The pursuit of the perfect language intrigued and obsessed the literary circle of the seventeenth century, as political turmoil and chaos initiated the desire for the stable even in the aspect of language. As the perfect language is self-explicative, it indicates a perfect correspondence between the signifier and the signified in order to guarantee the purity and singleness of the meanings to avoid confusion and ambiguity inevitably occurring, for instance, in postlapsarian language. The concept of the perfect language, nevertheless, finds evidence in Milton¡¦s prelapsarian world, where unfallen Adam is endowed with divine insights to discern the nature of the animals and translate his comprehension into perfect matching names. However, the presumption of the perfect language in the prelapsarian Eden is challenged by critics as the preconditioned absoluteness could not possibly exist for it would have preempted any possibilities of inferring, implying, and guessing from the context. In my thesis, I argue that languages marked by gender as masculine and feminine dominate in the characterization and narratives of Adam and Eve, for gender is the sole mark distinguishing the first couple along with their hierarchical roles as man and man¡¦s helper. I examine Eve¡¦s gendered discourse in particular as Eve as a lesser vessel turns out to be the main target of Satan¡¦s verbal temptations and sophistries. I analyze the traits of gendered discourses and discuss how they render Eve more vulnerable, disadvantaged, and disempowered in face of Satan¡¦s rhetoric and eloquence. Also scrutinized are the critics¡¦ viewpoints concerning Eve¡¦s gendered discourse, which significantly reveals certain ingrained biases attached to stereotypical expectations for women shown in the critics¡¦ word choices and arguments in regard of Eve.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-26T18:17:45Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Alcioni Galdino Vieira.pdf: 1327346 bytes, checksum: e929f3ff8e27516b5cc4c376b3628d48 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-03-24 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / This research had as the main objective to verify the relation between the cyber culture and the myth of the perfect and universal language. From the hypothesis that the cyber culture, mainly its phenomenon of biggest visibility, Web, is included in a movement named by Gérard Genette as cratylism or secondary mimologism . A tradition made by idealists that through times searched to repair the mistake of the natural language through a supposed adamic and divine language or by projects of artificial languages, universal grammars or poetical languages. It is about a long journey which starts on a mythical area with the Biblical narratives, particularly with the history of the world‟s origin and the Tower of Babel, and in rational area with the dialog Cratyle by Plato. It was used as methodology the bibliographical research, by a secondary order observation . The thesis brings initially the relation between myth and language, with approach especially to the concept of myth developed by Roland Barthes. Then it goes to the delineation of a cyber culture mythology. Later it is done an analysis of the dialog Cratyle by Plato, based on the particular interpretation of this work made by Gérard Genette in his book Mimologiques. Following the genettian concept of secondary cratylism, the work includes in its theoretical construction the philosophical and literary reflection of the language, oriented by works of authors like Stephane Mallarmé, Paul Valéry, Jacques Derrida, Julia Kristeva, Jorge Luis Borges, Haroldo de Campos, among others. In what Umberto Eco names as research of the perfect language‟, the airtight chain, from the memory art by Ramon Llull to the binary codes by Leibniz, theories considered as the origin of the contemporary computer language. The aspects of the alphabetical language were also verified and the passage to the digital culture, looking for a relation with the thesis object. In the end, theories were analyzed to explain the digital culture phenomena / Esta pesquisa teve como principal objetivo verificar a relação entre a cibercultura e o mito da língua perfeita e universal. Partiu-se da hipótese de que a cibercultura, principalmente seu fenômeno de maior visibilidade, a Web, inclui-se em um movimento denominado por Gérard Genette como cratilismo ou mimologismo secundário . Uma tradição percorrida por idealistas que ao longo dos tempos buscaram reparar a falha da língua natural por meio da busca de uma suposta língua adâmica e divina ou por intermédio de projetos de línguas artificiais, gramáticas universais ou linguagens poéticas. Trata-se de uma longa trajetória que se inicia em plano mítico com as narrativas bíblicas, particularmente com os relatos da origem do mundo e da Torre de Babel, e em plano racional com o diálogo Crátilo de Platão. Utilizou-se como metodologia a pesquisa bibliográfica, por meio de uma observação de segunda ordem . A tese traz inicialmente a relação entre mito e linguagem, com enfoque especialmente para o conceito de mito desenvolvido por Roland Barthes. Parte-se, então, para o delineamento de uma mitologia da cibercultura. Depois é feita uma análise do diálogo Crátilo de Platão com base na interpretação particular dessa obra realizada por Gérard Genette em seu livro Mimologiques. Seguindo o conceito genettiano de cratilismo secundário, o trabalho inclui em seu corpo teórico a reflexão filosófica e literária da linguagem, orientada por obras de autores como Stephane Mallarmé, Paul Valéry, Jacques Derrida, Julia Kristeva, Jorge Luis Borges, Haroldo de Campos, entre outros. Dentro do que Umberto Eco denomina como busca da língua perfeita , estudou-se a corrente hermética, desde a arte da memória de Ramon Llull até os códigos binários de Leibniz, teorias consideradas como os primórdios da linguagem da informática contemporânea. Também foram verificados os aspectos da cultura alfabética e a passagem para a cultura digital, buscando uma relação com o objeto da tese. Foram analisadas, por fim, teorias que visam explicar os fenômenos da cultura digital