The thesis offers an interpretation of Shelley's poetry which focuses on his treatment of external nature. Its main argument is that a subject-object dialectic lies at the basis of his thought and style. Manifesting itself as a tension and oscillation between dualist and monist tendencies, this dialectic underlies the opposing strains of thought associated with his sceptical idealism; it informs the relationship between various contraries with which he is recurrently concerned, such as reason and feeling, necessity and freedom, language and thought; and it accounts for some major characteristics of his style--for example, its self-reflexiveness, indeterminacy, and restless forward momentum. Nature is found to play a complex dual function in this dialectical process: first, as the circumference to the circle of which mind is the centre, it provides the material of thought and poetry; secondly, through its cyclic processes, it serves as an emblem of the mind's dynamic relationship with that material. In finding the characteristic thought-pattern of his poetry to be constituted of a creative-destructive interplay of contraries, the thesis contends that Shelley is a significant exponent of Romantic irony. Such a reading of his work mediates between an earlier tradition of interpreting him as a Platonising poet of nature and the more recent emphasis that has been given to his philosophical scepticism and political radicalism. Throughout, attention is given to the interacting influences of his direct experience of nature (as recorded mainly in his letters) and the representations of nature he encounters in his reading. The following poems, chosen for their importance in Shelley's canon and as clear illustrations of his treatment of nature, are discussed chronologically in successive chapters: Queen Mab, Master, the 1816 odes, Prometheus Unbound, Adonais, and The Triumph of Life.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-05-14T12:39:28Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 1126773 bytes, checksum: 9ded3c2c42e51586abd90b5bcdc405dc (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-04-15 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / This dissertation aims to investigate the value of irony as a stylistic and critical resource in the representation of Machado's vision on the problem of slavery in Brazilian society. For didactic purposes, the following short stories will be studied: Virginius (1864), Mariana (1871), Encher tempo (1876), O caso da vara (1891) and Pai contra mãe (1906). This approach constitutes an attempt to elucidate the "possible" lack of criticism in Machado's work regarding to slavery, as critics have stated for a long time. Therefore, dealing with black slavery in Brazil means to understand it not as a motivating gear of a mere economic-social system that lasted for three centuries from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century but, above all, as a subject represented at the margin, ruthlessly exploited and excluded within a society undergoing modernization. Thus, in this context, the trajectory of the black in Machado‟s short stories should be seen, by the literary perspective, as a very significant aspect in addition to the historical and cultural contexts. / Resumo: Esta dissertação tem, como objetivo, investigar o valor da ironia romântica como recurso estilístico e crítico na representação da visão machadiana sobre o problema da escravidão na sociedade brasileira. Para efeito didático, serão estudados os seguintes contos: Virginius (1864), Mariana (1871), Encher tempo (1876), O caso da vara (1891) e Pai contra mãe (1906). A referida abordagem constitui-se como uma tentativa em elucidar a possível falta de criticidade da obra machadiana, no tocante ao problema da escravidão, conforme foi afirmado, durante muito tempo, pela Crítica Literária. Portanto, tratar a respeito do negro na escravidão brasileira compreende entendê-lo não como uma engrenagem motivadora de um mero sistema econômico-social que perdurou por três séculos do XVI ao XIX mas, antes de tudo, como um sujeito representado à margem, explorado desumanamente e excluído em uma sociedade em vias de modernização. Assim, a trajetória do negro, nos contos machadianos, nesse contexto, deve ser vista a partir da perspectiva literária, como um aspecto bastante significativo, além dos contextos histórico e cultural.

This essay investigates the prospect of Romantic Irony’s potential resurgence in contemporary poetics and discusses its relevance and likeness with metamodernism. The internet has by now not only seeped into, but fully permeated, the process of literary production and distribution. The effect of this has been the birth of a new kind of poetic discourse which can broadly be called metamodernism, The New Sincerity or Alt-lit. This movement is characterized by its self-reflexive metacommentary, fragmentary nature and an oscillation between of irony and sincerity. Vermeulen and Akker, among others, have hinted at metamodernism’s relation to Romanticism, but research into the specifics of its tendency towards Romantic Irony is scarce. By viewing the writings of Steve Roggenbuck (a central figure in the new poetic movement), alongside the philosophy of Friedrich Schlegel, I propose a comparative framework for discussion of sincerity, irony and the instrumentalization of contemporary metamodernist writing. I demonstrate that Roggenbuck’s writing displays narratological, tropological and thematic tendencies commonly associated with both Romantic Irony and metamodernism. Apart from broader structural comparison, I attempt a comparative analysis between Roggenbuck’s poetry (2010-2015) and Thomas Carlyle’s novel “Sartor Resartus” (1833-1834) in order to provide a visualisation of the rhetorical and narratological strategies of Romantic Irony. I aim to frame Romantic Irony as a sensibility, or mode of discourse - rather than a strict system of thought - which may still be at work today. In extension, the sensibilities of Romantic Irony may shed further light into the philosophical potential of the seemingly incomprehensible and contradictory tendencies of metamodernism. By ironicizing its poetic form, literary ambition and desire for sincerity in a post-postmodern era, Roggenbuck’s poetry celebrates ambiguity and literary failure, ultimately framing irony as a constructive and potentially democratic operation.

Dans les sciences humaines, le travail du négatif est une notion qui appartient surtout aux domaines philosophiques et psychanalytiques. En tenant compte de cette filiation, sa pertinence dans le champ littéraire se révèle également effective. En effet, lorsque l’on confronte l’idée à l’œuvre romanesque de Réjean Ducharme, l’action du travail du négatif rend compte des enjeux souterrains de cette écriture. Ainsi, le texte apparaît comme le lieu de l’instabilité où chacune des composantes donne à voir son envers et où les contradictions coexistent. Dans cette dynamique, les trois catégories du récit vacillent : elles sont sculptées dans une autre matière que celle qu’on leur assigne généralement. Dans un même élan, le style ducharmien s’empare du travail du négatif en défigeant le mot, en resémantisant la phrase, en offrant à la parole le pouvoir d’avoir un impact sur le réel. Tout est conçu pour échapper à la fixité. Construits de la sorte, les romans véhiculent une vision du monde tragique. Cette dernière, à travers l’acte de lecture, se voit pétrie par le grotesque et engendre alors un fatum qui s’apparente à l’uniformisation. Cette réalité dévoile, paradoxalement, un univers en déséquilibre qui fait écho à l’étymologie du mot baroque, « perle irrégulière ». Le texte ducharmien est donc le carrefour de plusieurs esthétiques qui possèdent toutes, en leur essence, un mouvement semblable au travail du négatif. Celui-ci peut être perçu, dans tous les cas, comme un révélateur de littérarité. Il opère, d’ailleurs, de cette manière, dans d’autres œuvres francophones, notamment dans celles de Rachid Boudjedra, de Maurice Bandaman et de Dominique Rolin. / In Human Sciences, the work of the negative is a concept which mainly belongs to the philosophical and psychoanalytical fields. Taking into account this relationship, its relevance in the literary field also proves effective. Indeed, when this notion is applied to the novels of Réjean Ducharme, the action of the work of the negative reveals the underground stakes of the author’s work. Thus, his writing takes us constantly back and forth between all the opposed elements which populate it. Ducharme’s texts are a place of instability, where each component shows its hidden side and where contradictions shaped by the process of involution coexist. Within this dynamic, the narrative mode loses its equilibrium: time, space and characters are sculpted with very unusual clay. In the same spirit, Ducharme’s writing style seizes the work of the negative by loosening words, and giving a new meaning to sentences, by offering to the word the power of having an impact on reality. Everything is designed to escape immobility. Novels built on this pattern convey a tragic vision of the world; a vision which through the act of reading finds itself steeped in the grotesque and therefore generates a fatum, which is very similar to sameness. Paradoxically, this reality unveils an unbalanced world and echoes the baroque word "irregular pearl" in its etymological meaning. Ducharme’s writing is at a crossroad between several aesthetics, whose quintessential principles are similar to the work of the negative. The latter can be perceived as an indicator of literariness and can be found in some of other French works, including those of Rachid Boudjedra, Maurice Bandaman and Dominique Rolin.

A Web Of Eyes: Irony and romanticism in the works of Jorge Luis Borges and Julio Cortázar (Mgr. Vít Kazmar) Abstract The present doctoral thesis offers an interpretation of the works of Borges and Cortázar through the lens of romantic irony. It outlines the origin of the notion of irony from greek drama through philosophical dialogue to rhetorics. The main focus of the work is Schlegel's concept of romantic irony. Various aspects serve as a basis for the interpretation of the work of both Argentine writers in particular chapters: the struggle between enthusiasmus and scepsis in Borges (litotes) and Cortázar (novelistic dialogue), motive of the double, reflexivity in literature written in the spanish language from Cervantes to Borges, focusing on Borges' sources of inspiration (Carlyle, Fernández, Unamuno); Cortázars reflexive short stories, heteronyms of both authors (Morelli, Ménard); and finally the tendency to see the world from above, to constant transcendence of perspective in Borges' short stories and poems and in Cortázar's novel 62: A model kit, as well as in his poetics based on the works of John Keats.

Au cours des années 1820-1830, l’ironie romantique a contribué à élargir le champ de la prose et de la langue littéraires, en se modelant sur une situation de communication orale puis en adoptant le ton de la lettre intime. Les figures de l’ironie romantique telles que la métalepse, l’auteur-narrateur tout-puissant ont servi à la fois de laboratoire pour la formation d’une langue littéraire et de schémas narratifs adaptés aux exigences de l’époque, de tribune aux réflexions sur le destin et le contenu de la prose littéraire russe, et d’« incubateur » pour le nouveau lecteur, en créant des lecteurs-interlocuteurs fictifs. Le corpus comprend : Gajdamak (1826-1827) d’O.M. Somov ; Rukopis’ […] Xabarova (1828) de P.L. Jakovlev ; Ispytanije (1830), Večer na kavkazskix vodax v 1824 godu (1830) et Strašnoe gadanie (1831) d’A.A. Bestužev-Marlinskij ; Strannik (1831-1832) d‘A.F. Vel’tman ; Pestrye skazki (1833) de V.F. Odoevskij ; Fantastičeskie putešestvija barona Brambeusa (1833), Bol’šoj vyxod u Satany (1834) et Teorija obrazovannoj besedy (1835) d’O.I. Senkovskij. La haute conscience intertextuelle des œuvres, leur poétique du jeu métaleptique, leur ambition encyclopédique et métalittéraire ont exprimé les processus qui transformaient la littérature russe de l’intérieur (références à Karamzin, Žukovskij, Puškin, Gogol’) et de l’extérieur (la littérature européenne). L’ironie romantique a donc permis l’évolution consciente et accélérée de la littérature russe vers le roman en prose et le réalisme du second XIXe siècle. Elle apparaît comme un phénomène de mode, mais aussi comme une source d’inspiration pour les théories formaliste et bakhtinienne, et pour le postmodernisme russe. / Between 1820 and 1840, Romantic irony has contributed to widen the spectrum of Russian literary prose and language, fashioning itself after a situation of oral communication, then adopting the tone and structure of the intimate letter. Figures of Romantic irony such as the reader-conversationalist, the author as sole master, the metalepsis, served not only as a laboratory for the formation of a literary language and narrative plots adapted to contemporary demands, but also as a tribune for debates on the fate and content of Russian literary prose, and as an incubator for the new reader. Works such as Gajdamak (1826-1827) by O.M. Somov, Rukopis’ […] Xabarova (1828) by P.L. Jakovlev, Ispytanije (1830), Večer na kavkazskix vodax v 1824 godu (1830) and Strašnoje gadanije (1831) by A.A. Bestužev-Marlinskij , Strannik (1831-1832) by A.F. Vel’tman, Pestryje skazki (1833) by V.F. Odojevskij, Fantastičeskije putešestvija barona Brambeusa (1833), Bol’šoj vyxod u Satany (1834) and Teorija obrazovannoj besedy (1835) by O.I. Senkovskij, show a vivid self-consciousness, a widely shared concern for intertextuality and common poetics involving metaleptic games, encyclopaedic ambition. These reveal the transformation of Russian literary prose, working simultaneously from within (Karamzin, Žukovskij, Puškin, Gogol’) and from outside. Romantic irony in Russian literary prose therefore allowed a conscious and rapid evolution of Russian literature toward the novel in prose and the realism of the second XIXth century. Thus, Romantic irony appears not only as a fashion, but also as a distant source of inspiration for Formalist and Bakhtinian theories, and for postmodernist literature.

This dissertation explores the intimate relationship between irony and romantic subjectivity, by drawing on feminist psychoanalytical theory, via an examination of the shiftings of irony, and humor, in the works of the Swedish romanticist P. D. A. Atterbom (1790–1855). It looks at the critical role played by irony in the formation of Romantic subjectivity, and explores irony’s potential to undermine dualistically gendered notions of subject-object relations. For Atterbom, irony is an aesthetic concept closely related to drama, informed not only by German Romantic-ironic theorists such as Friedrich Schlegel and Jean Paul, but also by the works of Shakespeare, Ludwig Tieck, and E. T. A. Hoffmann. The thesis follows the shiftings of Romantic irony in Atterbom’s major literary texts: the cycle of poems Blommorna [The Flowers] (1811), where the Ovidian transformations are used metafictively to play with the relation between poet, poem, and reader; and the literary satire Rimmarbandet [The Rhyme Band] (1810), which, inspired by Tieck’s Der Gestiefelte Kater (1797), uses the metafictive theatre-in-the-theatre motif, as well as carnivalesque and grotesque motifs to expose contrived theatricality and homosocial misogyny in the prevailing culture. The dynamic between the satirist’s subject and the attacked object is a polarized power struggle, where revolt is followed by submission. In this respect, Romantic satire is here conservative. In the fairy tale play Lycksalighetens ö [Island of Felicity] (1824–27), tragedy’s irony is a dialectic between the ideal and the real that strives to create both inner and outer renewal. The play reaches out metafictively to the reader and turns her/him into the poet of a new version of the fairy tale. The reading/writing process inscribed in the work thus becomes a form of renewal and liberation from grief, and old, patriarchal gender roles. Finally, the humorous, unfinished idyll Fågel Blå [Blue Bird] (1814, 1818, 1858) is a work in many pieces, a fragment, a sketch and a non finito that together stages a restorative creative process, where the reader is asked to take part in joining together the scattered parts of Blue Bird itself. To conclude, irony is a feature of Romanticism, which makes the Romantic, literary subject relational and dialogical, open to its Other, and herein lies a form of ethics and an escape from a conventional, patriarchal notion of the self. I discuss this with Julia Kristeva’s theories on how subjectivity changes when it becomes poetic and Jessica Benjamin’s Winnicott-influenced theory of how play can offer a way out from patriarchy’s strict gender roles. The shiftings of irony in Atterbom’s work show a development from the satirical subject, where an aggressive form of self-assertion conceals a lack of individuality – via tragedy’s painstaking efforts to integrate repressed aspects of the self – to the idyll’s more harmonious subject, who has the capacity to laugh at him/herself and see both the grotesque in the holy, and the holy in the grotesque.