma vez que, na obra de Guimarães Rosa é retratada como algo evanescente e, mesmo na de Mia Couto, que faz parte do cotidiano, ela já aparece fragmentada. Porém, a preocupação maior é com o processo de recriação, pois este acaba nos remetendo à história de seus países, uma vez que as perspectivas dos autores parecem convergir no mesmo ponto: a \"modernização\" implantada de maneira brusca naquelas sociedades, relegando a uma \"terceira margem\", grande parte de suas populações. Brasil e Moçambique são países que têm em comum a língua portuguesa, herdada do colonizador que foi o mesmo. No entanto, são portadores de culturas distintas, pois, apesar da semelhança entre os elementos que as compõem, os valores são diferentes. As narrativas de João Guimarães Rosa e de Mia Couto não representam a História, mas contam história. Dessa forma, narração, memória e História se entrecruzam de tal maneira, que as fronteiras entre ficção e realidade se tornam muito tênues. / This work makes a comparison among the workmanships of João Guimarães Rosa and Mia Couto, contemplating the similarities and differences between its aesthetic projects, having as conducting wire the verbal tradition. According to Walter Benjamin, all the great writers exhausted the verbal tradition and, Ángel Rama seems to corroborate with this, when he says that the writers of modernity appeal to this source to make their narratives. Rosa and Mia come back toward the past and their look cross when they recreate legends, myths, rites, beliefs, sayings and jests in the elaboration of their texts. It is certain that, the verbal tradition in his narratives does not represent the customs of the people as a whole, therefore, in the Guimarães Rosa\'s workmanship it is portrayed as something that is vanishing and, even in Mia Couto\'s, that is part of the daily one, it is already fragmented. However, the biggest concerning is with the recreation process, this sends us to the history of the countries, once these authors\' perspectives seem to converge in the same point: the \"modernization\" implanted in an abrupt way in those societies, relegating to one \"third edge\", great part of the population. Brazil and Mozambique are countries that have the Portuguese language in common, inherited from the settler, that was the same in both countries. However, they are carrying distinct cultures because , despite the similarity between the elements that makes them up , the values are different. The narratives of João Guimarães Rosa and Mia Couto do not represent the History, but they tell history. Of this form, narration, memory and History intercross themselves in such way, that the borders between fiction and reality become very tenuous.

"Narrative Units" traces the development of a unique perspective on narrative form in the theory and practice of the early British novel. From Aristotle's Poetics through twentieth-century formalism, structuralism, and narratology, major theories of narrative have approached narrative form as a unified whole, whether that whole is defined as plot, structure, or discourse. By contrast, early British novelists tended to conceive of narrative as a looser accretion of individual parts, identified with terms such as "adventure," "episode," "incident," "accident," "situation," "moment," "scene," "period,” and "crisis," as well as temporal spans such as hours, days, weeks, and years. This dissertation examines the social, philosophical, and technical implications of viewing narrative through this lens of narrative parts, or what I call “narrative units.” The project begins by comparing the emphasis on narrative units in the early British novel with dominant traditions in narrative theory, which tend to prioritize narrative totalities. It then proceeds to analyze the functioning of narrative units in the novels of three key innovators of the tradition: Henry Fielding, Ann Radcliffe, and Jane Austen. In each of these case studies I identify the key units deployed by the author, considering the dialogic relationship between them and the unique narrative dynamics that they bring about. Ultimately, I show that the unusual emphasis on narrative units in the long eighteenth century emerges in response to a series of major social and intellectual crises of the eighteenth century: in Fielding, the epistemological opacity of cities and institutions; in Radcliffe, the fragmentation of self in the sentimental subject; in Austen, the breakdown of community in a rapidly accelerating society. I conclude that by prioritizing and emphasizing narrative parts over narrative wholes, these authors deformed and disrupted prevailing models of narrative, from Aristotelian plot and Enlightenment progress to the sentimental flow of feelings, and along the way developed a new poetics of uncertainty, stasis, and fragmentation. In identifying and analyzing the historical vocabulary deployed by authors themselves to articulate the fundamental structure of their narratives, “Narrative Units” develops a new methodology for the study of narrative, offers a new approach to the history of the novel, and contributes to current critical efforts to synthesize formalist and historicist methods of literary study.

This thesis examines the concept of vision in the major novels of Javier Marías in light of the philosophy of José Ortega y Gasset and Julián Marías. Marías's fictions present us with a series of characters that prove to be acute observers, interpreting the world both to understand it better and to orientate themselves within it. I argue that this hermeneutical approach extends to Marías's poetics, which reflect two main concepts not yet well studied: on one hand, what Marías, borrowing a term from his father, Julián Marías, calls 'pensamiento literario', which describes creative writing as one of the best tools the author has to 'see' or understand the real world; and on the other, his concept of 'reconocimiento', which defines the sympathetic process by which the reader 'sees' or 'recognises' him or herself in the narrative. These 'visual' poetics reveal a number of epistemological and ethical implications that gesture not towards the postmodern relativism often associated with Marías, but rather towards a modern intellectual paradigm whose possibilities were curtailed after the Civil War.

The intent of this project is to study the use of multiple narrators who occupy the same space over a spread of time. While the subject matter has been one of intense study over the years, the approach to implore this technique of fiction has opened the characters, plot, and story to greater exploration.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--McMaster University, 2006. / Supervisor: Peter Kingston. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 251-257).

The meaning of this essay is to look at how the narrative strategies, description of character and society differ between the two novels "This Perfect Day" and "Neuromancer". By looking at the different narrative techniques used by the authors and the results we can see why some of these strategies work very well in one novel but would not suit the other because of the contrasts in style it would produce.

The purpose of this study is to examine the use of narrative devices in the fiction and collected non-fiction of Joan Didion in order to evaluate her abilities as a novelist and as a New journalist. The works considered include the novels Run River, Play It As It Lays, and The Book of Common Prayer; the non-fiction works include Slouching Towards Bethlehem, The White Album, and Salvador.The narrative devices examined are those essential to the sense of story in fiction: plot, character, setting, and point of view. The same devices are examined in the nonfiction works because of their similarity to what Tom Wolfe identifies as the characteristics of New Journalism: scene-by-scene construction, dialogue, third person point of view, and the detailing of status life.Conclusions1. Didion's fiction is weak. She combines narrative elements artificially rather than artistically. The plots in each novel are contrived, beset with problems of plausibility and insufficient character motivation. Didion's personal sensibility affects her fictive point of view, making it artificial and subjective. Setting has a disproportionate emphasis.2. In both genre Didion emphasizes a common theme: the effect of time and place on her own sensibility. Although this strengthens the non-fiction, it weakens the fiction. Her over-abundant use of setting details is appropriate in her non-fiction where the subject is herself in specific times and places. In the fiction the setting overshadows other narrative elements.3. Didion uses narrative devices effectively in her non-fiction. She exercises methods of developing characters and detailing setting in the non-fiction as well as, or better than, in her fiction. Her selection' and arrangement process creates a unity much like plot in fiction.4. Didion writes essays primarily. According to Wolfe's guidelines, only three of the works in her collected non-fiction qualify as New Journalism. Although she uses techniques of characterization, scene construction, and status life detail, Didion's point of view, with the exception of the three works, is the subjective perspective of the essayist.5. Didion writes better in the real world of nonfiction than she does in the imaginary world of fiction.

Réminiscence est une fiction web interactive élaborée autour du thème de la mémoire et mettant à profit les caractéristiques spécifiques des médias interactifs afin de pousser plus loin la cocréation du récit (auteur/interacteurs). ÉIia, le personnage principal, a été retrouvée, blessée et inanimée, sur une plage, loin de chez elle. Amnésique, elle a sombré dans un coma profond. Un phénomène étrange lui permet toutefois de numériser ses pensées par le biais d'un blogue personnel. Les visiteurs sont invités, par l'équipe médicale, à partager leurs pensées avec elle, afin de l'aider à retrouver ses souvenirs et sa conscience. Le lecteur-spectateur devient alors créateur du récit avec l'auteure, puisque c'est en échangeant avec celui-ci que l'auteur construira l'histoire d' Élia. En créant ce blogue-fiction, nous avons fusionné forme et fond pour immerger l'internaute dans un récit auquel il participe librement, sans qu'on lui donne d'instructions précises. Les échanges entre le personnage d' Élia et les blogueurs deviennent le fondement même du récit et aident à faire avancer la narration. Si de nombreux internautes demeurent voyeurs, d'autres participent activement par leurs commentaires qu'on peut diviser en trois catégories. Certains de ces commentaires expriment l'empathie des participants et leur intérêt pour le personnage, ou signalent simplement leur passage sur le site. D'autres posent des questions et suggèrent des images au personnage, afin que celui-ci puisse y associer des souvenirs. D'autres encore se prennent tellement au jeu qu'ils veulent y croire et posent des questions plus pointues sur la situation du personnage; ils se questionnent tout haut sur les dessous du récit et sur la confusion virtuel-réalité. L'auteure elle-même a dû composer avec cette fusion du réel-virtuel, mais a pu constater à quel point le récit initial se trouve enrichi par toutes ces petites narrations insérées dans la grande. ______________________________________________________________________________ MOTS-CLÉS DE L’AUTEUR : Fiction multimédia interactive, Cocréation, Récit de fiction, Blogue-fiction, Fiction web.

Le train Amabacousse-Wellstuck a déraillé de la trajectoire que lui imposait le tracé des rails. Sous le choc, ayant perdu de vue la voie qu'il s'applique depuis toujours à suivre à la tête de son train, le cheminot Valérien Beauchemin détache sa fidèle portière de sa locomotive et s'en va, par les champs et les bois, en direction de la prochaine gare. Il y rencontre le burineur itinérant Bernard Fischzpatrik, qui l'accompagnera dans une mission qu'il ne pensait jamais devoir accomplir. Jean-Baptiste Souriault, journaliste de son état, est tiré du lit pour remplir une autre mission: élucider la disparition du train Amabacousse-Wellstuck et de son conducteur et produire un article sur le sujet. Les seuls indices qui lui proviennent sont chantés par un groupe de musiciens à l'allure mutante, voire monstrueuse. Souriault fera, par eux, la connaissance d'un peuple antique à la croisée de deux cycles cosmiques et d'une femme de ce peuple, la plus belle qu'on puisse imaginer. Ensemble, ils s'engageront dans le même engrenage que Valérien Beauchemin et Bernard Fischzpatrik. La fascination qu'exerce sur moi la performance, en particulier celle qui se manifeste à l'improviste dans la rue, m'a guidé dans l'écriture du roman musical Déraillement. Des écrits de Paul Zumthor m'ont aidé à mieux comprendre cette fascination, ainsi que le fonctionnement de la performance. L'aide de Zumthor s'est aussi imposée pour aborder la question de la médiatisation en musique, un thème présent dans la structure même de ce roman. Cet aspect remet en question la relation entre l'auditeur et l'interprète. Finalement, l'échange entre le public et l'artiste ayant lieu dans la performance m'a aidé à définir ma propre technique d'écriture. Par une sorte de dédoublement, je relance l'écriture en interagissant avec la scène que je viens d'écrire. Les nouveaux éléments qui naissent de cette relance nourrissent les actions ultérieures. J'appelle cette méthode écriture de la dérive, illustrée par la métaphore du déraillement. Par ailleurs, le déraillement ouvre la réflexion aux pratiques du territoire, qui représentent d'autres types de performance. À ce sujet, je me suis intéressé plus précisément à ce qui concerne la découverte du « Nouveau Monde ». Une méditation plus vaste sur la voix et le chant s'est avérée nécessaire compte tenu de l'omniprésence de ces thèmes dans ma méthode d'écriture. J'ai voulu présenter le chant comme une arme, un effort de mise en ordre, une réponse au chaos (le bruit), bref, le chant comme métier à tisser des récits. Finalement, c'est en faisant le point sur l'intermédialité que j'ai pu insérer cette réflexion sur le chant dans la littérature. Une prise de position plus claire quant à l'esthétique de mon travail s'est dessinée en confrontant les différentes formes artistiques qui allient la musique et le texte. ______________________________________________________________________________ MOTS-CLÉS DE L’AUTEUR : Chant, Dérive, Enchantement, Étrangeté, Intermédialité, Performance.