This thesis analyzes dystopian and gender-centered representations manifested in the speculative short stories "freeforall" (1986), by Margaret Atwood and "Congenital Agenesis of Gender Ideation by K.N Sirsi and Sandra Botkin" (1998), by Raphael Carter. Characterized by futuristic temporalities, these narratives raise critical views of identities in relation to the binary models and the stabilizing tendencies regarding gender which are still strongly perceptible in our patriarchal society. I observe the ways in which the literary works (de)construct values and concepts pre-established socially. The study of such (de)construction is carried out by focusing on the intersections between the debates originating from the critical theories on literary genres whose traces are identified in the stories (utopia, dystopia, science fiction) and the knowledge produced in the area of Cultural and Gender Studies. On this interface, emphasis is given to the presence of irony as a major literary strategy, whose functions are approached according to Linda Hutcheon´s propositions, that is used in this work to understand the linguistic communicative interection process in the tales. In Atwood´s short story, I focus on the spaces described in relation to the social dynamics and on the protagonist portrayal so as to argue that such elements engender metaphors for a compulsory heterosexual system whose aim lies on human reproduction by means of the imposition of strict gender norms and the practice of eugenics. Therefore, people are placed in different spaces, predetermined according to their social funcion. The Houses and Freeforall are the spatialities of this comunity. The first one is the place of the chosen, and the last one, unsderstood as deviant heterotopic space, following the theory developed by Foucault, is destined to those deviant from the norm.The word play in the title of the tale and the protagonist's analyses, allow a study with irony. In Carter´s short story, the (de)construction of crystallized gender notions is achieved by means of parodic irony evidenced by the critical incorporation of scientific practices and academic discourses. Finally I argue that, mainly by resorting to the strategy of irony, the fictional representation of gender dystopias in Atwood and Carter question cultural gender configurations which have been conventionalized in/by androcentric society. Thus, these works may be interpreted in light of a feminist critical reading that, based on the Butlerian conception regarding the pressing need to undo gender, seeks to deconstruct normative values and views. / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / Esta dissertação analisa as representações literárias distópicas e de gênero construídas nos contos especulativos "Freeforall" (1986), de Margaret Atwood e "congenital Agenesis of Gender Ideation by K.N Sirsi and Sandra Botkin" (1998), de Raphael Carter. De temporalidade futurista, essas narrativas suscitam visões críticas sobre as identidades no que diz respeito aos modelos binários e às tendências estabilizadoras de gênero ainda fortemente perceptíveis em nossa cultura patriarcal. Observo as maneiras pelas quais as obras (des)constroem valores e conceitos pré estabelecidos socialmente. O estudo da representação dessa (des)construção é realizado através do enfoque nos entrecruzamentos entre os debates oriundos das teorias críticas sobre os gêneros literários cujos traços são identificados nas histórias (utopia, distopia, ficção científica) e do conhecimento produzido na área dos Estudos Culturais e de Gênero. Nesta interface, ênfase recai sobre a presença da ironia como estratégia literária importante, abordada em suas funções, conforme proposto por Linda Hutcheon, utilizada, neste trabalho, para entender o processo de interação comunicativa linguística e literária das obras. No conto de Atwood, enfoco os espaços em relação às dinâmicas sociais e a figuração da protagonista para argumentar que esses elementos engendram metáforas de um sistema heterossexual compulsório que visa à reprodução por meio da constituição de rígidas normas de gênero e de práticas de eugenia. Para tanto, os indivíduos são colocados em diferentes espaços, previamente estabelecidos e de acordo com sua função social. As Casas e o Freeforall são as espacialidades desta comunidade. O primeiro é o local dos escolhidos e, o último, entendido como um espaço heterotópico de desvio, conforme teoria desenvolvida por Foucault, é destinado àqueles desviantes em relação à norma. O jogo de palavras presente no título do conto e a análise da protagonista permitem um estudo da ironia. No conto de Carter, a (des)construção das noções cristalizadas de gênero se desenvolve por meio da ironia paródica, evidenciada pela incorporação crítica de práticas científicas e discursos acadêmicos. Finalmente, argumento que as representações ficcionais das distopias de gênero de Atwood e Carter, principalmente por meio da estratégia da ironia, questionam as configurações culturais de gênero convencionadas pela/na sociedade androcêntrica. Assim, as obras podem ser interpretadas sob um viés de leitura crítica feminista que, baseado numa concepção butleriana sobre a necessidade iminente de se desfazer gênero, busca desconstruir valores e visões normativas.

A short story collection containing nine stories and a 20,000-word novella. The stories are speculative fiction and they experiment with form.

<p>Splatterpunk was a short-lived, but explosive horror literary movement birthed in the 1980’s that utilized graphic depictions of violence in its prose. Drawing parallels to other subversive and radical art movements like Dada and Hardcore Punk, this paper examines through a Marxist lens how Splatterpunk, influenced by the destructive nature of 1980’s neoliberalism, reflected the violence, categorized as direct and structural, of its period of creation and used extreme vulgarity as an act of rebellion against traditional horror canon.</p>

The aim of this diploma thesis is the introduction of the poetics in the work of the contemporary Bulgarian writer Dejan Enev (*1960), who is mainly writing short stories. Enev is an almost unknown author in the Czech milieu (only these short stories were published in a Czech translation: Little Bulgarian from Alaska, Българи 2011; Niki- Nikola, Casablanca and How to write haiku, Plav 2014/č.1; Little town Mendocino from the book Which way the wind is blowing. Anthology of short stories from Southeast Europe. Praha: Univerzita Karlova, 2016, s. 38-43). He was awarded several international prizes in foreign countries and his stories were translated into several foreign languages (he achieved a great success e.g. in Austria where Zirkus Bulgarien, Geschichten für eine Zigarettenlänge. Wien: Zsolnay Verlag, 2008; was published in German. His books were also published in the United Kingdom and Norway. In his works Dejan Enev is close to the most famous classical writers of Bulgarian short stories (e.g. to Jordan Jovkov), as well as to writers of this genre in world literature (he endorses himself to the legacy of Isaak Babel or Jerome David Salinger). In the context of Bulgarian literature he is considered as the leading successor of the home storytelling tradition in the field of short fiction...

By using the concept of forms in this analysis of “The Renegade,” postwar domestic life is analyzed for the uncanny. By locating repetitions in domestic life, between characters, and in speech, situations are identified where the uncanny moves into the domestic. As a result, the perception of reality of the protagonist, Mrs. Walpole, is damaged, reiterating the impossibility of sanity in a postwar housewife’s domestic life.

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.

Lʼœuvre littéraire dʼHonoré de Balzac témoigne dʼune profonde connaissance du système judiciaire et dʼune grande réflexion à son sujet. La violence et le crime, certainement pas les côtés les plus reluisants de lʼHomme, font tout de même partie intégrante de la société. Puisque Balzac a lʼambition de montrer la nature humaine telle quʼelle est, il consent à peindre le meurtre sans euphémismes. Loin de rejeter entièrement lʼesthétique romantique sanglante, il décrit le crime comme une action fondamentalement ambivalente, cʼest-à-dire, quʼil ne le condamne pas absolument ni ne le défend ouvertement. Nous retrouvons dans Balzac ce dont très peu dʼécrivains, et encore moins de philosophes, savent rendre compte : la complexité même de la vie. Lʼengagement social de Balzac invite à penser sa façon de mettre le meurtre en fiction en rapport au contexte sociologique et historique de ses œuvres. Dans la réflexion balzacienne sur le meurtre, quatre thèmes importants reviennent constamment : lʼargent (aspect économique), la jeunesse, la famille (aspects sociaux) et le remords (aspect moral). La dimension philosophique de La Comédie humaine justifie, quant à elle, le choix dʼune lecture également philosophique de lʼœuvre de Balzac. Les meurtres de quatre nouvelles appartenant aux Études philosophiques (El Verdugo, LʼAuberge rouge, Les Marana et Un drame au bord de la mer), assurent une pensée multiple sur des thèmes tels que la justice, le droit, le nom de famille, lʼhonneur, la culpabilité et le glissement dʼune société ancienne vers une société nouvelle dominée par lʼargent. / The literary work of Honoré de Balzac testifies to a deep knowledge and reflection of the judicial system. Violence and crime, certainly not the brightest sides of humanity, are nevertheless an integral part of society. Since Balzacʼs ambition is to show human nature as it is, he agrees to depict murder without euphemisms. Far from entirely rejecting the bloody romantic aesthetic, he describes crime as a fundamentally ambivalent action, meaning that he neither absolutely condemns it nor openly defends it. We find in Balzac what very few writers, and even fewer philosophers, can account for : the very complexity of life itself. Balzacʼs social commitment invites us to think about his way of putting murder in fiction in relation to the sociological and historical context of his works. In Balzacʼs reflections on murder, four important themes constantly recur : money (economic aspect), youth, family (social aspects) and remorse (moral aspect). The philosophical dimension of La Comédie humaine justifies the choice of an equally philosophical reading of Balzacʼs work. The murders of four short stories belonging to the Études philosophiques (El Verdugo, LʼAuberge rouge, Les Marana and Un drame au bord de la mer), ensure a multiple reflection on themes such as justice, law, family name, honour, guilt and the shift from an old society to a new money-dominated society.

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Title: Vladimir Nabokov’s Russian short stories (1921-1942): The game between real and supernatural in short fiction. (Italian title: I racconti in lingua russa di Vladimir Nabokov (1921-1942): il gioco tra reale e soprannaturale nella forma breve). In this Ph.D. research project, I examined several short stories written by Vladimir Nabokov (1899-1977). I focused my attention on the relationship between the real and the supernatural and examined how such a relationship evolved over the years. My research aims to highlight how Nabokov introduced innovations in the European literary tradition with his supernatural short fiction. The core of Nabokov’s first short stories is a binary opposition between something that can be described as real (or realistic), and something that belongs to the realm of the fantastic. The dynamic tension between the real and the supernatural allows Nabokov to renew the European and Russian tradition of “novellas” and supernatural tales. Gradually, Nabokov phased out the fantastic elements and focused on the inner life of the characters that he unveiled through a series of epiphanic moments. The evolution of Nabokov’s short fiction reflects the crisis of the artistic representation experienced by the European intellectuals at the beginning of the 20th century. Nabokov experimented with different kinds of narratives forms to examine the condition of the Russian immigrants and how they relied on imagination and memory to deal with the pain of exile. In this regard, he underscores that only the act of remembering can give new life to the lost past thus conferring dignity to the troublesome present life. The first chapter starts with an overview of numerous studies on short fiction to determine what a “short story” actually is. I then examine the definition of “real” and “supernatural” as well as the most significant scholars’ interpretations of Nabokov’s short stories. Subsequently, I investigate the social, cultural, and historical background of Nabokov’s stories. Finally, I present a chronological list of the stories examined in the thesis. In the second chapter, I carry out the analysis of the short stories I selected for my research. Most of the stories are characterized by the presence of fantastic and supernatural elements. I divided the stories into five different sections, each dedicated to a specific type of supernatural. In this chapter, I examine the different interpretations that have been offered by Nabokov scholars and I provide a new understanding of the evolution of Nabokov’s narrative. In the third chapter, I analyze the relationship among the different short stories to draw a hermeneutic map of the transformations of the narrative core and the themes of the stories. In the conclusion, I outline the main insights of my research.

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