An Illustrious Unknown: Gisèle Brelet's Academic Research

• Grant number: 25/05119-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Post-doctor
• Start date: July 31, 2025
• End date: November 29, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Linguistics - Linguistic Theory and Analysis
• Principal Investigator: Luiz Augusto de Moraes Tatit
• Grantee: Gustavo Cardoso Bonin
• Supervisor: Makis Solomos
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Université Vincennes Saint-Denis (Paris 8), France
• Associated to the scholarship: 23/07849-3 - Epistemological Prosodization: the musical influence of Gisèle Brelet on Claude Zilberberg's tensive semiotics, BP.PD

Abstract

This project, approved for postdoctoral funding by FAPESP, aims to produce a set of academic outputs designed to solidify the theoretical and methodological foundations of what can be understood as epistemological prosodization (Tatit, 2019). Drawing on the musical influence that the French aesthetician and musicologist Gisèle Brelet (1915-1973) had on the consolidation of the tensive semiotics of Claude Zilberberg (1938-2018), the objective is to highlight the wide scope of tensive methodology as a model for analyzing the sensitive aspects involved in the construction of meaning in verbal, non-verbal, and syncretic (or multimodal) objects, whether artistic, media-related, or scientific productions. The work is being carried out in two main research fronts: (i) dissemination and rediscovery of the neglected works of Gisèle Brelet, which includes translating two foundational essays by the author into Portuguese (BRELET, (2024 [1946]) and (2025 [1946], in press)) and publishing an original article in English-developed during the BEPE internship-providing a concise overview of her academic production; (ii) an article in Portuguese, to be translated into French, which will clarify the connections between the thoughts of Brelet and Zilberberg, aiming to present the methodological pathways that justify the proposal of a possible epistemological prosodization. The request for an overseas internship seeks to fulfill the final stage of the first research front, namely the composition of an English-language article presenting a brief panorama of Gisèle Brelet's academic production, in order to address the nearly complete absence of biographical research on the author.