Herberto Helder and the community: complexification of the evil idea as an ethical possibility

• Grant number: 17/17843-1
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: March 01, 2018
• End date: November 30, 2021
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Literature - Literature Theory
• Principal Investigator: Marcos Antonio Siscar
• Grantee: Ana Cristina Joaquim
• Host Institution: Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem (IEL). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 18/21750-1 - Herberto Helder and the community in (ex)tension, BE.EP.PD

Abstract

The purpose of the research is to integrate into the work of Herberto Helder the notions subsumed within the idea of evil in order to derive from its poetics an ethics of transgression. I intend to problematize the concepts of community and singularity through considering the relevance of this discussion in terms of contemporaneity. As probed by Georges Bataille, evil is linked to a great diversity of manifestations. By not participating in moral, political and/or social imperatives, it leads to a transgressive stance that allows the expansion of the limits imposed by the need to live in the common space. Examining Herberto Helder's works, in particular, the way scriptural activity is confined to a space of insurgency, it is necessary to think how the thematic recurrence of crime, violence and other manifestations of confrontation against the common space can be thought in ethical terms.