Diversos estudiosos apontaram a proximidade das realizações de contistas brasileiros com a obra de Guy de Maupassant (1850-1893). Nesta tese, propomos um estudo paralelo da contística de Maupassant com a obra de oito escritores, que produziram a maior parte de seus textos entre 1880 e 1940: Lúcio de Mendonça, Medeiros e Albuquerque, Simões Lopes Neto, Monteiro Lobato, Lima Barreto, Viriato Correia, Gastão Cruls e Ribeiro Couto. Nosso objetivo é avaliar como ocorreu a recepção criativa do escritor francês nesse período, no Brasil, por meio da observação dos que o leram e o citam em suas obras. Na primeira parte, fazemos um estudo do conjunto da obra de Guy de Maupassant, de cada gênero a que o escritor se dedicou, o que nos fornece uma visão aprofundada e de conjunto de sua poética. A partir de uma tipologia de suas narrativas curtas, em que se valoriza sua riqueza e variedade de formas e temas, sugerimos uma abordagem comparativa com os escritores brasileiros, que nos ocupa na segunda parte deste trabalho. Nos capítulos dedicados a cada escritor brasileiro em questão, fazemos uma apresentação de nomes e obras, na maioria das vezes pouco conhecidos do público em geral, pois pouco referidos em manuais de literatura brasileira ou em estudos sobre o conto no Brasil. Com exceção de Simões Lopes Neto, Monteiro Lobato e Lima Barreto, os demais contistas possuem ainda raros estudos a respeito de suas obras, constatação que aqui pretendemos ajudar a corrigir. A seleção dos textos brasileiros estudados reflete o duplo movimento da argumentação da tese comparativa com o conto maupassantiano e o da valorização de narrativas exemplares de contistas brasileiros, hoje injustamente esquecidos. Se esse grupo de escritores obteve, por meio da leitura de Maupassant, uma motivação para a criação de seus contos, por outro lado, colaboraram individualmente para a escrita de obras-primas bastante originais no gênero, no Brasil de seu tempo. O momento aqui recortado revela diversos nomes importantes que, juntos ao de Machado de Assis, contribuíram para a firmação do conto brasileiro. / Several scholars have pointed out the proximity of the work of Brazilian writers with the Guy de Maupassants canon (1850-1893). In this work, we propose a parallel study of Maupassant short stories with the work of eight writers, who produced most of their writings from 1880 and 1940: Lúcio de Mendonca, Medeiros e Albuquerque, Simões Lopes Neto, Monteiro Lobato, Lima Barreto, Viriato Correia, Gastão Cruls and Ribeiro Couto. Our goal is to evaluate how the creative response of the French writer was during this period, in Brazil, through the reading of those who read and cited him in their works. In the first part, the study of Guy de Maupassants complete work and each genre that the writer devoted himself will provide an in-depth understanding of his poetry. In the second part, from a typology of his short stories, in which its richness and variety of shapes and themes are valued, we suggest a comparison with the Brazilian writers. In chapters devoted to each Brazilian writer in question, we do a presentation of names and works, mostly little known to the general public, as referenced in some manuals of Brazilian literature or studies on the short story in Brazil. With the exception of Simões Lopes Neto, Monteiro Lobato and Lima Barreto, there are few studies about the works of the other storytellers, finding that here we intend to help correct. The selection of the Brazilian texts reflects the double movement of the argument of this work comparing with the narrative of maupassantian short stories and the appreciation of outstanding Brazilian storytellers, today unjustly forgotten. If this group of writers were motivated by reading Maupassant on the one hand, on the other hand they collaborated individually for writing highly original masterpieces in the genre of their time in Brazil. The moment studied in this work reveals several important names who, along with Machado de Assis, contributed to establishing the Brazilian short story.

Esta tese relaciona História, Literatura e Educação, a partir da investigação dos contos Um cão de lata ao rabo (1878), O programa (1882) e Conto de escola (1884), de Machado de Assis. Fontes de nosso estudo, sua análise objetiva entender a maneira pela qual esses três textos representam a educação de seu tempo a segunda metade do século XIX no Brasil , suas ideias sobre a formação do cidadão, a maneira como é representada a escola e seu papel na formação das personagens. Ao trazerem a escola, seu cotidiano, o perfil de professores e alunos, as narrativas apresentam, no desenvolver de suas tramas, nas ações dos protagonistas e nos diferentes discursos (narrador, personagem, autor implícito), uma determinada concepção de formação pela educação escolar e que aparece nas diferentes vozes que se mesclam e conduzem o leitor para as questões da época, razão pela qual nossa investigação priorizou a perspectiva histórica. Para apreender essas vozes, adotamos como apoio teórico o estudo de Bakhtin sobre o discurso, em Marxismo e filosofia da linguagem (2006). As conclusões apontam para a crítica do autor a um princípio de formação pela educação que vê o indivíduo como sujeito que deve ser moldado segundo regras impostas pela sociedade e não leva em conta nem a subjetividade, nem a transformação pelas práticas. O que figura com maior destaque no conto O programa. A nossa observação final sugere que das obras emerge um princípio formativo que leva em conta a experiência advinda dos acontecimentos da vida cotidiana, a exemplo de uma concepção de transformação do sujeito menos aristotélica e mais nietzschiana, segundo perspectiva apresentada por Silvia Rocha (2006). Outras contribuições teóricas mostraram-se fundamentais para o desenvolvimento do presente trabalho, como a visão de História de Michel Foucault (2008); o estudo sobre a paródia de Linda Hutcheon (1985); as teses sobre o conto de Ricardo Piglia (2004) e os estudos da sociedade brasileira, segundo a ótica de Alfredo Bosi (2003) e de Roberto Schwarz (2000), entre outros. / This dissertation touches History, Literature, and Education, starting with the investigation of the short-stories Um cão de lata ao rabo [A dog with a can on his tail, (1878)], O programa [The program, (1882)], and Conto de escola [A school short-story, (1884)], by Machado de Assis. As sources of this study, they were analyzed in order to understand the way these three texts represent education at that time the second half Brazil´s twentieth century XIX the author´s ideas about how to raise a citizen, the way the school is represented and its role in the formation of characters. By introducing the school, its everyday life, the profile of teachers and students, and while developing their plots in the actions of protagonists and in the different types of speech (narrator, characters, implicit author), the narratives present a given conception of formation as a result of schooled education as they appear in the different voices that are intertwined and lead the reader to the issues of that time. That is why this investigation prioritized the historical perspective. To apprehend such voices, the theoretcial support came from Bakhtins study of discourse in Marxism and philosophy of language (2006). Conclusions point to the author´s criticism of a principle of formation by education which see the individual as someone that has to be molded according to the rules imposed by society and does not take into account neither the subjectivity nor the transformation that results from the practices. This is the greatest highlight in the short-story named O programa. The final comments suggest that, from the works, there comes a formative principle that takes into consideration the experience acquired with the events of everyday life, as an example of a less Aristotelian and a more Nieztchean conception of transformation of the individual, according to the perspective presented by Silvia Rocha (2006). Other theoretical contributions turned out to be of the essence to develop this work, such as the view of History by Michel Foucault (2008); the study of parody by Linda Hutcheon (1985); the theses about short-stories by Ricardo Piglia (2004) and the studies of the Brazilian society, according to the viewpoint of Alfredo Bosi (2003) and Roberto Schwarz (2000), among others.

Si l’on peut faire remonter la naissance de la fantasy aux récits mythologiques et la rattacher aux contes populaires, la fantasy moderne n’a été reconnue qu’au début du XXe siècle. Venu de l’anglais imagination, le genre appartient au domaine de la littérature d ‘évasion, car il propose un « réenchantement » de notre monde.Marquée par de grands titres, tels que la trilogie du Seigneur des anneaux de J. R. R. Tolkien, la fantasy s’est ouverte à la littérature de jeunesse, notamment avec Harry Potter. Notre étude porte sur un corpus d’oeuvres marquantes de S. Audouin-Mamikonian, P. Bottero, B. Bottet, S. De Mari, N. Farmer, C. Paolini, M. Paver et E. Rodda, qui ont été publiées en France entre 2000 et 2006. Après avoir esquissé une typologie des sous-genres de la fantasy en la caractérisant par rapport aux autres littératures de l’imaginaire, il s’agit d’interroger les œuvres du corpus au niveau de la construction du héros et du monde dans lequel il évolue, d’étudier les phénomènes intertextuels et, notamment, comment le schéma narratif du conte est utilisé pour offrir à son lecteur un parcours quasi initiatique de l’adolescence et, enfin,de montrer comment la fantasy jeunesse en France est devenue un phénomène social et éditorial par l’intermédiaire des nouveaux outils de commercialisation / Although fantasy dates back to mythological tales and may be associated with folktales, modern fantasy has only been recognized since the beginning of the 20thcentury. According to its definition as “imaginative fiction”, the genre belongs to thefield of escapist literature since it provides a “re-enchantment” of our world.Highlighted by best-sellers, such as The Lord of the Rings trilogy by J. R. R. Tolkien,fantasy flourished in children’s literature especially with Harry Potter. Our study relieson a significant body of works written by S. Audouin-Mamikonian, P. Bottero,B. Bottet, S. Mari, N. Farmer, C. Paolini, M. Paver and E. Rodda and published in France between 2000 and 2006. After outlining a typology of the subgenres of fantasy by characterizing it in relation to the other types of speculative fiction, the study focuses on the works themselves, especially with regard to the construction of the hero and of the world he lives in with a view to analyzing intertextual phenomena, grasping notably how the narrative scheme of the tale is used to offer the reader some sort of initiation journey through adolescence and, lastly, to showing how youth fantasy in France has become a social and editorial phenomenon through innovative marketing tools

A House with People in It is a collection of stories working through concepts of identity, family, relationships, and how those things renew and replace themselves in perpetuity. I think of identity less of a rigid, singular thing and more of a swirling, fluid multitude. If the body is a house, then identity is the people who live inside it. How they live next to each other—who butts up against who, who sleeps in what bed—is what’s interesting to me. These works collected in this thesis are largely the stories that I think hew closest to the things that I am concerned with, in the identities that I occupy.

This thesis, “Make-Believe: Uncertainty, Alterity, and Faith in Nineteenth-Century Supernatural Short Stories,” illustrates the confluence in nineteenth century America of a philosophical investment in uncertainty and the emergence of a genre suited to its expression. I argue that supernatural short story collections, characterized by stories with explicit fantastical elements or which leave open that possibility, helped voice and explore uncertainty as a critique of prevailing master narratives of both Enlightenment rationalism and religious orthodoxy. My study examines Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Mosses from an Old Manse (1846), Herman Melville’s The Piazza Tales (1856), Charles Chesnutt’s The Conjure Woman, and Other Conjure Tales (1899), and Mary Wilkins Freeman’s The Wind in the Rose-Bush (1903), whose fantastic elements question the confident subjectivity shored up by rationalism and the sense of totality it projects. The genre’s insistent uncertainty conditions a reader into an alternative posture of openness to possibilities—an openness which, at its most ethically effective, describes a means to approach alterity without the totalizing certainty which so often reduces the other. The terms of faith are crucial here, as a means to lend numinous or transcendent meaning to the world beyond the reach of, and therefore setting limits on, rational materialism. But faith also functions on an ethical and interpersonal level, in the act of believing the testimony of an other despite the assumptions of the self. As the century progresses, this genre was taken up by authors with identities more vulnerable to society’s master narratives and the power structures they uphold. My final two chapters demonstrate how the supernatural uncertainty in these collections provided not just a theoretical model for approaching otherness but a specific articulation of the oppressions which certainty enables and the openness which the supernatural helps to found.

No description available.

This thesis examines short fiction and some poetry by writers from four different Australian cultural communities, the Indigenous community, and the Jewish, Chinese and Middle-Eastern communities. I have chosen to study the most recent short fiction available from a selection of writing which originates from each culture. In the chapters on Chinese-Australian and Middle-Eastern Australian fiction I have examined some poetry if it contributes to the subject matter under discussion. In this study I show how the short story form is used as a platform for these writers to express views on their own cultures and on their identity within Australian society. Through a close examination of texts this study reveals the strategies by which many of these narratives provide an imaginative literary challenge to Anglo-Celtic cultural dominance, a challenge which contributes to the political nature of this writing and the shifting nature of the short story genre. This study shows that by celebrating difference these narratives can act as a site of resistance and show a capacity to reflect and instigate cultural change. This thesis examines the process by which these narratives create a dialogue between cultures and address the problems inherent in diverse cultural communities living together.

Abe Gaustad's first collection of stories, Welcome to Boomland, explores the lives of disparate characters longing for some escape. Whether a paraplegic blues aficionado or a boy who finds a strange object in the woods, they are each searching for a way out of their stagnation. Yet each character is trapped by their own unique circumstance: some of them by their mistakes, some by ruthless dictators, some by the very notion of death. As they search for their freedom, they find out new things about themselves and manage to wage quiet rebellions against those that would control them. In the end, they earn small victories, but noble ones.

This thesis considers how the digital medium and social networks affect the short story. I argue that digital short fiction has shown changes, such as signs of becoming more modular or briefer than its print counterparts, and that it has also reflected a shift to the personal or semi-autobiographical story. Digital short fiction has also been used increasingly to market a publisher’s or author’s name or non-digital works. I begin contextualizing this shift in Chapter 1 by analyzing different approaches to the study of the short story, including an overview of generic and historical scholarship, and I conclude with a working definition of the short story. In Chapter 2, I analyze early digital short fiction along with the themes of contemporary fiction in general that have been affected by digital media, social networks, and other changes. I also consider digital short fiction in the context of its publication media, postmodernism, and changes in communication in general. In Chapter 3, I verify these considerations with responses to questionnaires sent to writers of short fiction both on the Web and off. By studying these writers’ conceptions of the short story, preferred publication media, and writing habits, I build on the working definitions of the short story from Chapters 1 and 2. In Chapter 4, I consider the effects on the short story and conclude that we can update print-based conceptions of the short story to include born-digital short fiction and accommodate the contemporary shift in general to modularity, open source, social networks, and the focus on the self. Rather than establishing a concrete definition of what short fiction is at this time, I conclude that a better approach is to replace pre-defined categories with an acknowledgement that the short story is perhaps shifting closer to pre-print storytelling roots, although within the confines of current limitations such as copyright and the attention span of contemporary readers. Although we cannot fully quantify these changes at this time, I argue that they impact the short story and require scholars to consider its paratexts and publication media differently than in pre-Web years.

This thesis considers how the digital medium and social networks affect the short story. I argue that digital short fiction has shown changes, such as signs of becoming more modular or briefer than its print counterparts, and that it has also reflected a shift to the personal or semi-autobiographical story. Digital short fiction has also been used increasingly to market a publisher’s or author’s name or non-digital works. I begin contextualizing this shift in Chapter 1 by analyzing different approaches to the study of the short story, including an overview of generic and historical scholarship, and I conclude with a working definition of the short story. In Chapter 2, I analyze early digital short fiction along with the themes of contemporary fiction in general that have been affected by digital media, social networks, and other changes. I also consider digital short fiction in the context of its publication media, postmodernism, and changes in communication in general. In Chapter 3, I verify these considerations with responses to questionnaires sent to writers of short fiction both on the Web and off. By studying these writers’ conceptions of the short story, preferred publication media, and writing habits, I build on the working definitions of the short story from Chapters 1 and 2. In Chapter 4, I consider the effects on the short story and conclude that we can update print-based conceptions of the short story to include born-digital short fiction and accommodate the contemporary shift in general to modularity, open source, social networks, and the focus on the self. Rather than establishing a concrete definition of what short fiction is at this time, I conclude that a better approach is to replace pre-defined categories with an acknowledgement that the short story is perhaps shifting closer to pre-print storytelling roots, although within the confines of current limitations such as copyright and the attention span of contemporary readers. Although we cannot fully quantify these changes at this time, I argue that they impact the short story and require scholars to consider its paratexts and publication media differently than in pre-Web years.