A narratological analysis of D. M. Thoma`s: the white hotel (1981)

“A Narratological Analysis of D. M. Thomas’s The White Hotel (1981)” originated within a seminar on British Postmodernist Literature during the first Master’s Degree in “British and North-American Culture and Literature” (2001-04) at the Universidade da Madeira set up by the Department of English and German Studies. This dissertation seeks to present a narratological analysis of Thomas’s novel. The White Hotel stands as a paradigmatic example of the kind of literature that has dominated the British literary scene in the past three decades, commonly referred to as postmodernist fiction, owing to its formal craftsmanship (multiplicity of narrative voices and perspectives, mixing of differing genres and text types, inclusion of embedded narratives) alongside the handling of what are deemed as postmodernist topoi (the distinction between truth and lies, history and fantasy, fact and fiction, the questioning of the nature of aesthetic representation, the role the author and the reader hold in the narrative process, the instability of the linguistic sign, the notion of originality and the moral responsibility the author has towards his/her work), The narratological approach carried out in this research reveals that Thomas’s text constitutes an aesthetic endeavour to challenge the teleological drive that is inherent in any narrative, i. e., the inevitable progression towards a reassuring end. Hence, the subversion of narrative telling, which is a recurrent feature in Thomas’s remaining literary output, mirrors the contemporary distrust in totalising, hierarchised and allencompassing narratives. In its handling of historical events, namely of the Holocaust, The White Hotel invites us to reassess the most profound beliefs we were taught to take for granted: progress, reality and truth. In their place the novel proposes a more flexible conception of both the world and art, especially of literary fiction. In other terms, the world appears as a brutal chaotic place the subject is forced to adjust to. Accordingly, the literary work is deemed hybrid, fragmented and open. So as to put forth the above-mentioned issues, this research work is structured in three main chapters. The initial chapter – “What is Postmodernism?” – advances a scrutiny not only of the seminal but also of more recent studies on postmodernist literary criticism. Following this, in Chapter II – “Postmodernist British Fiction” – a brief overview of postmodernist British fiction is carried out, focusing on the fictional works that, in my opinion, are fundamental for the periodising of British postmodernism. In addition, I felt the need to include a section – “D. M. Thomas as a Postmodernist Novelist” – in which the author’s remaining literary output is briefly examined. Finally, Chapter III – “A Narratological Analysis of The White Hotel” – proposes a narratological analysis of the novel according to the particular Genettian analytical model. To conclude, my dissertation constitutes an approach to D. M. Thomas’s The White Hotel as a text whose very existence is substantiated in the foregrounding of the contingency of all discourses, meeting the postmodernist precepts of openness and subversion of any narrative that claims to be true, globalising and all-inclusive.

Susceptibility of mosquito vectors to Dirofilaria immitis on Madeira Island, Portugal

Dirofilaria immitis (Leidy, 1856), an agent of heartworm disease, is an important parasite from both the veterinary standpoint and as a model to study human filariasis. It is a mosquito-borne filarial nematode which inhabits the right ventricle and pulmonary arteries of dogs. D. immitis is an important disease agent on Madeira Island with about 30% of dogs testing positive for this worm. Nevertheless, the vectors of this parasite in Madeira have never been studied, nor has the interaction between pathogen and vector, or the environmental variables that might influence heartworm transmission. Innate susceptibility to infection is only one component of vector competence, and field isolation of naturally infected mosquitoes has shown the capability of D. immitis to exploit a great diversity of vector species under natural conditions. The purpose of this work was to determine which mosquitoes are vectors of heartworm disease, the relation between population density and environment, and the association between immune response of the vector to the filarial parasite. Seasonal abundance of Culex theileri and Culex pipiens molestus was studied. Correlation and canonical correspondence analysis were performed using abundance data of these two species with selected weather variables, including mean temperature, relative humidity and accumulated precipitation. The most important factor determining Cx. theileri abundance was accumulated precipitation, while Cx. pipiens molestus abundance did not have any relationship with weather variables. Field studies were performed to verify whether Cx. theileri Theobald functions as a natural vector of D. immitis on Madeira Island, Portugal. Cx. theileri tested positive for D. immitis for the first time. The same study was made regarding Cx. p. molestus. Two abnormal L2 stage filarial worms were found in Malpighian tubules in field caught Cx. p. molestus. In the laboratory, two strains of Cx. p. molestus were studied for their susceptibility to D. immitis. None presented infective-stage larvae. Finally, because Cx. p. molestus is an autogenous mosquito, we evaluated the reproductive costs when this mosquito mounts an immune response against D. immitis in the absence of a blood meal. This mosquito showed an active immune response when inoculated intrathoracically with microfilariae (mf) of the heartworm. The ovaries from mosquitoes undergoing melanotic encapsulation developed more eggs than those which could not melanize the mf. This fact is contradictory with some previous studies of reproductive costs in Armigeres subalbatus and Ochlerotatus trivittatus, and it was the first time that an autogenous mosquito was used to study this subject.