Essa tese procura compreender a narrativa borgeana a partir do projeto de constituição de uma narrativa clássico-romântica, sugerida nos ensaios e no metatexto de narrativas desse autor. A partir de uma interpretação de três narrativas de Jorge Luis Borges, procura analisar o modo como os pressupostos teórico-poéticos do autor se configuram como forma ou encontram paralelo na composição da sua narrativa. A tese investiga a estrutura da figura do autor (a película), a síntese entre uma realidade ficcional clássica e procedimentos do realismo; e a retomada de um enredo anterior na conformação da trama borgeana. Pretendemos demonstrar que essa ficção retoma elementos de enredos prévios, a partir de uma operação de leitura, para um processo de recontextualização. Sua realidade ficcional se constrói a partir de um postulado, submetido a duas linhas de causalidade, a realista e a causalidade mágica borgeana, de maneira que um fato problemático permita duas possibilidades de compreensão dessa realidade ficcional. Entende-se que Borges buscava uma síntese entre formas da narrativa moderna e da narrativa anterior ao romance na criação de um novo tipo de épica. / This thesis seeks to comprehend the narrative of Jorge Luis Borges by examining the authors project of constitution of a classical-romantic narrative, suggested in the essays and in the metatext of his narrative. Through the study of three narratives by Jorge Luis Borges, it seeks to analyze the way by which the poetical-theoretical assumptions of the author are constituted as form or can be found as a parallel in the composition of his narrative. The thesis investigates the structure of the figure of the author (the película), the synthesis of a classical fictional reality and the procedures of realism; and the resuming of a previous plot in the configuration of Borgean narratives. We intend to show, by means of a reading operation, for a recontextualization process, that this fiction resumes elements of earlier plots. Borges fictional reality is created from a postulate, submitted to two lines of causality, the realistic and Borges magic causality, so that a problematical fact allows two possibilities of comprehension of this fictional reality. We argue that Borges pursued a synthesis of forms of modern narrative and the narrative that preceded the novel in the creation of a new type of epic.

Estudar a obra novelística de Luigi Pirandello é um modo de entender não apenas as razões que o levaram a ser um dos mais importantes escritores italianos do século XX, mas também o papel de cada um de nós no mundo e na vida. As novelas, baseadas em pequenos acontecimentos cotidianos, formam um grande mosaico da existência humana: uma nota no jornal, um amor acabado ou ainda nem começado, um simples gesto ou o apito de um trem, são situações que despertam a imaginação do autor e nas quais muitas vezes nos reconhecemos. Dramaturgo e romancista de sucesso, Pirandello nunca deixou de escrever novelas: foram 251 ao longo de sua carreira. Para ele, a novela era o espaço íntimo, insubstituível, reservado para a discussão existencial empreendida pelos seus personagens em uma época tão inquieta como o início do século XX. As novelas, reunidas no projeto Novelle per un anno, são de vital importância para se compreender a evolução das preocupações do autor e representam a base de seu pensamento. As últimas novelas, principalmente, trazem novas chaves de interpretação ao conjunto da obra e mostram um escritor novo e muito mais inquietante, que muitas vezes a crítica não soube reconhecer. Traçar a trajetória do Pirandello novelista, ou novellaro, como ele se definia, relacionando-a com os outros aspectos de sua carreira literária, de seu pensamento e da época que ele tão bem retratou, é o objetivo deste trabalho. / To study Pirandellos short story is a means not only of understanding the reason why he became one of the most important Italian writers of the twentieth century but also the role we play in the world and life. His short stories, based on ordinary events, make the great mosaic of our lives a piece of news, a love that has broken up or not even started, a gesture, a train whistle; situations that drive his thoughts, where many times we recognize ourselves. Successful play writer and novelist, Pirandello never stopped writing short stories: 251 along all his work life. According to Pirandello, a short story was the intimate, unique place, intended for the existential debates of his characters in the hard times of the beginning of the twentieth century. The short stories, brought together in the project Novelle per un anno, are of great importance to understand the evolution of the authors worries and represent the basis of his thought. The last short stories mainly bring new tools for interpretation to Pirandellos work and show a new, much more disturbing writer, many times not acknowledged by critics. To follow the course of the short-story writer Pirandello or novellaro, as he used to call himself connected with other aspects of his literary life, thought, and the time he described so well, is the focus of this work.

Publicados em periódicos brasileiros entre 1881 e 1890, os contos de Raul Pompéia não tiveram, ao longo do tempo, uma leitura que os singularizasse dentro da obra do autor. Mais conhecido por seu romance O Ateneu, Raul Pompéia escreveu cerca de 50 contos, que ficaram espalhados em jornais de São Paulo e Rio de Janeiro por um século, até sua reunião em 1981. Este trabalho pretende fazer uma leitura detalhada da de uma parte significativa dessa produção, buscando identificar as linhas de força do gênero em Pompéia e de que maneira o autor desenvolveu seus contos tendo em vista uma reelaboração e aprimoramento de temas e estilo, visando a uma qualidade artística pouco atingida, exceção feita a Machado de Assis, no conto do século XIX. / Published in Brazilians journals between 1881 and 1890, Raul Pompeias short stories did not have, all along, a distinctive approach on the authors work. Better known by his romance O Ateneu, Raul Pompeia wrote nearly 50 short stories, spread in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiros newspapers for a century, until their reunion in 1981. This work intend to do a detailed reading of a significant part of this production, seeking an identification of the main characteristics of the genre in Pompeia. Also, in what way the author developed his short stories searching for a new elaboration and improvement of themes and style, aiming an artistic quality hardly achieved on XIX Century short story, in exception of Machado de Assis.

Dans un bref essai intitulé « The Ambition of the Short Story », Steven Millhauser proclame de manière volontairement provocatrice la supériorité artistique de la nouvelle sur le roman. Il s’appuie pour ce faire sur un vers du poète romantique William Blake, dont il réoriente radicalement le propos. Tandis que le poète invite à voir « un monde dans un grain de sable », Millhauser affirme qu’il est possible de voir le monde dans un grain de sable. Aux grandes fresques romanesques, Steven Millhauser préfère ainsi une écriture concise et économe, capable de transformer certains « grains de sable » (c’est-à-dire des détails infimes, en apparence ordinaires ou triviaux) en autant de points d’ancrage, permettant à la fiction de dire « le monde ». L’art fictionnel de Steven Millhauser n’est donc pas tant une écriture du minuscule qu’une écriture miniaturiste. Passant sans ambages de l’infime à l’immense et du relatif à l’absolu, la fiction millhausérienne est à la fois un art du détail et de la dé-taille. Dans son tout premier essai, « The Fascination of the Miniature », l’auteur écrit qu’il n’y a « aucune différence entre un grain de sable et une galaxie », soulignant ainsi le rôle fondateur du regard. Car tout dépend du regard et de ses échelles. Le présent travail cherche à expliquer par quels moyens Steven Millhauser met en place une écriture miniaturiste, non seulement dans ses récits brefs, mais également dans son œuvre romanesque. Pour ce faire, cette étude met en évidence la réflexion sur le détail et sur le regard que l’auteur développe à la fois dans ses écrits fictionnels et non fictionnels. Entre théorie et fiction, Millhauser explore les implications « poéthiques » du regard. Il invente un regard métamorphique, conjuguant l’attention et l’imagination, afin de déceler le tout dans le fragment et l’essentiel dans l’insignifiant. L’écriture miniaturiste de Millhauser a un territoire et une échelle privilégiés : la petite ville de Nouvelle-Angleterre, et les « vies minuscules » (l’expression est de l’écrivain Pierre Michon) de ses habitants. En effet, les récits consacrés au quotidien pavillonnaire et suburbain s’offrent le plus souvent comme des fables miniatures, interrogeant la condition humaine. Aux yeux de Millhauser, les grands maîtres réalistes ont « brillamment épuisé une méthode [et] une certaine façon de voir le monde ». Avec son écriture miniaturiste, Steven Millhauser propose justement une certaine méthode et un certain regard. Il invite son lecteur à voir le monde au prisme du « grain de sable » – à suspendre quelque peu son incrédulité, avec les mots de Coleridge, sans pour autant se laisser tromper. Steven Millhauser apporte ainsi sa pierre – ou son grain de sable – à la fiction américaine contemporaine, en proposant moins une écriture du soupçon qu’une écriture du souci, tentant d’inscrire dans le texte ce que l’auteur présente, par le détour d’une périphrase, comme « cette chose éblouissante qu’il faut bien appeler réalité ». / In a brief essay entitled “The Ambition of the Short Story,” Steven Millhauser provocatively asserts the artistic superiority of the short story over the novel. In order to support his argument, Millhauser quotes Romantic poet William Blake, while profoundly altering the original meaning of Blake’s line. Indeed, while the poet wishes “to see a world in a grain of sand,” Millhauser deems it possible to see the world in a grain of sand. Steven Millhauser thus favors a concise, pithy style capable of turning a few grains of sand (that is to say, some tiny and apparently trifling details) into windows, enabling the writer to engage with “the world.” Moving seamlessly from the minuscule to the gigantic, and from the particular to the universal, Millhauser’s art of fiction may be considered a miniaturist writing. In his very first essay, “The Fascination of the Miniature,” the author claims that there is “no difference between a grain of sand and a galaxy,” thus drawing attention to the decisive role played by the human eye. Indeed, everything hinges on the scale one adopts. This study aims at explaining how Steven Millhauser invents a miniaturist type of writing, not only in his short fiction, but also in his novels. Combining theory and fiction, Millhauser explores the “poethical” (a neologism coined by French poet Michel Deguy) importance of attention to detail. Merging attention and imagination, the author develops a metamorphic gaze, able to reveal the whole within the fragment and the essential within the insignificant. Millhauser’s miniaturist writing has a territory and a scale of its own: the New England small town. The narratives devoted to suburban daily life are most often presented as miniature fables, exploring the human condition. According to Millhauser “the great realist masters brilliantly exhausted a method, a way of looking at the world.” Steven Millhauser’s own minute, miniaturist writing offers such a method and way of looking at the world. He invites his reader to see the world through the prism of the “grain of sand”—to somehow suspend his disbelief, as Coleridge would say, yet without being deceived. With his miniaturist eye Steven Millhauser contributes to the renewal of contemporary American fiction, going beyond suspicion while trying to describe and inscribe what he calls “the blazing thing that deserves the name of reality.”

Ma recherche vise à étudier la nouvelle anglo-américaine par rapport à une forme à laquelle elle est inextricablement liée, le cycle de nouvelles, qui, à mi-chemin entre histoire et roman, est érigé en une série d'histoires interconnectées et qui présente certains éléments récurrents (personnages, lieu, thèmes). La réflexion sur le cycle de nouvelles, considéré comme un genre en tant que tel, donnera la priorité à l’analyse de l’oeuvre d’Alice Munro placée dans une perspective comparative, en relation et en continuité, non seulement avec le travail d’écrivains canadiens "maîtres" du genre, mais aussi avec la tradition du cycle de nouvelles américaine. / My research aims at studying the Nord-American short story in relation to a form to which it is inextricably linked, the short story cycle, which, halfway between history and novel, is set as a series of interconnected stories presenting some recurring elements (characters, place, themes). The reflection on the short story cycle will give priority to the analysis of Alice Munro's work placed in a comparative perspective, in relation and continuity, not only with the work of 'Canadian writers' masters' of the genre, but also with the tradition of the American short story cycle. / Il presente lavoro si propone di analizzare la forma narrativa del ciclo di racconti, mettendone in luce le caratteristiche in relazione all’opera di Alice Munro. Il corpus narrativo di Munro, formato da quattordici raccolte in un arco temporale che copre più di quarant’anni (la prima raccolta, Dance of the Happy Shades esce ne 1968 e l’ultima, Dear Life nel 2012), ben si presta a questo tipo di studio. Nell’ arco della sua prolifica opera Munro ha esplorato le potenzialità della forma breve, rimodulando progressivamente i confini fra i generi, scomponendone le prospettive e gli esiti possibili ora nella direzione della novella modernista (cara a scrittrici come Katherine Mansfield ed Eudora Welty), ora nella creazione di cicli di storie o di serie di racconti interconnessi, destrutturando o risemantizzando la nozione di brevità e di genere letterario. Il lavoro, che si presenta come un case study, si propone un duplice obiettivo: quello di estendere la nozione di ciclo di racconti e di includerla in quella di “politesto” , (ossia quella categoria critica che concepisce l’opera letteraria, la raccolta di racconti ad esempio, come processo aggregativo mettendo in luce tutti quei legami intertestuali e intratestuali che i singoli testi intrattengono fra di loro) e quello di applicare questa categoria all’opera di Alice Munro, ovvero studiare, con gli strumenti della teoria della letteratura e della comparatistica, i rapporti tra i racconti, nella loro natura intra ed intertestuale, e tra le raccolte stesse analizzate sulla base della loro natura politestuale.

José Rodrigues Miguéis [1901-1980] quitte le Portugal en 1935 et, malgré quelques tentatives de retour, il passera la plus grande partie de sa vie aux États-Unis. Cet exil, en grande partie dû à ses activités politiques contre le régime salazariste, va marquer profondément son œuvre fictionnelle. En effet, si, d’un côté, les préoccupations éthiques du militant imprègnent fortement des récits qui obéissent souvent à une stratégie littéraire globale à visée pédagogique où l’ironie classique et satirique est un instrument privilégié, de l’autre, l’écrivain fait régulièrement preuve d’une attitude critique envers soi et envers le réel et met régulièrement en scène ses doutes et ses questionnements à travers une autre ironie, romantique et moderne, qui se traduit par l’utilisation de techniques littéraires signalant un rapport réflexif à la création. Le paradoxe constitutif de toute ironie – dire simultanément l’adhésion et la mise à distance – est ainsi exacerbé par la présence de ces deux ironies contradictoires, souvent dans la même œuvre. L’objectif de ce travail est de montrer que la particularité de la fiction migueisienne réside dans cette cohabitation doublement ironique : une fiction vue comme une aire de jeu caractérisée par l’ambiguïté, où l’écrivain joue avec les conventions littéraire, avec les genres, avec les instances personnage-narrateur-auteur qu’il tend à confondre, et, surtout, avec la dimension autobiographique, prépondérante. L’ironie classique et l’ironie romantique et moderne apparaissent alors comme les deux faces littéraires d’un même drame identitaire, celui d’un écrivain exilé qui se veut et qui est, avant tout, portugais. / José Rodrigues Miguéis [1901-1980] leaves Portugal in 1935 and, despite several attempts to come back, he spends most of his life in the United States. This exile, mostly due to his political activities against the Salazar regime, will deeply influence his fictional work. Indeed, on the one hand, his ethical concerns as an activist strongly riddle his narratives which very often obey a global literary strategy with an educational intention where classical and satirical irony is a tool of choice. On the other hand, he regularly shows a critical attitude towards the self and towards the real and often stages his doubts and questionings through another irony, romantic and modern, using literary techniques pointing out a reflexive relationship to creation. The paradox constituting any irony – to say at the same time adhesion and detachment – is thus exacerbated by the presence of those two contradictory ironies, often in the same work. This study aims to prove that the particular nature of the Migueisian fiction lies in the simultaneous presence of those two ironies: a fiction considered as a playground characterized by ambiguity, where the writer plays with the conventions of literature, with genres, with the character-narrator-author categories that he tends to mix up all together and, above all, with the autobiographical dimension, which really plays a predominant role. The classical irony and the romantic and modern one then reveal themselves as the two literary faces of the same identitary drama, that of an exiled writer who wishes to be and is, above all, Portuguese.

Esta pesquisa se debruça sobre a produção fantástica do escritor francês Guy de Maupassant (1850-1893), concentrando-se em um conto publicado pelo autor em três versões: Carta de um louco, de 1885 e O Horla, de 1886 e 1887. Para tanto, o trabalho realiza a leitura de autores representativos das principais teorias literárias acerca da literatura fantástica, identificando em cada um elementos que auxiliem na compreensão da obra de Maupassant, apontando as diferenças entre eles e, finalmente, optando por uma compreensão ampla do gênero fantástico, próxima àquela elaborada por Jean-Paul Sartre. À luz de tal compreensão, realizamos a leitura de algumas obras da contística maupassantiana, comparando-as com a de Edgar Allan Poe antecessor no gênero e referência para o autor e procurando entender a influência do pensamento positivista e cientificista na obra do autor. Ao identificar os principais traços da concepção de fantástico do próprio autor, buscamos estabelecer pontos de convergência entre seus contos realistas e fantásticos, chegando a uma forma de compreensão de sua produção fantástica que independa da presença ou sugestão de elementos sobrenaturais na narrativa. Por meio de uma articulação entre aspectos formais, temáticos e imagéticos, realizou-se então a leitura comparada das três versões do conto, dedicando especial atenção à posição do narrador em cada uma delas e à forma como a diminuição gradativa da distância estética aprofunda o sentimento de inquietante. / This research studies the production of fantastic literature by the French writer Guy de Maupassant (1850-1893), focusing on a short story published by the author in three versions: \"Letter of a madman\" (1885) and \"The Horla\" (1886, 1887). The research starts with a reading of representative authors associated to leading literary theories about fantastic literature, identifying elements that contribute to the understanding of Maupassant\'s work, indicating the differences among them and finally, selecting a comprehensive interpretation of the fantastic genre close to the one developed by Jean-Paul Sartre. In light of this interpretation, we read a selection of stories from Maupassant, comparing these works to Edgar Allan Poe\'s literature precursor of the genre and a key reference to Mauppasant , in order to understand the influence of positivist and scientism thinking on the author\'s work. By identifying the main features of Maupassant\'s own fantastic literature conception, we seek to establish points of convergence between his realistic and fantastic stories, which results in an understanding of his fantastic production that stands independently from the presence or suggestion of supernatural elements in the narrative. Building on the articulation between formal, thematic and imagery elements, a comparative reading of the three versions of the story was done, paying special attention to the narrator\'s position in each of the elements, and the manner in which the gradual decrease of the aesthetic distance deepens the feeling of disturbance.

These stories explore contemporary people who find their lives taking a shape they fear. These people often try to cling to their old life, control a loved one who is changing, or seek an escape. Their aspirations are often higher than where they land. Their situation resembles the writer’s situation in attempting to shape the lives of characters: they attempt to control what often cannot be controlled.

Stanislas de Boufflers (1738-1815), más conocido en su época como el caballero de Boufflers, es un escritor lorenés algo olvidado, perdido entre esa gran masa de autores que recorrieron el siglo XVIII francés. En estas páginas pretendemos presentar a este gran desconocido de la literatura francesa de finales del siglo XVIII y principios del XIX, al igual que analizar sus cuentos y sus nouvelles, ya que éstos constituyen un elemento imprescindible para comprender la personalidad de nuestro autor: por un lado tenemos La Reine de Golconde (1761), cuento libertino que refleja la mentalidad del joven Boufflers y que podríamos considerar como su obra maestra; y por otro lado, La Mode, conte (1807), L’Heureux accident, conte (1807), L’Œuvre de charité, nouvelle espagnole (1808), Tamara, ou Le lac des pénitents, nouvelle indienne (1810), Le Derviche, conte oriental (1810) y Ah! si..., nouvelle allemande (1810), cuentos morales escritos durante la primera década del siglo XIX, que exponen e ilustran claramente las convicciones conservadoras de Boufflers en los últimos años de su vida. / Stanislas de Boufflers (1738-1815), best known in his time as the chevalier de Boufflers, is a writer from Lorraine who has been, somehow, a little forgotten, lost among the huge mass of writers who belonged to the French eighteenth century. Along these pages, we try to present this great unknown of French literature of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Besides, his tales and short stories will be analysed, as they are an essential element to understand the personality of our author. On one hand, we have La Reine de Golconde (1761), licentious tale that reflects the mentality of the young Boufflers. It can be considered his masterpiece. On the other hand, La Mode, conte (1807), L’Heureux accident, conte (1807), L’Œuvre de charité, nouvelle espagnole (1808), Tamara, ou Le lac des pénitents, nouvelle indienne (1810), Le Derviche, conte oriental (1810) and Ah! si..., nouvelle allemande (1810). These moral tales, which were written during the first decade of the 19th century, show Boufflers’ conservative principles in his last years.

Saad Yahya, born in Zanzibar in 1939, studied architecture and town planning in Great Britain and in Canada; since 1968 he has lectured at the University of Nairobi. He portrays everyday life of typical inhabitants of Zanzibar and Nairobi, displaying a penetrating understanding of their problems and of their state of mind, linked with a remarkable stylistic ability. He is an acute observer who presents his characters with humour and irony, but also with a profound insight. Furthermore, in his stories, under the surface of everyday activities there is always some hidden antagonism or passion, never spelled out, but only alluded to. Several years ago Yahya sent me the manuscript of two other stories which I hoped to translate and publish in Italy, but ultimately it was not possible. I have included one of them, called Nyoko-nyoko and consisting in five typewritten pages, in the syllabus of my literary courses in Naples and in Paris. It is a rare - if not unique - Swahili story in which the main character is a Mzungu, a white man: the British governor of an imaginary East-Aftican country called Nyalia, who has to abandon his post suddenly for unspecified reasons. He regrets to must leave the country he has learned to know and to like; however, behind the mask of liberality and tolerance is hidden a self-conceited racist. The story describes his last day in Africa after a long stay.