Structuring and indetermination: the theme of revenge in two narratives of Guimarães Rosa

• Grant number: 13/22926-2
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: January 01, 2015
• End date: December 31, 2015
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Literature - Brazilian Literature
• Principal Investigator: Francine Fernandes Weiss Ricieri
• Grantee: Marcio Gregório Sá da Silva
• Host Institution: Escola de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (EFLCH). Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). Campus Guarulhos. Guarulhos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This research aims to analyze comparatively the works "A hora e vez de Augusto Matraga" [The hour and time of Augusto Matraga] (1946) and "Os Irmãos Dagobé" [The Brothers Dagobé] (1962, by João Guimarães Rosa, in regard to the approaches between their characters and the ones of Christian and ancient tradition. These analogies, understood in the context of the thematic studies of narratives so called "saints' lives", will serve as the starting point of our study. They arose from the theoretical suggestions of criticism of Rosa's work, expressed in essays by Walnice N. Galvão (1978) and João A. Hansen (2007). We want to include in the research also critical analogies between the structures of the intrigues and the constitutions of the characters in Rosa's work and in the "saints' lives". Thus, this project will emphasize the actions of the characters Matraga, Liojorge and the brothers Dagobé, proposing the hypothesis not only about these approaches between the path of mythical characters, i.e., Job, Abrahan, the warrior São Jorge and the giant Damastor, but also the existential reinventions they empreend of themselves. The effort will not be only to locate possible sources, but to examine critically the representation of modern character in general. With a theoretical viewpoint from certains perspectives of studies by Todorov (2010), this work expand its focus to the theme of revenge, bringing up what is believed to be a conflict between a collective or a gregarious ethics and an individual and an open one, revealed in the conducts of the characters in the selected works. Performed productively this analytical course, this study intents to describe and to analyze what Rosa proposes, from his singular conception of language and practice of writing, as paths of re-discussion and re-framing of the idea of existential meaning, bearing in mind the fable involving the characters and their action inside the narrative, through the analysis of the two tales of Guimarães Rosa.