When fiction invades prose: non-canonical discursive practices in academic discourse

Abstract

This article focuses on two non-canonical Master´s dissertations with a view to exploring the conditions of possibility for their emergence. The argument in the article is twofold: 1) the dissertations challenge the controlling principle of “commentary” (FOUCAULT, 1996), but do not emerge exclusively as social practices that reject it, and are thus partially governed by that principle; 2) three symbolic dimensions have been identified, which might account for the plurality of discursive positions that govern the emergence of these non-canonical practices: a local dimension, that of a particular institution; a disciplinary dimension, that of studies in the area of literature; a broader dimension, related to the epistemological paradigms operating in the discipline. Towards the end of the article, a few comments are made about the relationship between the symbolic, as the locus of discursive mediation, and social practices, the locus for the emergence of the subject (LACLAU, 2000).