This thesis explores selected short stories and novellas by Portuguese writer Miguel Torga and Chinese writer Han Shaogong from a comparative perspective. Both writers produced short fiction in contexts of dictatorships that had started from processes that can be traced back to moments of national humiliation at the hands of the British Empire in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Apru1 from observing the historical contexts of those moments, this study looks at the literary background of both Torga and Han, discussing specific concepts associated with these two men, such as Torga's "Iberianism" and Han's "search for the roots", as well as the implications of these and other concepts. . Rural landscape has a socio-political voice and role in the Sh011 fiction discussed in this thesis. Both writers, given the political contexts, use their skills as narrators in order to allow the landscape to say what they cannot say themselves and denounce . various issues which they cannot openly criticize. One of the consequences of this subterfuge is that their rural landscapes are sometimes idyllic and other times depicted as a locus horrendus. Other issues that orbit around the socio-political role of the landscape are also discussed. Firstly, how both writers characterize the "self' and the "other" in various ways. Secondly, how Torga and Han use animalization and humanization as a means to highlight the social issues that may be implied from these narrative processes. Finally, both writers are shown to be aware of the importance of local language, customs, and superstitions in their narratives as elements that are crucial to associate the narratives with the landscape.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:654717 |
| Date | January 2013 |
| Creators | Infante, Gustavo de Brito Aranha Sanches |
| Publisher | University of Bristol |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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