Where did the subject go? – Experiences of the subjective in 20th century fiction

Abstract

This essay makes a comparison between two short fictions: the
first, “The Mark on the wall”, was written by Virginia Wool in the early twentieth century (1917). The second, “Cell of identity”, by Bruno Zeni, was published almost one century after, in a Brazilian anthology of new fictionists. Considering some basic structural similarities, mostly the narrative perspective and the construction of the subjectivity, differences are pointed out, in order to emphasize the historical changes in the way fictionists deal with their time’s problems.