Na fronteira entre a ficção e o documentário: o verossímil na era do index appeal

Abstract

This thesis discusses the concept of verisimilitude as a narrative construction in contemporary cinema, investigating it from the perspective of the dichotomy ‘fiction’ X ‘nonfiction’, analyzed on theoretical and aesthetic grounds. It begins with the understanding that the communicational scenario in which we live is marked by an intensification of doubt regarding the truth value of discourse. In this scenario of uncertainty, seen as a result of postmodern skepticism, a tendency is observed - specifically in literature and cinema, but not only - characterized by the valorization of the 'signs of the real'. Under the perspective of Peircean semiotics, which we have adopted for this work, these signs are those whose indexical aspect is highlighted, constituting what Andacht named the index appeal (2003), a phenomenon understood as the use of indexical signs to increase the effect of authenticity in representation. After characterizing this scenario and presenting the semiotic concepts that are fundamental for our reflection, we approach the discussion on mimesis and the concept of verisimilitude in Plato and Aristotle, and then deal with the question of what is ‘verisimilar’ in literature and cinema. We review classic concepts about the nature of fiction and non-fiction, such as those of Searle and Carroll, and of contemporary philosophers such as Grodal and Worth, to reflect on the definition of a line that separates these two great narrative sets. We approach these concepts through a Peircean semiotic reading, based on the studies of Andacht, Ransdell and Simões, among others. We seek to understand how realism, as a literary movement and as an aesthetic expression, is strongly linked to the construction of the effect of verisimilitude in the art universe, and for that we resort to authors such as Wood and Bazin. Finally, we analyze three films produced in the 2014-2015 biennium that achieved considerable success and are placed in different points of the fiction x nonfiction spectrum: Birdman or (The unexpected virtue of ignorance), Olmo and the Seagull, and Homem Comum. The effect of verisimilitude is a product of its time, subject to the narrative conventions of genres and styles, which depend on the relations that art establishes with the outside world, whether it be of a fictional nature or not. We conclude that, if on the one hand we identify in contemporary audiovisual communication the search for the index as a strategy of validation and authenticity, on the other we see an approximation of the documentary with the fictional world, which points to a reduction of the distance between the poles of fiction and nonfiction in this scenario.