We shall investigate the use of Swahili slang in Freddy Macha`s tiny collection of short stories Twen `zetu Ulaya (DSM 1984), and especially in his short story Check-bob This is arguably the only epistolary short story in modern Swahili literature; in fact, epistolary novels are uncommon in anglophone Afiica as a whole. In this narrative two former lovers show abuses on each other and their four letters - two by each character - unfold the story of a selfish young woman who shamelessly exploited her boyfiiend and the manner in which he paid her back with her own coin. It is interesting to note how the same events are presented from two different perspectives and hence evaluated differently.

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This thesis is a creative work of fiction in the form of one novella and four short stories. The collection is a work of humour and entertainment. “The Coin Collective” delves into the cut-throat world of cosplay, “The Dead of Waynesboro” follows Declan Mortel as her tries to create the ultimate zombie movie in true gothic fashion, “220 Torren Mill Road” is an epistolary horror story about a whack-job mother and her game-addicted son, “Dragon’s Lair Comics & Collectables” is set during a Magic the Gathering tournament and questions ‘what makes a monster?,’ and Chemical Connection explores drug and raver culture through an eclectic variety of characters. I hope the collection will speak to an entire generation of self-described and closet geeks. For those without intimate knowledge of the material, I endeavoured to exhibit, even expose, aspects of specific subcultures, shedding light on the basement dwellers who inhabit them.

This thesis comprises an original collection of short stories entitled Ice Core, plus a brief self-reflexive essay on the challenges, emphases and informing contexts which influenced the writing process. The stories in Ice Core were envisioned and subsequently arranged as a short story cycle. Because of my interest in the shifting mobilities of geography, history and identity which inform the collection, I deliberately wished to avoid a linear narrative progression, hoping instead to capitalise on the ability of the cycle structure to accrue flexible resonance, to accommodate shifts of foci and voice even while simultaneously consolidating to form a ‘core’ connected to regional place and community. The stories are set in the North Beach area of Durban, so it is no coincidence that water as a motif repeatedly permeates the collection. This is apt for my interest in this urban coastal space, and serves to complement the mobile nature of the short story when positioned within a cycle. In the subsidiary component of the thesis, namely, the brief critical essay, I discuss the short story form as a genre, and conceptual paradigms of the short story cycle, referring to work by critics such as Forrest Ingram (1971) and Sue Marais (1992). The essay goes on to discuss regionalism as a major characteristic establishing realism in a cycle, with reference especially to character identification and distinctive dialogue. I suggest that these elements can animate ‘place’, prompting setting to emerge as the central character of the collection. I also refer to Michel de Certeau’s piece, “Walking in the City” (1998), since Ice Core captures fragments of Durban from a street-level point of view which, according, to de Certeau, is important in understanding the ways in which a city is made meaningful through incessant transformations. The mobility of my stories, then, can be seen to emulate something of the associated mobility of the local urban area on which the stories focus. Through this essay I aim to show the short story genre as not merely the naïve fragmented expression of personal experience or ‘inspired’ imagination but one notable for disciplined and inventive practices. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2013.

Na prosa de Machado de Assis, a representação da moda e do vestuário exerce, em muitos casos, papel de destaque na caracterização das personagens, tornando a descrição das roupas e dos ornamentos um elemento significativo para a interpretação das narrativas. A partir dessa perspectiva, analiso nesta dissertação alguns contos publicados por Machado entre os anos de 1875 e 1885 para, então, entender como a apresentação dos trajes e acessórios utilizados pelos caracteres atua na construção das histórias. Além do recorte temporal, os textos também foram selecionados levando em consideração o suporte original de publicação, ou seja, os jornais que circularam no Brasil durante o século XIX. Sendo assim, escolhi trabalhar com os seguintes periódicos: Jornal das Familias, A Estação e Gazeta de Noticias, fazendo a leitura diretamente nas fontes primárias e buscando relacionar os contos com a linha editorial de cada veículo. / On Machado de Assis’ prose, the representation of fashion and clothing plays, in many cases, a distinct role on the character’s particularization. Therefore, the description of clothes and ornaments is a significant element on the interpretation of the narratives. From this perspective, I analyze on this study some of the author’s short stories published between the years of 1875 and 1885 to understand how the presentation of clothes and accessories worn by the characters works on the construction of the stories. As well as the time cutting, the selection also takes into account the original support where the texts were published, that is, nineteenth-century Brazilian newspapers. Thus, I have chosen to work with the following newspapers: Jornal das Familias, A Estação and Gazeta de Noticias. Reading directly from the primary sources, I was also able to relate the short stories with the editorial line of each newspaper.

Na prosa de Machado de Assis, a representação da moda e do vestuário exerce, em muitos casos, papel de destaque na caracterização das personagens, tornando a descrição das roupas e dos ornamentos um elemento significativo para a interpretação das narrativas. A partir dessa perspectiva, analiso nesta dissertação alguns contos publicados por Machado entre os anos de 1875 e 1885 para, então, entender como a apresentação dos trajes e acessórios utilizados pelos caracteres atua na construção das histórias. Além do recorte temporal, os textos também foram selecionados levando em consideração o suporte original de publicação, ou seja, os jornais que circularam no Brasil durante o século XIX. Sendo assim, escolhi trabalhar com os seguintes periódicos: Jornal das Familias, A Estação e Gazeta de Noticias, fazendo a leitura diretamente nas fontes primárias e buscando relacionar os contos com a linha editorial de cada veículo. / On Machado de Assis’ prose, the representation of fashion and clothing plays, in many cases, a distinct role on the character’s particularization. Therefore, the description of clothes and ornaments is a significant element on the interpretation of the narratives. From this perspective, I analyze on this study some of the author’s short stories published between the years of 1875 and 1885 to understand how the presentation of clothes and accessories worn by the characters works on the construction of the stories. As well as the time cutting, the selection also takes into account the original support where the texts were published, that is, nineteenth-century Brazilian newspapers. Thus, I have chosen to work with the following newspapers: Jornal das Familias, A Estação and Gazeta de Noticias. Reading directly from the primary sources, I was also able to relate the short stories with the editorial line of each newspaper.

A origem desta dissertação remonta ao prazer proporcionado por certas leituras. A escrita leve e sedutora de textos situados na fronteira entre o conto e a crônica motivou apreciação mais detalhada, constatando refinamento lingüístico. A pesquisa desenvolve questões a respeito de leitura e leitores, breve histórico dos gêneros citados, levantamento de suas características mais relevantes no corpus e considerações sobre a estilística, base teórica do estudo. Após comentários sobre o papel de Heloisa Seixas na literatura brasileira contemporânea e os aspectos responsáveis por prosa tão envolvente, segue a análise do corpus. Destacam-se a temática escolhida, a seleção vocabular, a pontuação e a estrutura sintática, enfatizando os recursos lingüísticos que compõem o estilo da autora e justificam a qualidade dos textos. Observados tais aspectos, propõe-se a utilização dos Contos mínimos em sala de aula, privilegiando o trabalho com a crônica-conto que visa a estimular a leitura e facilitar o ensino/aprendizagem. / The origin of this dissertation brings back the pleasure given by some readings. The light and seductive writing of texts on the borderline of the short story and chronicle has motivated a more detailed appreciation, reinforcing a linguistic refinement. The research develops issues concerning the reading and the readers, a short historical account on the mentioned genres, bringing up the most relevant characteristics of the corpus and considerations about Stylistics, the theoretical basis of the study. Shortly after making comments about the role of Heloisa Seixas on the Contemporary Brazilian Literature and the aspects that are responsible for such captivating prose, there is the analysis of the corpus. The chosen thematic, the vocabulary selection, the punctuation, the syntatic structure are highlighted, giving emphasis on the linguistic resources which compose the writers style and justify the quality of the texts. Observing such aspects, it is offered the use of Contos mínimos in the classroom, privileging the work with chronicle-short story, which aims at estimulating the reading and facilitating the teaching/learning process.

A presente dissertação nasceu da necessidade particular de abrir espaço para o texto literário no ambiente escolar. A escola é o espaço natural no qual os alunos entram em contato com as linguagens escritas; é, pois, o espaço onde os estudantes devem conviver com diferentes textos de gêneros variados. É preciso, contudo, refletir sobre a forma como estes textos serão apresentados aos estudantes. A partir desse questionamento, algumas dúvidas motivaram a presente pesquisa: como trabalhar a leitura e a escrita no Ensino Fundamental II?, como formar jovens leitores?, como despertar o gosto pelo texto literário?, como trabalhar a produção do texto escrito com esses jovens? Pesquisar o trabalho com o texto literário no segundo segmento, todavia, seria um tema amplo demais. Desse modo, foi realizado um recorte, definindo a série e o gênero textual que seriam o foco da pesquisa. O 9 ano foi eleito por ser a última etapa do Ensino Fundamental. Nessa fase, teoricamente, os alunos já tiveram contato com diversos gêneros textuais e já estudaram (e produziram) textos com diferentes modos de organização do discurso: narração, exposição, argumentação, injunção, descrição. A escolha do gênero conto se justifica por ser este um texto mais curto, possibilitando a leitura em sala com a turma. O corpus se compõe de contos de dois grandes autores brasileiros: Machado de Assis e Lima Barreto. Um dos propósitos dessa escolha era mostrar que autores clássicos podem e devem ser lidos no Ensino Fundamental. O objetivo principal desta pesquisa é apresentar atividades realizadas em sala de aula com o gênero selecionado, visando à formação do leitor e ao desenvolvimento da produção escrita, ressaltando a importância do texto literário no contexto escolar. Defende-se, portanto, que o trabalho com os contos pode ser um estímulo para desenvolver o gosto e, se possível, ao prazer da leitura, o enriquecimento vocabular e, por conseguinte, para o amadurecimento da escrita / This dissertation grew out of a particular need to provide space for the literary text in the school practice. The school is the natural context in which students come into contact with the written language and, for this reason, should face different texts of varied genres. It is necessary, however, to think of how these texts will be presented to students. From this reflection, some questions motivated this research: How to work on reading and writing in Secondary School? How to train young readers? How to awaken a taste for literary text and work the production of written text with these young people? Search the issue of the literary text in Secondary School, however, could be a too broad topic for a dissertation. Thus, an indentation was performed by setting the grade and the textual genre that would be the focus of research. The 9th grade was elected because it is the last stage of Basic School, during this phase, theoretically, students have had contact with several textual genres and have studied (and produced) texts in different ways of organization of discourse (narration, exposition, argumentation, injunction, description). The choice of the short story genre is justified because it is a shorter text, allowing the reading in the classroom with the students. The corpus consists of tales of two major Brazilian authors: Machado de Assis and Lima Barreto.One of the purposes of this choice was to show that classical authors can and should be read in Basic School. The main objective of this research is to present a didactic way to work with the short story genre in the classroom, for the training of the reader and the development of writing production proposal, highlighting the importance of literary texts in the school context. It is argued that reading short stories can be a bridge to the stimulus to the pleasure of reading, vocabulary enrichment and, therefore, writing maturation

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:25:25Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2006-04-10Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T19:06:43Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 galastri_eo_me_arafcl.pdf: 434161 bytes, checksum: bfd828e77e03508d769b494663541da2 (MD5) / Tencionamos, por meio da análise de recursos formais e estilísticos, identificar e analisar elementos cômicos e trágicos em quinze contos escolhidos de Monteiro Lobato, encontrados em Urupês, Negrinha e Cidades Mortas. Buscamos mostrar como o autor, nas histórias analisadas, lançou mão da associação entre o cômico e o trágico (e seus mecanismos) para uma possível representação do momento brasileiro contemporâneo à produção dos textos, décadas de 10 e 20 do século passado. / We intend, by formals and stylistics resources, identify and analyse comics and tragics elements in the fifteen shorts stories chosen from Monteiro Lobato's Work, found in Urupês, Negrinha and Cidades Mortas. We sougth to showmhow the author, in these analysed stories, dipped into the association between the comic and tragic (and them mechanisms) for a possible representation of the historic brasilian moment, contemporary to the texts productions, in last 10's and 20's.