Metafiction and metanarration in Lourenço Mutarelli’s novel O Grifo de Abdera

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.11606/va.v26.n2.2025.229354

Keywords:

O Grifo de Abdera, Lourenço Mutarelli, metafiction, metanarration, parody

Abstract

The present work discusses how metafiction is a key procedure in the novel O Grifo de Abdera (The Abdera’s Gryphon), published in 2015 and written by Lourenço Mutarelli, a Brazilian novelist from São Paulo. The metafiction is analyzed through three aspects: firstly, through the use of metanarrative technique, secondly through the doppelganger effect created between the writer and narrator game and lastly, through the interestructural relationship between comics and novel. In order to study the metanarrative aspect in the novel, the concepts analyzed by Neumann & Nünning (2014) were used, as the definition of metafiction by Waugh (1984) and Hutcheon (2004). Regarding the relationship between novel and graphic novel, Cluver (2006) and his concept of intermedia, Bakhtin (2015) and his discussion about heterodiscourse, and Da Silva (2015) whose thesis versed upon interestructures in Mutarelli’s works were of utmost use. Furthermore, to understand the novel’s position in Brazilian contemporary literature, the works of Schollhammer (2009) and Perróne-Moises (2016) were applied. The analysis concluded preliminarily that the novel uses metafiction to both discuss its cliché aspect as well as explore new possibilities to this overused technique, specially focusing on its interweaving with the autofictional discourse. 

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Author Biographies

  • Guilherme Mariano Martins da Silva, Universidade Regional do Cariri

    PhD in Literary Theory from UNESP, São José do Rio Preto, where I completed all of my higher academic education. I currently teach North American literature and English at the Regional University of Cariri (URCA) and serve as a permanent faculty member in the Graduate Program in Letters (PPGL) at the same institution. As a member of the CLIC research group, my research focuses on structural homology between the novel and other art forms, metafiction, and metanarrative, as well as issues related to teaching, learning, and the internationalization of education through Teletandem interactions.

  • Edson Soares Martins, Universidade Regional do Cariri

    PhD (2010) in Letters at the Federal University of Paraíba (PPGL/UFPB). I completed a postdoctoral fellowship at PROLING-UFPB. Currently, I am an Associate Professor (Reference O) of Brazilian Literature at the Regional University of Cariri (URCA), where I also serve as a permanent professor and coordinator of the Graduate Program in Letters at the same institution. I have experience in the field of Literature, with an emphasis on Brazilian Literature and Popular Oral Literature, focusing mainly on the following topics: Brazilian literature, poetry, popular oral storytelling, as well as studying, through the lens of Bakhtinian theory, modern and contemporary short narratives, the forms of popular oral aesthetics, and African literatures. I am the Editor-in-Chief of Macabéa - Revista Eletrônica do Netll and Associate Editor of Miguilim - Revista Eletrônica do Netlli.

     
  • Leonardo Brandão de Oliveira Amaral, Federal University of Paraíba

    PhD candidate in Letters at the Graduate Program in Letters (Literature, Theory, and Criticism) at the Federal University of Paraíba (PPGL/UFPB). I hold a Master's degree (2023) in Letters from the Graduate Program in Letters (Theory and Literary Studies) at São Paulo State University "Júlio de Mesquita Filho" (Ibilce/Unesp), São José do Rio Preto campus, and a Bachelor's degree in Letters - Portuguese/English (2021) from the Regional University of Cariri (URCA), Pimenta campus. I am a member of the Center for the Study of Linguistic and Literary Theory (NETLLI/URCA), the Research Center for Popular Literature (Behetçoho/URCA), and the research group Vertentes do Fantástico na Literatura (UNESP). My studies focus on the areas of Literary Theory, Comparative Literature, and Latin American Literature, particularly on the intersections between fictional prose and the fantastic.

References

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BARTH, J. The Literature of Exhaustion. In CURRIE, M. Metafiction (pp. 161-171). London, Routledge, 2013.

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MOTA, L. D. Performance em O grifo de Abdera. Fórum de Literatura Brasileira Contemporânea. 2016. Available at: https://revistas.ufrj.br/index.php/flbc/article/view/17321/14204. Access: 16 out. 2021.

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NEUMANN, B.; NÜNNING, A. Metanarration and Metafiction: . In P. Hühn, J. Meister, J. Pier & W. Schmid (Ed.), Handbook of Narratology. Berlin, München, Boston: De Gruyter, 2014. pp. 344-352.

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SILVA, G. M. M. Os diálogos interestruturais na obra de Lourenço Mutarelli: hibridismos e experimentações nas fronteiras entre o romance e o romance gráfico. 2015. 303 f. Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual Paulista Julio de Mesquita Filho, Instituto de Biociências, Letras e Ciências Exatas, 2015. Disponível em: http://hdl.handle.net/11449/127745. Access: 16 out. 2021.

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Published

2025-12-24

Issue

Vol. 26 No. 2 (2025): Angola - collection, memory, and literature

Section

Outros Textos

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Copyright (c) 2025 Guilherme Mariano Martins da Silva, Edson Soares Martins, Leonardo Brandão de Oliveira Amaral

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How to Cite

SILVA, Guilherme Mariano Martins da; MARTINS, Edson Soares; AMARAL, Leonardo Brandão de Oliveira. Metafiction and metanarration in Lourenço Mutarelli’s novel O Grifo de Abdera. Via Atlântica, São Paulo, v. 26, n. 2, p. 235–249, 2025. DOI: 10.11606/va.v26.n2.2025.229354. Disponível em: https://revistas.usp.br/viaatlantica/article/view/229354. Acesso em: 22 apr. 2026.