The Netherlands - 2009

333 Pages·2009·1.25 MB·English

On the Nature of the [Portuguese] Short Story:
A Poetics of Intimacy.

Over het Wezen van het [Portugese] Kortverhaal:
een Poëtica van de Intimiteit.
(met een samenvatting in het Nederlands)

Proefschrift

ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan de Universiteit Utrecht op
gezag van de rector magnificus, prof.dr. J.C. Stoof, ingevolge het besluit
van het college voor promoties in het openbaar te verdedigen op vrijdag 15
januari 2010 des middags te 2.30 uur

door

Erik Adolf Van Achter

geboren op 19 juli 1963
te Wetteren, België
Promotor: Prof.dr. P. de Medeiros
Co-promotor: Prof.dr. O. de Almeida
Dedication

This dissertation is dedicated to my father (†) and my brother (†) who would have been
proud of me and to my mother, for bearing the brunt of my growing Latino character.

It is also dedicated to those once so close and now so far away, but always on my mind: Cazé
Silva (Brasilia, Brazil), Paola Rolletta (Maputo, Mozambique), José Luís Landeira (São
Paulo, Brazil)) and to Tim Fagundes (San Diego, USA) serving the United States Army
somewhere in the world.

It is dedicated to all those who have taught Portuguese in the Low Countries, especially Prof.
Dr. Roegiest (University of Ghent, Flanders—Belgium) and Prof Dr. Venâncio (University
of Amsterdam—the Netherlands)
Table of Contents

Acknowledgements.....................................................................................................................i
Preface........................................................................................................................................v
0. Introduction........................................................................................................................1
Chapter I. Generic Labels for Short Prose Fiction.....................................................................4
1.0. Introduction.................................................................................................................4
1.1. A New Label in Literary Criticism.............................................................................5
1.2. Portugal.....................................................................................................................12
1.3. Label stretching.........................................................................................................14
1.4. História – Conto – Novella.......................................................................................16
1.5. Romance – Novella – Conto......................................................................................18
1.6. Golden Years.............................................................................................................22
1.7. Conclusion.................................................................................................................29
Chapter II. The Rise of the Conto Literário, moderno in Nineteenth Century Portugal.........32
2.0. Introduction...............................................................................................................32
2.1. Folhetim Crónica – Folhetim Conto.........................................................................37
2.2. The Romantic Short Story.........................................................................................39
2.3. O Conto de Terror.....................................................................................................43
2.4. O Conto Rústico........................................................................................................44
2.6. From History to Theory.............................................................................................61
2.7. Conclusion.................................................................................................................79
Chapter III. The Genesis of a Paradigm in Short Story Studies...............................................82
3.0. Introduction...............................................................................................................82
3.1. E. A. Poe and the Tale Proper...................................................................................84
3.2. Brander Matthews and the Short-story......................................................................89
3.3. The Anonymous Review...........................................................................................96
3.4. The Effects of Poe’s and Matthews’ Essays.............................................................98
3.5. Conclusion: Long Term Effects..............................................................................104
Chapter IV. Trends in Modern Short Story Criticism: an Overview.....................................110
4.0. Introduction.............................................................................................................110
4.2. The Analogy to Poetry............................................................................................112
4.3. The Short Story -Novel Distinction........................................................................114
4.4. Ferguson vs. May....................................................................................................132
4.5. Is there a Reader in /for the Short Story?................................................................138
4.6. The Splintering Frame: beyond Genre....................................................................163
4.7. Conclusion...............................................................................................................171
Chapter V. The Portuguese Short Story as a Genre...............................................................174
5.0. Introduction: Genre, Mode and Sub-genre..............................................................174
5.1. The Corpus and a Methodological Approach.........................................................181
5.2. The Corpus Analysed..............................................................................................190
5.2.1. “Realist” Short Stories.........................................................................................190
5.3.2. Short Stories: The Period of Second Modernism.................................................209
5.3.3. Short Stories from the Magazine: Ficções...........................................................220
5.3.4. Conclusion............................................................................................................229
5.4. From Discourse Description towards the Concept of Genre...................................237
5.4.1. Narrators and their Space.....................................................................................237
5.4.2. Narrated Time in the Portuguese Short Story......................................................246
5.4.3. Characters: Larger than Life, less than Real........................................................250
5.5. Conclusion...............................................................................................................263
VI. Final Conclusion..............................................................................................................266
Samenvatting in het Nederlands.............................................................................................272
Works Cited............................................................................................................................275
2.1. Portuguese Short Story Criticism and Literary History..........................................277
2.2. American and General Short Story Criticism.........................................................282
2.3. German Short Story Criticism.................................................................................290
2.4. Literary History, Theory and Criticism...................................................................291
Appendix I. A German Lesson in Genre Description............................................................296
Appendix II. Counter Analysis: four Neo-Realist Fictions....................................................316
Acknowledgements.
In the first place I would like to thank Professor Dr. Paulo de Medeiros for having
given me the opportunity to write and defend a PhD at the University of Utrecht (the
Netherlands), and for having gone with me this far. The venture was not an obvious one, as
the subject matter is extremely volatile, and the first long and difficult years passed by quickly
without clear results.
Someone who has accompanied me too for this very long stretch of time, and from
whom I had my first real introduction in Portuguese Literature, is Professor Dr. Seabra Pereira
(University of Coimbra). When in Portugal he assumed the function of a real co-promotor. It
was after the examination of Portuguese Literature at the University of Coimbra, he proposed
to write about narrativa breve.
When the laborious writing process started, a stitching together of so many different
partial theories and pieces of criticism, Professor Dr. Onésimo de Almeida of Brown
University (U.S.A.) was my first serious critical reader. I am convinced that the manuscript
benefited immensely from his expertise and being a short fiction writer himself, the meetings
were always a stimulus which should not be underestimated.
The last to enter the scene was Professor Dr. Rosa Goulart of the University of the
Azores. Besides having written a curiously fresh piece of criticism on the nature of the
Portuguese short story, she is an expert in literary analysis and in narratology. Her interest in
my first analyses of some thirty Portuguese short stories meant the final “go for it.”
In the first years my endeavour to write a PhD on the short story at my home base—an
Institute of Technology—received only a lukewarm reception. Many did not believe I would
ever make it. In retrospect, I must honestly confess that I myself probably belonged to that
group of sceptics. The rather inhospitable atmosphere towards a PhD in the field of Letters
slightly changed with the full implementation of the Bologna Treaty. I would like to thank
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here the former director, Luc Haerens and his wife—both lovers of Portuguese culture and
currently even living in Portugal—and the present director Professor Dr. F. Baert, who, as
man of letters, showed quite some appreciation. I, however, would especially like to thank the
head of the Department of Industrial Engineering, Luc Van Hooymissen, without whose
unremitting enthusiasm this manuscript would not lie here before you and the Dean of the
faculty-to-be, Dr. Chris Van Keer, who in spite of continuous resistance, is zealously
promoting research at KaHo Sint-Lieven.
Besides the full support of the professors involved and the few mentioned at KaHo
Sint-Lieven, I could also rely on interested scholars in Portugal, Spain and the United States.
In the first place, I like to thank Professor Dr. Manuel Ferreira of the University of Aveiro
(Portugal) for inviting me to lecture and for gently giving me the space to publish. Professor
Dr. Viorica Patea from the University of Salamanca (Spain) for her interesting and in-depth
conversations on the nature of the short story on the occasion of the Salamanca Congress
(2004) and the Lisbon Congress (2006) on the Short Story. On the Lisbon Congress I also met
Professor Dr. George Monteiro, Brown University (U.S.A.), who gave me quite a few
“encouraging” remarks. The two congresses meant a real breakthrough for this dissertation.
At the University of Lisbon, I found my earliest supporters for the present essay in the
Department of English and American Literature: Professor Dr. Maria Luísa Flora and
Professor Dr. Teresa Cid. In the corridors of the Biblioteca Nacional, Professor Dr. Ernesto
Rodrigues (University of Lisbon) was always there to take away any doubt and to suggest
new possible lines of thought concerning nineteenth century Portuguese literature.
One of the most exciting events was meeting Professor Dr. Charles May (University of
California) and Professor Dr. Susan Lohafer (University of Iowa). After having read their
articles for almost two decades, finally having an opportunity to discuss live particular topics
of short story theory meant a boost for this essay at a rather early stage in the writing process.
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I have been in many places over the past fifteen years, but one place has captured my
imagination from the very first day. The city of Coimbra with its old university towering over
the Mondego River is indeed a place of many enchantments, difficult to explain to those who
have not lived through the unique experience of being a student there. The Faculty of Letters,
more than my own institute in Ghent (Flanders, Belgium), has been my real home for the past
decade. I like to thank, once again, Professor Dr. Seabra Pereira for the friendship and all the
members of the Research Group for Portuguese literature I am now a proud member of. In
particular, I would like to thank Professor Dr. Maria João Simões and Professor Dr. Helena
Santana with whom I share a passion for Portuguese nineteenth century literature. I would
also like to thank Professor Dr. Cristina de Mello for teaching me quite a few things about
mode and genre, crucial concepts in this dissertation. Professor Dr. Ana Paula Arnaut I thank
for kindly inviting me for guest lectures in the Master course. The administrative staffs of the
ILLP and the central and general library, I like to thank for their help (with great competence)
and for the interest in the work I was doing. I would finally like to mention the extra-ordinary
help I received from Juliana Opitz (Coimbra) when editing the manuscript. Without her help I
would never have survived the “batalha com as gralhas.”
The full rhetorical weight of the last lines in this word of thanks I have reserved for
those real friends who behind the scenes are always there and never fail even if—I have to
admit—I sometimes do: Paulo Nicolau Duarte and Marco Cruz Alves (Universidade de
Coimbra, Portugal), Jorge Gregório (Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal), Rowan Tepper
(Binghamton University, New York, U.S.A.), Jim Bradley (University of Illinois at Chicago,
U.S.A.) and, last but not least, António João Gomes Monteiro.
I like to thank my colleague Bart de Winter (French and Spanish) and my friends
Geert De Kerpel, Bart Christiaen and Serge De Vinck for their (many) visit(s) to either
Coimbra or Lisbon. Especially in the first years when it was difficult to grasp the full
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complexity of the phenomenon “short story theory,” their presence meant a lot to me. Today,
I am still grateful that they were there for me, even though they had other obligations as to
work and family.
Finally, I must thank two very special people: Mr. Jos Vaesen (Director of Academic
Personnel of the K.U.Leuven) and Wilfried Van Wittenberghe (Head of the Department—
Ghent) for a friendship of almost twenty-five years. I especially would like to express my
most sincere gratitude to both for having accepted to stand by me on the day of the defence. It
is—I believe—a great honour when public support comes from the people one privately
admires.

Erik Van Achter,
Santa Cruz de Coimbra –
25 July 2009.
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Preface.
I have been an avid reader of short fiction since secondary school. I still remember
how I was struck by the curious atmosphere in a short story we had to read for general culture
as part of the programme Dutch, Mother Tongue. The fiction was Brazilian, the writer
Guimarães Rosa and the translation was—as I know now very well—a magnificent one, by
no one less than August Willemsen.* Little did I then know that one day I would write about
the short story in Portuguese, be it not based on Brazilian stories.
The curious estrangement I had felt after reading many a short story kept me
wondering at the why of the unease after the reading process. In the eighties on a trip to
London, in one of the many second hand bookstores, I picked up a copy of Charles May’s
Short Story Theories, a collection of essays written in the seventies. It was the beginning of
my theoretical reflection on the genre and a start to read more and better. I soon found out that
my discovery was already a poetics of the short story in itself. For a long time indeed, the
short story has been considered as second hand (compared to the novel) and its criticism
comes like the genre itself: in collections.
When I decided to study Portuguese in the nineties, I was struck by the singularity of
the short story in Portuguese. None, or few, of the American theory I had studied, seemed to
be really applicable although the few Portuguese theorists I knew, seemed to be intriguingly
familiar with American short story theory. The present dissertation is the result of a long
process of questioning the short story and aims at uniting the reading experience acquired
over the years in both theory (American) and practice (Portuguese). It is also the result of an
obsession I share with American scholars in the field, namely to define the genre.

* It was a translation of the stories Primeiras Estórias which had been published in the Netherlandic under the
title De Derde Oever van de Rivier in a Meulenhoff Edition in 1977, translated by August Willemsen with a
postscript by the translator.

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