Estratégias metaficcionais em dois contos de Edgar Allan Poe: A relação entre o leitor, o “retrato”, e a “casa”

Abstract

This academic monograph aims at analyzing the presence of metafictional resources in two short stories by Edgar Allan Poe: The Oval Portrait and The Fall of the House of Usher. These narratives present different forms of representation of metafictional resources, allowing a broad view of how such resources can be developed in literature. Self-reflection and self-awareness, as techniques explored in metafictional works, present an instigating way to read literature, in which the reader’s participation plays a key part. A growing number of novels that use these metafictional techniques emerged in the twentieth century as part of the post-modernist movement, as well as theoretical studies on the subject and its influences in literature. However, the use of metafiction can be found in much older narratives, as in many works of great writers such as Cervantes, Machado de Assis, and Edgar Allan Poe. The two latter, being important names in nineteenth-century literature.