Advanced search
Start date
Betweenand


Forms of life and events in short stories by Rubem Fonseca

Full text
Author(s):
Renata Cristina Duarte
Total Authors: 1
Document type: Doctoral Thesis
Press: Araraquara. 2019-01-17.
Institution: Universidade Estadual Paulista (Unesp). Faculdade de Ciências e Letras. Araraquara
Defense date:
Advisor: Edna Maria Fernandes dos Santos Nascimento
Abstract

Based on the assumptions of French Semiotics, the present research examines short stories by the Brazilian contemporary author Rubem Fonseca, the narratives having been selected from the books Feliz ano novo, first published in 1975, Amálgama, published in 2013, and Calibre 22, launched in 2017. The research intends to investigate how the forms of life of the actors of the stories are configured, considering that those actors are subjects from the narrative level in syncretism with the narrators of the stories, subjects who execute performances that breach with the required behaviors in a particular social group and who establish an individual way of being. The research also intends to investigate the events, from the perspective of Tensive Semiotics, which undermine the established semiotic practices and permit to glimpse new forms of life, based on the conflict between a social morality and a personal ethic. In this way, we observe that there is a disagreement between the being and the appearing of these subjects, as well as a conflict between the social morality and the personal ethic, what finally puts into perspective conventional and subversive forms of life. The study bases itself on the hypothesis that the events, which are representative of the absurd facts seen from the point of view of social morality, irrupt in the sphere of enunciation especially achieving the enunciatee-reader. Moreover, the recurrence of certain characteristics, such as the representation of unusual and absurd situations, allow us to identify the form of life of the “odd” as a way of being of the artistic production of the actor of enunciation Rubem Fonseca. To proceed with the analysis of the texts of the corpus, we use French Semiotics as the theoretical and methodological basis. We prioritize the underlying narrativity of each text, as indicated by the semiotic tradition, the studies of the concept of “Form of Life”, by Algirdas Julien Greimas and Jacques Fontanille, and of the concept of “Enunciative praxis”, by Jacques Fontanille and Denis Bertrand as well. We also resort to recent developments, like the studies of Tensive Semiotics, elaborated mainly by Jacques Fontanille and Claude Zilberberg. This research is justified for the reason that from the theoretical point of view adopted, the study of the literary text will constitute itself a material for the studying and the understanding of the aspects of the Brazilian culture and, more specifically, of the Brazilian contemporary man. This can be confirmed by the fact that it permits the revival of semiotic practices that happen between subjects or even between subjects and objects and which are essential to infuse ways of doing, thinking and feeling the daily life. (AU)

FAPESP's process: 15/06211-9 - Ways of life and happenings in short stories from Rubem Fonseca
Grantee:Renata Cristina Duarte
Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate