Metalepsis in a Narrative Piece by M. S. Lourenço

João Dionísio

doi:10.14434/tc.v14i2.33656

Abstract

This article is focused on the role performed by metalepsis in a short narrative piece by the Portuguese writer and philosopher M. S. Lourenço (1936–2009). In the first section an explanation of the ways metalepsis and leitmotif interact is provided, whereas the second section turns to the metaleptic short circuit between fiction and reality. In the discussion of these issues the analysis of textual variation, which is carried out according to textual genetics, plays a fundamental part.

Highlights

This article is focused on the role performed by metalepsis in a short narrative piece by the Portuguese writer and philosopher M
The subordinate function of philology remains evident in titles such as Philologia ancilla litteraturae, the Festschrift dedicated to Professor Gilles Eckard (Corbellari et al 2013), or “Philologia ancilla historiae: An Emendation to lex Burgundionum, 42,2” (McManus & Donahue 2014)
According to this ancillary status of philology, the major aim of a textual critic would consist in establishing a text so that afterwards it would be interpreted by scholars of the field that text belongs to

Summary

Introduction

This article is focused on the role performed by metalepsis in a short narrative piece by the Portuguese writer and philosopher M. Based on this longish paraphrase, some readers will probably say that the conclusion of the narrative brings no “finalization” (Rimmon-Kenan 2005, 122), while others will see a metonymy at work in the last paragraph: as there is a chronologic sequence between, first, the falling fog and, afterwards, the survivors facing the heads on the staves, the reference in the end to the fact that the fog was starting to settle suggests that the narrator is about to go through the horror of what is called Teles’s formula.

Results

Conclusion