'Flirt' e atopia: o conto-ensaio

Paulo Alexandre Pereira

doi:10.12957/matraga.2018.32433

'Flirt' and atopy: the short story- essay

Authors

Paulo Alexandre Pereira Universidade de Aveiro (Portugal) Departamento de Línguas e Culturas

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.12957/matraga.2018.32433

Keywords:

short story, essay, genre hybridity.

Abstract

In this article, after some considerations pertaining to the transitional and atopic nature of the essay as genre, we discuss the recurrent instances of intergeneric confluence of the short story and the essay, by specifically focusing on those occasions when the philosophical and interrogative impulse commonly seen as the proprium of the essay finds its way into the short story. In reality, despite the conspicuous rhetorical and conceptual differences separating both genres, the short story and the essay share a historical and genetic kinship, as well as some compositional features, as the three short fictions selected in this article – by Portuguese writers Fernando Pessoa, Jorge de Sena and Gonçalo M. Tavares – will make evident. We will argue that in these short fictions, where the narrative fable is interspersed with abstract or speculative digressions, the essayistic tone seems inseparable from a self-reflexive intention, thereby converting the essay as short story in an essay on the short story.

Author Biography

Paulo Alexandre Pereira, Universidade de Aveiro (Portugal) Departamento de Línguas e Culturas

Licenciado em Português/Inglês (Universidade de Aveiro), Mestre em Literatura Comparada (Universidade Nova de Lisboa) e Doutor em Literatura Portuguesa (Universidade de Aveiro). Exerce funções como professor auxiliar no Departamento de Línguas e Culturas da Universidade de Aveiro, onde é também investigador no Centro de Línguas, Literaturas e Culturas. É autor de A Beleza Imortal das Catedrais. Afonso Lopes Vieira e a Imaginação Medievalista (Imprensa Nacional-Casa da Moeda, 2009) e de vários ensaios dispersos por publicações nacionais e internacionais.

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Published

2018-08-14

How to Cite

Pereira, P. A. (2018). ’Flirt’ and atopy: the short story- essay. MATRAGA - Journal Published by the Graduate Program in Letters at Rio De Janeiro State University (UERJ), 25(43), 105–120. https://doi.org/10.12957/matraga.2018.32433

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Issue

Vol. 25 No. 43 (2018): Miscelaneous

Section

Literature Papers

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