This study seeks to question old and common misconceptions concerning the american literary genre Southern Gothic. By using the carnival theory, the theory about the "grotesque" by Mikhail Bakhtin, this study seeks to explain and reach a better understanding of some works defined as Southern Gothic - so called because of the significance that is attributed in the genre to the geographical location in the southern United states. This study analyzes carnivalesque transgression in short story collections by Flannery O´Connor, Eudora Welty and Dorothy Allison, and the main purpose is to investigate if the genre really is as dark as it is often described by critics; pessimistic, absurdly shocking and without any affirmation regarding the beauty and strength of life.  Transgression is here defined as the transgression made by fictional characters when their bodies and their actions refuses to conform to the norms established by "the official world". By using Bachtins terminology my main thesis is to investigate positive and life-affirming transgression in A Good Man is Hard to Find, A Curtain of Green and Trash. The study further investigates the ways in which the bodies of the fictional characters become grotesque and in what way the characters through their behaviour become carnivalesque. The short stories are also compared with eachother from both a tematic and historic perspective: can changes through time be observed? Does the grotesque form or expression change in any way from Welty to Allison? The conclusion of the study is that both grotesque and carnivalesque forms can be found in the short stories, and it can be considered carnivalesue in a true Bakhtinian way, as both positive and affirming. The study also finds that the grotesque tends to become more positive and life-affirming through time.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-28T19:59:12Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Sergio Manoel Rodrigues.pdf: 2755114 bytes, checksum: 73bacfe9b4179d5cf75b98a6019e5a8e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008-08-27 / The present work studies the dramatic gender, since its origins, the ritual stages of the old ones, until the main theatrical manifestations of the contemporaneity. It is centered, afterwards, in the Brazilian context, when dealing with the theatrical workmanship by Nelson Rodrigues, playwright that innovated the scenic language and restored modernity in the national theater, a time that, before this, the stages in our country only appropriated of comedies or foreign texts. By means of the inquiry and of the analysis, this research aims at to develop a critical study of Album of family (play written by related author, in 1945), with the objective to bring specific aspects of the dramatic action of the mentioned theatrical text into the open, that divides itself in two narrative plans that contradict themselves. The duality and ambiguity, enrolled in the text of the play, are argued and analyzed for the point of view of certain universal subjects (adultery, incest, violence, homosexuality, prostitution, preconception, maleness and paedophilia), considered taboos for the more conservatives and ranks in prominence by means of literary procedures over all the carnival theory and the parody , with which the author intends to show the chaos that afflicts the contemporary society and the man. Such procedures disclose a peculiar universe, where institutions, as the family and the Church, have its functions put in check for social and human blemishes. Moreover, by means of the criticism to the society and the family, Nelson Rodrigues looks for to distort myths, subjects and ideologies that serve of ground to the classic theater and to the bourgeois society too, at the same time where he dialogues with other theatrical manifestations, imposing himself thus, as the creator of an authentic Brazilian tragedy, in agreement with the carnival theory and the parody and, above all, morality / O presente trabalho estuda o gênero dramático, desde suas origens, as encenações ritualísticas dos antigos, até as principais manifestações teatrais da contemporaneidade. Centra-se, a seguir, no contexto brasileiro, ao tratar da obra teatral de Nelson Rodrigues, dramaturgo que inovou a linguagem cênica e instaurou a modernidade no teatro nacional, uma vez que, antes disso, as encenações em nosso país se apropriavam somente de comédias ou de textos estrangeiros. Por meio da investigação e da análise, esta pesquisa visa a desenvolver um estudo crítico de Álbum de família (peça escrita pelo referido autor, em 1945), com o objetivo de lançar luz sobre aspectos específicos da ação dramática do mencionado texto teatral, que se divide em dois planos narrativos que se contradizem. A dualidade e ambigüidade, inscritas no texto da peça, são discutidas e analisadas do ponto de vista de certos temas universais (adultério, incesto, violência, homossexualismo, prostituição, preconceito, machismo e pedofilia), considerados tabus pelos mais conservadores e postos em destaque por meio de procedimentos literários sobretudo a carnavalização e a paródia , com os quais o autor pretende desnudar o caos que aflige a sociedade e o homem contemporâneos. Tais procedimentos revelam um universo peculiar, em que instituições, como a família e a Igreja, têm suas funções postas em xeque pelas mazelas sociais e humanas. Além disto, por meio da crítica à sociedade e à família, Nelson Rodrigues procura desconstruir mitos, temas e ideologias que servem de fundamento ao teatro clássico e também à sociedade burguesa, ao mesmo tempo em que dialoga com outras manifestações teatrais, impondo-se, assim, como o criador de uma autêntica tragédia brasileira, carnavalizada, paródica e, acima de tudo, moralizante