FICTION OF THE SELF: A GLANCE AT NANCY HUSTON’S MARCAS DE NASCENÇA

This paper analyzes two works of the canadian writer Nancy Huston: Marcas de nascença and A espécie fabuladora. The main idea is to support the reading of the former work based on the reflections raised by the latter, especially regarding the aspect concerning issues such as the Meaning and the (re) invention of the self. The relevance of these concepts will be effective in an immersion in the universe of the four main characters of the novel Marcas de nascença: Sun, Randall, Sadie and Kristina. The paper focuses on seeking the essence of Meaning in the life of each one of these characters, always considering two vital and non-discernible ​​aspects: time and space in each of them. Therefore, literature and culture concepts will be considered such as the concept of Americanness as well as the Americanization, Identity, Fiction and Recognition. Thus, this assay is divided into two parts. The first one envisions the idea matter expressed by Huston in A espécie fabuladora - the ceaseless quest for Meaning culminating in identity shaping – in order to seek understanding from this point of view the occurrence of certain cultural phenomena of which some characters from Marcas de nascença are an expression. The second part observes each of the four main characters and strengthens the suggested initial idea (that the book's characters are constituent parts of a behavioral matrix vital to human existence), then filling the gaps of the two themes developed: the birthmarks transmitted throughout four generations and how these marks are recorded over fifty-six years of history. 

TRANSPOSITION OF FEMALE REPRESENTATIONS FROM THE OLD WORLD TO THE NEW WORLD

This article intends to perform an analysis related to the female representation in the first texts produced in American soil, in the period of the “discovery” of America and the first contact between cultures. The main texts of chroniclers approached are: Jean de Léry’s Viagem à Terra do Brasil, from 1578; Hans Staden’s Suas viagens e captiveiro entre os selvagens do Brasil, from 1557; João de Azpilcueta Navarro’s Cartas avulsas, from 1551; and Simão de Vasconcelos’, with Cronica da Companhia de Jesus do Estado de Brasil, from 1663. In this approach, our interest is to bring to memory the ways that the Europeans reacted when facing the existing cultural differences in the shock between the cultures, especially when facing the practice of cannibalism by the autochthonous people, and the way that the Europeans transmitted, through writing, these experiences to their compatriots. Highlighting specifically the way the women are presented in the reports at issue, bringing also a few illustrations, produced at the time of the first encounters, which allow the direct link of the autochthonous woman that practices the anthropophagic ritual with the figure of the witch that permeated the European popular imaginary of that time. Supporting the theoretical foundation of the proposed paper: Manuel Fernández Álvarez’s Casadas, monjas, rameras y brujas: la olvidada historia de la mujer española en el renacimiento (2002); Thomas Bonnici’s No limite da feminilidade: assassinas e bruxas – a mulher na sociedade inglesa dos séculos XVI e XVII (2003); e Kramer e Sprenger’s O Martelo das Feiticeiras (1486).

Contradiction, history and politics in Season of the Rain, by José Eduardo Agualusa

This text analyzes the novel Season of the Rain, from the Angolan Jose Eduardo Agualusa, in which the writer makes use of historical events that occurred in Angola in the period of wars for independence as well as in the following years, showing them under another perspective. The novel is formed by a contradictory, historic and political text,evaluated from the historiographical metafiction concept, as leading the narrative between history and fiction, the author ends up proposing to the readers a new version of facts, by deconstructing myths and national heroes and questioning the value of a so stated independence in a country in ruins.

THE GATHERING, OF ANNE ENRIGHT: A READING FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF THE NEW HISTORICISM

After winning The Man Booker Prize, a prestigious English literary prize, with The Gathering, the Irish writer Anne Enright has achieved a considerable international prominence as a writer in the contemporary literary scene. The book tells the history of Veronica Hegarty, narrator and protagonist, who, after her brother’s suicide, goes through a difficult period in order to deal with the event. During this period, she reveals the history and conflicts of three generations of her family. This paper aims to present an analysis of this novel in the light of New Historicism as an introduction to its interpretation.

The literature as a poison and an antidote: the Phármakon of the writing in Virginia Woolf’s journals

This article introduces as object of study the journals written by the british author Virginia Woolf (1882-1941). From these journals, it is possible to see how the scripture is revealed as an excruciating process for the author who, in their intimate scripture, shows how his works and the literature itself can be understood as something pernicious for the intellectual. In the same way, it is possible to show that the act of writing was a vital necessity for the author. This paper thinks the literature as poison and as an antidote, in view the concept of pharmakon, developed in the book Plato's Pharmacy, written by the philosopher Jacques Derrida. The analysis will precede the approach of setting as the writer was disturbed by with the social environment. This paper applies the concept of pharmakon in order to think about the issues concerning the scripture as a punishment and as a necessity for intimate of Virginia Woolf.

CULTURAL CANNIBALISM: A TURNING POINT IN THE PROPOSITION OF AMBIVALENT POETICS IN THE LATIN AMERICAN LITERARY DISCOURSE

The concept of cultural cannibalism was discussed and re-established by intellectuals from the field of literary and cultural criticism, and it was also the object of creative appropriation by a significant group of writers in Brazil and in the Latin America context. Nevertheless, this concept is revitalized in the contemporary context, reflecting the critical consciousness of the writer on the understanding of social inequalities that shape Latin America, in its different segments, be they political, economic or cultural.

A fé contra o crime: A bakhtinian analysis of the image of evangelicals in Brazil in the cover of Veja magazine

The present paper, based on the concept of surplus of vision discussed in some works of the bakhtinian Circle, as, mainly Bakhtin (2010a) and Bakhtin (2010b), has the main aim to analyse the image of evangelicals in a cover delivered by Veja magazine from the bakhtinian categories of exotopy, otherness and expressive intonation and, consequently, the meaning effects resulting from them. Therefore, anchored by the perspective of Bakhtinian Studies (BS), we analysed the magazine cover, seeking to apprehend the meanings constructed by this genre of verb-visual basis. To the constitution of the corpus of analysis, we selected the cover of the edition 1555, published on July, 15, 1998, entitled A fé contra o crime: Numa cruzada em presídios e redutos de traficantes, os evangélicos estão convertendo bandidos em soldados de Jesus, to analyse in which way the magazine, from its discursive place, appropriates the image of the evangelicals and represents it with its intonations in its statements. From the analysis, we can state that Veja constructs an image that tends to the homogenization of the evangelicals in Brazil, from its surplus of vision, with its tone of sarcasm, prejudice and vilification of this group, attempting to position the consumer/reader of Veja against the protestant sphere. The conclusion of this research, therefore, is that the exotopic position assumed by Veja with regard to its otherness, the evangelical discursive sphere, articulates axiologic aprehensions materialized in the form of intonation on the cover of the magazine that we analysed, disseminating, with the character of truth, the protestant group as integrant of mere dualities. Although the cover figures the group as an agent of change in society, this change gets the intonation by the magazine so that it seems false or, at least, incomplete, which equips the Veja readers of mistrust and, therefore, discredit to the actions of the discussed discursive sphere.

THE WAKE UP OF THE READER IN TERRA SONÂMBULA NOVEL

Terra Sonâmbula novel (1992) from Mozambican writer Mia Couto was published just in the year that civil war has been finished. The plot talks about a reading of Kindzu’s books by Muldinga boy to the old Tuahir. This reading becomes a vanishing point of a desolate land and a hopeless life to become in a gate of dreams. The narrative allows a study of compositional strategies, but those discussed here promote the reader’s  instance having as theoretical studies of Umberto Eco and Roland Barthes. The aim is to demonstrate how these characters/readers are manifested in the working plan and  seek hybridity in the proclamation of national identity. Thus, the empirical-readers are invited to wake up, bet, decipher puzzles spreaded by Mia couto throughout the ovel in a position of de-automatzation.

UNOBJECTIONABLE WOUNDS OF ILLUMINATED E.: ANALYSIS OF THE MONITORING BODY LANGUAGE IN “LUMPÉRICA”

The following work focuses on experimental writing of the Chilean Diamela Eltit, who published his first novel in 1983, during the military dictatorship of Pinochet. Through its "bold" text, Eltit achieved dictatorial circumvent censorship and began his career as a writer.  

The Case of the Demon Child in The Romance Wuthering Heights: Perspectives on Evil Literature

This article points out possibilities of reading from the studies related to childhood and the notion of evil in literature. The debate was possible from two paths: a) reading the novel The Wuthering Heights, the British writer Emily Brontë (2007); b) the analytical study done about evil in the literature based on the lessons of the Post Graduate in Arts, Federal University of Ceará. The work seeks to articulate demonic aspects of the child, especially those seen in the character Heathcliff able to approach it from the perspective of evil discussed by Ricoeur (1988) and Bataille (1989). Hopefully the text enables a systematic analysis of evil and how it presents in childhood of some characters.

In Situ Observation of the Thermal Decomposition of Weddelite by Heating Stage Environmental Scanning Electron Microscopy

The morphological and chemical changes occurring during the thermal decomposition of weddelite, CaC2O4·2H2O, have been followed in real time in a heating stage attached to an Environmental Scanning Electron Microscope operating at a pressure of 2 Torr, with a heating rate of 10 °C/min and an equilibration time of approximately 10 min. The dehydration step around 120 °C and the loss of CO around 425 °C do not involve changes in morphology, but changes in the composition were observed. The final reaction of CaCO3 to CaO while evolving CO2 around 600 °C involved the formation of chains of very small oxide particles pseudomorphic to the original oxalate crystals. The change in chemical composition could only be observed after cooling the sample to 350 °C because of the effects of thermal radiation.

Thermal decomposition of the synthetic hydrotalcite iowaite

The thermal stability and thermal decomposition pathways for synthetic iowaite have been determined using thermogravimetry in conjunction with evolved gas mass spectrometry. Chemical analysis showed the formula of the synthesised iowaite to be Mg6.27Fe1.73(Cl)1.07(OH)16(CO3)0.336.1H2O and X-ray diffraction confirms the layered structure. Dehydration of the iowaite occurred at 35 and 79°C. Dehydroxylation occurred at 254 and 291°C. Both steps were associated with the loss of CO2. Hydrogen chloride gas was evolved in two steps at 368 and 434°C. The products of the thermal decomposition were MgO and a spinel MgFe2O4. Experimentally it was found to be difficult to eliminate CO2 from inclusion in the interlayer during the synthesis of the iowaite compound and in this way the synthesised iowaite resembled the natural mineral.