Two brothers and their precursors: a dialogue between the novel Milton Hatoum, the Bible and amerindian mythology

• Grant number: 14/50245-2
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants - Publications - Books published in Brazil
• Start date: July 01, 2014
• End date: June 30, 2015
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Literature - Other Vernacular Literatures
• Principal Investigator: Berta Waldman
• Grantee: Berta Waldman
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The following dissertation focuses on the analysis and comparison of Milton Hatoum's novel two Brothers, (2006) and the biblical narrative of the fraternal clashes in the book of Genesis especially that of the twins Esau and Jacob research will approximate these narratives either through similarities or through the estrangement from the Hatounian novel. We will seek the vestiges from the biblical narrative present in the Brazilian author's work following the trails of Omar, Yaqub, and especially the narrator, Nael. An interspersed narrator, half Indian, half Arab; bastard son, progeny of one of the novel's twins and a young Indian girl, the Lebanese family's maid. Led by Neal’s narrative, we will constantly flirt with the eyes of memory. Nael ads us to a surprising discovery: it is he who brings into focus the national scope in our research and, as a descendant to the indigenous Amazonian peoples, he reveals himself as the most legitimate the heir to all mythological ancestrally born from folktales and myths of rival twins narratives that ere as ancient if not more than the Bible. So, to a certain extent, Nael steals the light originally shined upon the twins Omar and Yaqub for himself and embraces the "primogeniture", while the power and name are at stake, be it from the family's patriarch, or the original myth. (AU)