In 2023, a master's thesis entitled: "The Construction of the Self: An Existentialist Reading of John Fante's ''The Bandini Quartet"'', was presented at the Faculty of Arts of UFMG <ref name="Guizzard">Edvalda Torres Paes , [https://repositorio.ufmg.br/handle/1843/68956 "The Construction Of The Self: An Existentialist Reading Of John Fante's "The Bandini Quartet"] UFMG INSTITUTIONAL REPOSITORY , May 05, 2023</ref> and included Professor [[Stephen Cooper (writer)|Stephen Cooper]] as a member of the board of examiners of a Master's degree program at the Faculty of Letters and Linguistics. In addition to writing the first biography of John Fante, Stephen Cooper is the main scholar and critic of John Fante's writing production. In the thesis in question, the author draws parallels between various instances in the life of the protagonist Arturo Bandini and the main assumptions of the philosophers who most contributed to the existentialist movement: three of them being theists and three declared atheists. It begins with [[Søren Kierkegaard|Kierkegardian]] despair in the face of existence, clearly seen in Bandini's suffering and his non-acceptance of himself. It then goes through to the troubled analysis [[Fiódor Dostoiévski|Dostoievskian]] analysis selfe as narrated in ''[[Notes from Underground|Notes from the Underground]].'' The dissertation also discusses the anti-Christian rebellion of Nietzsche's [[Übermensch]], which is demonstrated and plainly expressed by Bandini, mainly in "Road to Los Angeles" and ''[[Ask the Dust]]''", the second and third volumes of the tetralogy, where he fights fiercely to become an atheist. Nevertheless, his Jesuit and deep Catholic background prevents him. Another point analyzed is the state of contingency of human existence which, according to [[Martin Heidegger|Heidegger]] may transcend its “facticity”. This point is also clearly seen in some episodes of Bandini's life. The [[Jean-Paul Sartre|Sartrean]] concept of bad faith and the desire to be God are themes also present in Fante's work. Last but not least, the author addresses perseverance and acceptance of life even in the face of absurdity, as conceived by [[Albert Camus]] in the ''Myth of Sisyphus''.The dissertation examines how the protagonist's repeated failures and disappointments fill him with anguish in the face of the arbitrariness of existence. Fante uses humor and irony as a narrative strategy to deal with distressing existential issues to avoid an excessively dark or victimistic tone. All these elements justify a reading of Fante’s work in an existentialist light.
