Seja na literatura, em filmes ou séries de TV, as temáticas da utopia/distopia e do apocalipse se tornam cada vez mais recorrentes. Tendo por base o arranjo de um design social utópico/distópico e de um imaginário apocalíptico, esta dissertação tem por objetivo analisar o romance Oryx e Crake, publicado em 2003 pela escritora canadense Margaret Atwood, autora de uma obra extensa, que é considerada ao mesmo tempo acadêmica e popular. Oryx e Crake retrata um universo ficcional onde a humanidade foi quase totalmente aniquilada por uma epidemia que irrompeu simultaneamente em vários países. Nesse cenário pós-apocalíptico, o Homem das Neves, único sobrevivente provável, busca alimentos e suprimentos em uma área costeira, relembrando seu passado e dividindo residência com criaturas geneticamente modificadas. Considerando uma possível combinação de gêneros literários e efeitos narrativos, o objetivo desta investigação é explorar o romance, separando o passado e o presente da narrativa, cada um associado, respectivamente, aos conceitos de ustopia (termo cunhado por Atwood, para se referir à fusão entre utopia e distopia) e de apocalipse/Armageddon. Os conceitos são analisados com base em como se relacionam entre si e, em última instância, quanto ao que podem revelar sobre a nossa sociedade atual. Como aporte teórico-crítico, a investigação recorre a nomes como Erich Fromm (1990), Fredric Jameson (2005; 2009), Gregory Claeys (2010), Northrop Frye (1973), Paul Alkon (1987) e Peter Fitting (2010), bem como a uma série de estudiosos atwoodianos, especialmente Coral Ann Howells (2005; 2006). A voz de Margaret Atwood como teórica e crítica literária também permeia todo o texto, fornecendo informações valiosas para a análise de sua própria ficção. Pela sua riqueza tanto em termos de forma quanto de conteúdo, Oryx e Crake representa um desafio para os seus leitores e estudiosos. Ao final do trabalho, fica manifesto o quão assustadoramente próximo este mundo ficcional criado por Atwood está da nossa realidade, sendo a imagem de um universo que, em certo grau, já habitamos. / The themes of utopia/dystopia and apocalypse are becoming increasingly more frequent in literature, movies or TV series. Taking into account an arrangement of a utopian/dystopian social design and an apocalyptic imagination, this thesis aims at examining the novel Oryx and Crake, published in 2003 by the Canadian writer Margaret Atwood, author to an extensive body of works, considered at one time academic and popular. Oryx and Crake portrays a fictional universe where humankind has been almost entirely annihilated by an epidemic that broke out simultaneously in several countries. In this post-apocalyptic scenario, Snowman, the probable sole survivor, scavenges for food and supplies in a coastal area, recollecting his past and sharing residence with genetically modified creatures. Considering a possible combination of literary genres and moods, the focus of this investigation is the play of past and present in the novel, each one associated with the concepts of ustopia (a term coined by Atwood to refer to the fusion of utopia and dystopia) and apocalypse/Armageddon, respectively. The concepts are analyzed on the basis of how they relate to each other and, ultimately, as to what they reveal about our contemporary society. For theoretical support, the thesis draws on names like Erich Fromm (1990), Fredric Jameson (2005; 2009), Gregory Claeys (2010), Northrop Frye (1973), Paul Alkon (1987), Peter Fitting (2010), and on a number of Atwoodian scholars and critics, especially Coral Ann Howells (2005; 2006). The voice of Margaret Atwood as theoretical and literary critic also permeates the entire thesis, providing valuable insights for the analysis of her own fiction. For its wealth in terms of form and content, Oryx and Crake poses a significant challenge for readers and researchers. At the end of the work, it is evident that the fictional universe created by Atwood is frighteningly close to our reality, reflecting a world that, to a certain extent, we already inhabit.

Seja na literatura, em filmes ou séries de TV, as temáticas da utopia/distopia e do apocalipse se tornam cada vez mais recorrentes. Tendo por base o arranjo de um design social utópico/distópico e de um imaginário apocalíptico, esta dissertação tem por objetivo analisar o romance Oryx e Crake, publicado em 2003 pela escritora canadense Margaret Atwood, autora de uma obra extensa, que é considerada ao mesmo tempo acadêmica e popular. Oryx e Crake retrata um universo ficcional onde a humanidade foi quase totalmente aniquilada por uma epidemia que irrompeu simultaneamente em vários países. Nesse cenário pós-apocalíptico, o Homem das Neves, único sobrevivente provável, busca alimentos e suprimentos em uma área costeira, relembrando seu passado e dividindo residência com criaturas geneticamente modificadas. Considerando uma possível combinação de gêneros literários e efeitos narrativos, o objetivo desta investigação é explorar o romance, separando o passado e o presente da narrativa, cada um associado, respectivamente, aos conceitos de ustopia (termo cunhado por Atwood, para se referir à fusão entre utopia e distopia) e de apocalipse/Armageddon. Os conceitos são analisados com base em como se relacionam entre si e, em última instância, quanto ao que podem revelar sobre a nossa sociedade atual. Como aporte teórico-crítico, a investigação recorre a nomes como Erich Fromm (1990), Fredric Jameson (2005; 2009), Gregory Claeys (2010), Northrop Frye (1973), Paul Alkon (1987) e Peter Fitting (2010), bem como a uma série de estudiosos atwoodianos, especialmente Coral Ann Howells (2005; 2006). A voz de Margaret Atwood como teórica e crítica literária também permeia todo o texto, fornecendo informações valiosas para a análise de sua própria ficção. Pela sua riqueza tanto em termos de forma quanto de conteúdo, Oryx e Crake representa um desafio para os seus leitores e estudiosos. Ao final do trabalho, fica manifesto o quão assustadoramente próximo este mundo ficcional criado por Atwood está da nossa realidade, sendo a imagem de um universo que, em certo grau, já habitamos. / The themes of utopia/dystopia and apocalypse are becoming increasingly more frequent in literature, movies or TV series. Taking into account an arrangement of a utopian/dystopian social design and an apocalyptic imagination, this thesis aims at examining the novel Oryx and Crake, published in 2003 by the Canadian writer Margaret Atwood, author to an extensive body of works, considered at one time academic and popular. Oryx and Crake portrays a fictional universe where humankind has been almost entirely annihilated by an epidemic that broke out simultaneously in several countries. In this post-apocalyptic scenario, Snowman, the probable sole survivor, scavenges for food and supplies in a coastal area, recollecting his past and sharing residence with genetically modified creatures. Considering a possible combination of literary genres and moods, the focus of this investigation is the play of past and present in the novel, each one associated with the concepts of ustopia (a term coined by Atwood to refer to the fusion of utopia and dystopia) and apocalypse/Armageddon, respectively. The concepts are analyzed on the basis of how they relate to each other and, ultimately, as to what they reveal about our contemporary society. For theoretical support, the thesis draws on names like Erich Fromm (1990), Fredric Jameson (2005; 2009), Gregory Claeys (2010), Northrop Frye (1973), Paul Alkon (1987), Peter Fitting (2010), and on a number of Atwoodian scholars and critics, especially Coral Ann Howells (2005; 2006). The voice of Margaret Atwood as theoretical and literary critic also permeates the entire thesis, providing valuable insights for the analysis of her own fiction. For its wealth in terms of form and content, Oryx and Crake poses a significant challenge for readers and researchers. At the end of the work, it is evident that the fictional universe created by Atwood is frighteningly close to our reality, reflecting a world that, to a certain extent, we already inhabit.

Titre de l'écran-titre (visionné le 29 juin 2023) / Ce mémoire de maîtrise porte sur l'interaction des langages littéraires et visuels dans le contexte du livre d'artiste. Il examine l'effet de la présentation d'un texte de non-fiction sous forme de livre d'artiste afin de déterminer si l'expérience de lecture résultante représente mieux la singularité d'une expérience humaine précise. Le ventre des galets constitue la première partie du mémoire. Il s'agit d'un récit de non-fiction portant sur un voyage en Irlande et sur le deuil d'un parent, le tout présenté sous forme de livre d'artiste. Le texte en fragments est séparé en carnets et entrecroisé de reproductions d'aquarelles réalisées au fil de l'écriture. Le récit imprimé et relié est contenu dans un boîtier réalisé à la main et l'objet est essentiel à l'expérience de lecture. La deuxième partie du mémoire, à travers l'analyse du livre d'artiste de Margaret Atwood et Charles Pachter The Illustrated Journals of Susanna Moodie, étudie le rapport entre le texte et l'image et l'effet émergeant du mélange des deux. L'analyse est précédée d'une démarche de clarification de deux domaines - l'écriture du réel et le livre d'artiste - afin de comprendre les caractéristiques clés de chaque discipline. La troisième partie de ce mémoire est un retour sur la démarche créative : l'écriture, la réécriture, la construction et la reconstruction du récit et du livre objet. Elle examine également les défis connexes à l'écriture du réel, plus précisément à l'écriture du deuil. / This master's thesis explores the interaction of literary and visual languages within artist's books. It examines the impact of presenting a nonfiction text as an artist's book in order to determine if the reading experience evokes more effectively the singularity of a specific human experience. Le ventre des galets is the first part of this master's thesis. It is a nonfiction narrative about a trip to Ireland and about the grieving process for a parent. Presented in fragments, the text is intertwined with a visual narrative consisting of reproductions of watercolour paintings realized during the writing of the narrative. The book is printed and bound and is contained in a handmade case; the object is essential to the reading experience. The second part of the thesis is an analysis of the artist's book by Margaret Atwood and Charles Pachter, The Illustrated Journals of Susanna Moodie, focusing on the relationship between words and images and the effect that the combination creates. The analysis is preceded by a survey of two fields - nonfiction writing and the artist's book - to clarify each field and better understand the key characteristics of each. The third part of this thesis is an observation of my own creative process: writing, rewriting, constructing, and reconstructing of the nonfiction narrative and the book as an object. This section also touches on the challenges associated with the writing of nonfiction, specifically as it relates to revisiting and writing about grief.

This dissertation attempts to develop a counter—memory, a cognitive strategy that provides an alternative to the most prevalent mode of political action by members of minority or subaltern groups: identity politics. It begins with Teresa de Lauretis’ semiotics of subjectivity, which posits the human subject as a shifting series of positions or habits formed through semiotic and cognitive “mapping” of, and being “mapped” by, its environment. De Lauretis maintains that the subject can transform social reality through an “inventive” mode of mapping. The first chapter of this study is a semiotic analysis of the memory system at work in Nicole Brossard’s Picture Theory. It argues that Brossard’s use of holographic technology is an invention that attempts to alter women’s maps of social reality. Quantum physicist David Bohm has also employed the hologram as a theoretical model. By merging Brossard’s holographic memory with Bohm’s theory of a “holomovement,” this study develops an epistemological strategy that alters not only the map of reality, but also the dominant representational mode of cognitive mapping. This enquiry then moves on to other novels written in Canada which have a strong political impetus based on gender, nationality, ethnicity, race and/or class: Margaret Atwood’s Surfacing, Marlene Nourbese Philip’s Looking for Livingstone, Beatrice Culleton’s In Search of April Raintree and Régine Robin’s La Ouébécoite. Through textual analysis, it attempts to establish that although these novels make no mention of holography, each of them employs a memory system that inscribes itself holographically. That holographic memory provides an alternative political strategy to the “identity politics” at work in each of these texts. Each text, in turn, like a fragment of a hologram, adds another structural and political dimension to the hologram. The processual structure of the holographic theory provides a ground for alliances between different political agendas while resisting closure. As an epistemological strategy, it promises to alter both the method and the ground of knowledge.

This study examines Canadian works of fiction that contain historical trial narratives and that enact an adversarial trial of their own for an implied reader who acts as 'appellate judge.'' Included are four Canadian novels published after 1970 that fictionalize the circumstances leading to notorious criminal trials: Margaret Atwood's Alias Grace (1996), Lynn Crosbie's Paul's Case: The Kingston Letters (1997), and Rudy Wiebe's The Temptations of Big Bear (1973) and The Scorched-Wood People (1977). They represent commentaries on the justice or injustice done to convicted murderer Grace Marks (whose trial took place in 1843), to rebel Cree chief Big Bear and Metis leader Louis Riel (1885), and to serial rapists and killers Karla Homolka and Paul Bernardo (1993, 1995). / Each work reproduces excerpts from the original trial yet also represents a response to the historical trial's unfolding. This adversarial response takes the form of a trial-like narrative (or counternarrative) that engages with the original trial. Consequently each of these works is what I call a 'trial novel' that raises fundamental questions about justice and citizenship. / Chapter One analyzes Atwood's Alias Grace and lays bare the fictional constructs included in a trial narrative. Chapter Two looks at Crosbie's Paul's Case and pits the judicial system's claim to sober neutrality against a more populist version of justice based on affect and revenge. Finally, Chapter Three, which is devoted to Wiebe's novels, studies the conflict of normative universes implicit in trials for treason and posits that rebel nomoi are as coherent as the dominant ones that quash them. / Three communities are implicit in these novels and enter into a debate with one another: at the core of each work is a historical community of persons (the accused, attorneys, the judge, jurors, and members of the Canadian public) mobilized around an actual crime. This original community and its judgment provide the inspiration for the fictional community of the novel, which grapples with its own version of the crime and trial. Finally, an imaginative community of readers deliberates upon the questions raised both by the original trial and by the 'trial novel'.

O presente trabalho investiga a marca anglo-canadense na obra do cineasta David Cronenberg a partir do diálogo que instaura com as tradições culturais e teóricas do país que dizem respeito, ao tecnicismo, centrado nos meios de comunicação, propagado pelos teóricos da comunicação da Escola de Toronto e, especialmente, por Marshall Mcluhan e levando em consideração a tendência dos protagonistas canadenses a serem não-heróis, apontada por Margaret Atwood. E com o objetivo de contextualizar sua produção artística, mercadológica e culturalmente, no interior do sistema cinematográfico do Canadá, apresenta uma breve historiografia do cinema do país. Em relação à notória recorrência na obra do cineasta em questionar os limites do corpo humano, este trabalho analisa sua confluência com tradições teóricas e artísticas, que centramse nessa questão. E destaca as considerações referentes à abjeção e ao disgust, sentimentos diretamente associados ao temor frente ao rompimento dos limites corporais. O objetivo central deste trabalho é então desvelar como essas heranças da tradição cultural canadense estão relacionadas às obsessões cronenberguianas, principalmente em relação ao corpo, e à forma como esses elementos se amalgamam na configuração de sua obra extrema e única. / This dissertation investigates the Anglo-Canadian trademark in the work of cinematographer David Cronenberg through his dialogue with the cultural and theoretical traditions of the country which concern technicism, centred on the means of communication, disseminated by the theoreticians of communication from the School of Toronto, and specially by Marshall McLuhan and taking into consideration the tendency on the part of the Canadian protagonists to be non-heroes, pointed out by Margaret Atwood. Also aiming to contextualize his artistic production, commercially and culturally, in the Canadian cinematographic system, it presents a brief historiography of cinema in Canada. As to the notorious recurrence of on investigation concerning the limits of the body, this dissertation analyses its confluence with theoretical and artistic traditions focused on this theme. It points out the consideration concerning abjection and disgust, feelings which are directly associated with the fear which the exceeding of the corporeal limits provokes. The central aim of this dissertation is therefore to reveal how these heirlooms of the Canadian cultural tradition are related to Cronenberg's obsessions, notably these related to the human body, and to the way that such elements amalgamate to produce his extreme and unique work.

O presente trabalho investiga a marca anglo-canadense na obra do cineasta David Cronenberg a partir do diálogo que instaura com as tradições culturais e teóricas do país que dizem respeito, ao tecnicismo, centrado nos meios de comunicação, propagado pelos teóricos da comunicação da Escola de Toronto e, especialmente, por Marshall Mcluhan e levando em consideração a tendência dos protagonistas canadenses a serem não-heróis, apontada por Margaret Atwood. E com o objetivo de contextualizar sua produção artística, mercadológica e culturalmente, no interior do sistema cinematográfico do Canadá, apresenta uma breve historiografia do cinema do país. Em relação à notória recorrência na obra do cineasta em questionar os limites do corpo humano, este trabalho analisa sua confluência com tradições teóricas e artísticas, que centramse nessa questão. E destaca as considerações referentes à abjeção e ao disgust, sentimentos diretamente associados ao temor frente ao rompimento dos limites corporais. O objetivo central deste trabalho é então desvelar como essas heranças da tradição cultural canadense estão relacionadas às obsessões cronenberguianas, principalmente em relação ao corpo, e à forma como esses elementos se amalgamam na configuração de sua obra extrema e única. / This dissertation investigates the Anglo-Canadian trademark in the work of cinematographer David Cronenberg through his dialogue with the cultural and theoretical traditions of the country which concern technicism, centred on the means of communication, disseminated by the theoreticians of communication from the School of Toronto, and specially by Marshall McLuhan and taking into consideration the tendency on the part of the Canadian protagonists to be non-heroes, pointed out by Margaret Atwood. Also aiming to contextualize his artistic production, commercially and culturally, in the Canadian cinematographic system, it presents a brief historiography of cinema in Canada. As to the notorious recurrence of on investigation concerning the limits of the body, this dissertation analyses its confluence with theoretical and artistic traditions focused on this theme. It points out the consideration concerning abjection and disgust, feelings which are directly associated with the fear which the exceeding of the corporeal limits provokes. The central aim of this dissertation is therefore to reveal how these heirlooms of the Canadian cultural tradition are related to Cronenberg's obsessions, notably these related to the human body, and to the way that such elements amalgamate to produce his extreme and unique work.

O presente trabalho investiga a marca anglo-canadense na obra do cineasta David Cronenberg a partir do diálogo que instaura com as tradições culturais e teóricas do país que dizem respeito, ao tecnicismo, centrado nos meios de comunicação, propagado pelos teóricos da comunicação da Escola de Toronto e, especialmente, por Marshall Mcluhan e levando em consideração a tendência dos protagonistas canadenses a serem não-heróis, apontada por Margaret Atwood. E com o objetivo de contextualizar sua produção artística, mercadológica e culturalmente, no interior do sistema cinematográfico do Canadá, apresenta uma breve historiografia do cinema do país. Em relação à notória recorrência na obra do cineasta em questionar os limites do corpo humano, este trabalho analisa sua confluência com tradições teóricas e artísticas, que centramse nessa questão. E destaca as considerações referentes à abjeção e ao disgust, sentimentos diretamente associados ao temor frente ao rompimento dos limites corporais. O objetivo central deste trabalho é então desvelar como essas heranças da tradição cultural canadense estão relacionadas às obsessões cronenberguianas, principalmente em relação ao corpo, e à forma como esses elementos se amalgamam na configuração de sua obra extrema e única. / This dissertation investigates the Anglo-Canadian trademark in the work of cinematographer David Cronenberg through his dialogue with the cultural and theoretical traditions of the country which concern technicism, centred on the means of communication, disseminated by the theoreticians of communication from the School of Toronto, and specially by Marshall McLuhan and taking into consideration the tendency on the part of the Canadian protagonists to be non-heroes, pointed out by Margaret Atwood. Also aiming to contextualize his artistic production, commercially and culturally, in the Canadian cinematographic system, it presents a brief historiography of cinema in Canada. As to the notorious recurrence of on investigation concerning the limits of the body, this dissertation analyses its confluence with theoretical and artistic traditions focused on this theme. It points out the consideration concerning abjection and disgust, feelings which are directly associated with the fear which the exceeding of the corporeal limits provokes. The central aim of this dissertation is therefore to reveal how these heirlooms of the Canadian cultural tradition are related to Cronenberg's obsessions, notably these related to the human body, and to the way that such elements amalgamate to produce his extreme and unique work.

This dissertation attempts to develop a counter—memory, a cognitive strategy that provides an alternative to the most prevalent mode of political action by members of minority or subaltern groups: identity politics. It begins with Teresa de Lauretis’ semiotics of subjectivity, which posits the human subject as a shifting series of positions or habits formed through semiotic and cognitive “mapping” of, and being “mapped” by, its environment. De Lauretis maintains that the subject can transform social reality through an “inventive” mode of mapping. The first chapter of this study is a semiotic analysis of the memory system at work in Nicole Brossard’s Picture Theory. It argues that Brossard’s use of holographic technology is an invention that attempts to alter women’s maps of social reality. Quantum physicist David Bohm has also employed the hologram as a theoretical model. By merging Brossard’s holographic memory with Bohm’s theory of a “holomovement,” this study develops an epistemological strategy that alters not only the map of reality, but also the dominant representational mode of cognitive mapping. This enquiry then moves on to other novels written in Canada which have a strong political impetus based on gender, nationality, ethnicity, race and/or class: Margaret Atwood’s Surfacing, Marlene Nourbese Philip’s Looking for Livingstone, Beatrice Culleton’s In Search of April Raintree and Régine Robin’s La Ouébécoite. Through textual analysis, it attempts to establish that although these novels make no mention of holography, each of them employs a memory system that inscribes itself holographically. That holographic memory provides an alternative political strategy to the “identity politics” at work in each of these texts. Each text, in turn, like a fragment of a hologram, adds another structural and political dimension to the hologram. The processual structure of the holographic theory provides a ground for alliances between different political agendas while resisting closure. As an epistemological strategy, it promises to alter both the method and the ground of knowledge. / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate

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