The fantastic in Erico Verissimo: analysis of the short story “Sonata”

Based on the fantastic narrative, this paper aims to present an analysis of the short story “Sonata”, from Erico Verissimo, which is part of his work Fantoches e outros contos, originally published in 1932. This is the first book published by this author, the only one of his own composed just by short stories. For the purpose of this paper, first of all, it is clarified the concept of fantastic narrative, according to the understanding of some authors – as Todorov (1979), Rodrigues (1988) and Calvino (2004) –, and, furthermore, it is briefly discussed the concepts of strange and marvelous, which contributes to the definition of fantastic. It is also mentioned aspects related to the emergence of fantastic and the reasons of its existence. To verify this element in the narrative, it is required a strange or supernatural event and, also, the hesitation of the reader and of a character. Besides, this kind of narrative involves a certain way of interpretation – the way that the reader faces the events presented by the story contributes to support the fantastic. After these considerations, it is presented a thorough analysis of the short story “Sonata”, which has music as a guide and presents the point of view of its main character, who is not named. That is the story of a young piano teacher that, in the context of World War II, moved by the desire of escaping from reality, gets immerse in old newspapers. In his reading, he finds out an ad from 1912, the year he was born, which requests the services of a piano teacher. From that moment on, a journey to the past starts, and, then, it is possible to verify the presence of several elements that point to the fantastic and allow the reader to experience the hesitation, such as the theory here in use indicates.

WHEN SAYING IT IS NOT DOING IT - "ALGUMA COISA URGENTEMENTE", A SHORT STORY WRITTEN BY JOAO GILBERTO NOLL

the subject matter of this article is the tale "Alguma coisa urgentemente", written by João Gilberto Noll. The short story has the scenario of the Brazilian military dictatorship and is told from the son’s point of view of a political persecution. The tale shows a slow and progressive degradation of the characters because of the father’s choice. This article aims to make a close reading of the language used not neglecting other important aspects of the short story. The protagonist speaker uses a language sometimes suppressing sometimes catatonic sometimes long-winded. In traditional training history, the protagonist matures undergoing a series of trials to reach financial maturity, ethical or human. In the tale, the road is the reverse, the son goes a long agony of learning (both from the physical and psychological pain), he watch the father dehumanizes and dehumanizes too. We intend to read how this transformation occurs at the level of language.

The evil in the story "Intruge-se", from Guimarães Rosa: an experience for learning

This paper analyzes the short story "Intruge-se" within the book Tutameia (1967) from the brazilian writer João Guimarães Rosa. We shall approach the relation between the main character and a mystery involving a murder he decides to solve. The tale reveals a twofold perspective, that allows, not just bare reading, but a meditation about the human nature. We will tour the tale with thorough look and proposed to find, in the intricacies of writing rosiana, the multiple meanings that involve the actions and choices of the main character and how, through them, the author seeks to represent one of the most pressing questions of humanity. We intend to show how the aesthetic element acts in the formation of the individual, providing in addition to an objective experience of leisure, also a spontaneous learning ability which inexcusably enforces the reader's restlessness and need to reflect. This work is an observation about the story and what makes it what it is. Guimarães Rosa traces this story about subjectivity worlds, worlds that involve a context that triggers the story, which want to refer the reader out of it, which provides a spiral, by nature of its form, the most varied questions about the actions and feelings humans. The experiences with this observation, as well as those arising from variations, resulting in a rich learning, in that it enables and habituate critical eye, doubt and reflection. With that purpose, literature functions as a learning gear, according to what is sustained by Antonio Candido.

O CONTEXTO CUBANO PÓS-REVOLUÇÃO DE 1959 EM O LOBO, O BOSQUE E O HOMEM NOVO, DE SENEL PAZ

This work presents an analysis of the short story El lobo, el bosque y el hombre nuevo, published in 1990 by the Cuban writer Senel Paz. The analysis approximates fiction to history, identifying how these questions occur in the short story and at what degree they constitute a critic of the revolutionary government established in Cuba in 1959.

BETWEEN THE SONG AND THE TALE: EYE EYE FOR EYE OF CHICO BUARQUE NUS: EYES BY MIA COUTO

This paper proposes a reflection on the lyrics Eye to eye, written by Chico Buarque, and the tale nude Eyes: Eye of the Mozambican writer Mia Couto, writing to compose the collection This story is different: for ten thousand songs by Chico Buarque, organized by journalist Ronaldo Bressane in 2010. this book ten writers recreate Songbook carioca composer, with total freedom to reinvent prose the song they chose. In the work there are tales that are based on stories faithfully to music by Chico Buarque, others use them as soundtrack, scenery, atmosphere, some of the songs lend their structures and there are those who only use it as a theme. This paper then turns to the relationship built between fiction and music, watching the narrative dialogue established between the lyrics by Chico Buarque and the short story by Mia Couto, the fidelity pact established with the source text and the whole narrative structure that comes to life under the eye of Mia Couto. Finally, throughout the article we use the theoretical assumptions discussed as Silviano Santiago, Umberto Eco, Costa Lima, Leonor Arfuch among others so as to exploit the full context of this engaging narrative.

Inventory of revelations and mysteries

This short story collection situates itself like possibility of interpretation and understanding of aspects of the Brazilian contemporary literature and the situations of perplexity that originate from it. The improbable relations in an unequal universe compete for the signification of verisimilitude confounds itself with the concept of reality. These short stories perceive the limit of the human conflicts without suggest to them whatever solution.

Gretel and Edith: Jewish woman and exile in Alves Redol and in Joaquim Paço d’Arcos

Abstract: This paper examines the narrative construction of Jewish women in the short novel “O Mundo Perdido”, by Joaquim Paço d’Arcos, and in the short story “Nasci com Passaporte de Turista”, by Alves Redol.  Both narratives portray the rise of Nazism in Germany in the 1930s and its effects.  Historical, biographical and literary information is taken into consideration to the analysis.

Jimirulino's mistake: narrative strategy in "Uai, eu?", by Guimarães Rosa.

Tutameia - Terceiras Estórias was published in July 1967 and it is the last book published by João Guimarães Rosa. The minimum narratives that make up the volume clash against the style presented by the author in previous works. Originally written for publication in the journal O Pulso, the 40 stories represent the capacity of the author to synthesize the fact narrated at the same the time the narrative extends the significant disposal through the words unspoken. The space unfolding narrative is the same that characterizes others works from Guimarães Rosa, populated by gangsters, cowboys, cattle herds and buritis. This article deals with the memorialist narrative strategy in “– Uai, Eu?” by Guimarães Rosa, a short story presented in Tutameia (1967). To accomplish that task, it was checked the literary criticism on the theme, highlighting considerations from Araújo (2001), Candido (2002), Coutinho (1997), Bosi (1988), Duarte (2001), Riedel (1980) and Santos (1991). As literary analysis procedure resorts on observation of the issues that make up the narrative organization of the short story, according to the narratological perspective by Gérard Genette, in Narrative discourse. The compositional details observation indicates a narrative strategy that works as an adjunct in narrator’s triparted goal: intelligence, kindness and justice. It concludes that the reformed and testimonial Jimirulino’s behaviour, represented by its own voice in narration, works as an argument in favor of the deponent that, through it, seems unable to perceive the contradictions in his own behavior at the crime time, in the past.

ORDER AND DISORDER: THE DIALECTIC OF TRICKERY IN "OSCARINA"

Marques Rebelo adopts the suburban areas of the city of Rio de Janeiro as a privileged space to situate his narratives, choosing individuals who represent the lower classes of society as characters. These characters, given the precarious nature of their condition, living in border situation between order and disorder, oscillate between hope and disillusion, sometimes glimpsing the remote possibility of upward mobility, now threatened by the fear of poverty and marginality. By doing this, the writer puts into scene two different social worlds living side by side and peacefully: those who seek to live according to the values ​​of the bourgeois social order and those who transgress the laws and moral principles and live by artifices and illegal means. This article examines some aspects of the short story "Oscarina", trying to understand how the worlds of order and disorder, or work and trickery are configured in narrative form through the trajectory of the character Jorge, the protagonist of the story. We seek to demonstrate that the boundaries between the two supposedly antagonistic universes are eventually diluted by the movement of the protagonist, who moves between the two spaces, which communicate and intertwined dialectically.

Echoes of the Gothic and meaning in Lygia Fagundes Telles´s “A presença”

Lygia Fagundes Telles´s short story “A presença” has been almost forgotten in literary studies. The short story was first published in the 1977 collection Seminário dos Ratos, and is part and parcel of other important collections of the author, namely, Mistérios and Os melhores contos de Lygia Fagundes Telles. Even though it has been published together with other well-known short stories such as “As formigas”, “A caçada” and “A mão no ombro”, it has never been much focused in literary studies. Current essay focuses on three specific points to put this narrative in the limelight: (i) the use of the narrative with Gothic characteristics referring to the theme of persecution; (ii) a parallel on the manner gothic items inserted within the narrative maintain a dialogue with the issues involving Ricardo Piglia´s short story; (iii) the two previous items function so that the cross-section selected by the author is not limiting to meaning.

DORIS LESSING’S “LITTLE TEMBI” AND POST-COLONIAL CRITICISM

Colonial strategies, including degradation and the othering of the colonial subject are analyzed in the short story “Little Tembi” by Doris Lessing. The manner an African boy is othered by white plantation owners and his resistance against the colonial and apartheid system through sly civility and crime are investigated.

THE DOUBLE AND THE OTHERNESS IN “O CÍRCULO”, BY RUTH LAUS

This article aims to approach the issue of deployment of the self in the short story "O círculo", by Ruth Laus, through the figure of the character Paula and the pursuit of her double. The study of the female character, while literary representation, and related to the duplicity, is associated with issues related to identity and the construction of the self, from an internal scission, allowing therefore to examine the representation of the double, permeated by issues related to otherness, especially regarding to the maintenance of subjectivity in the search of the Other as an extension of the self. The double, in turn, is established as the phenomenon able to settle an active connection with the world, the dialectic condition of the creature, as a way of affirmation from the conception of (re)cognition of the Other as a link between past-present-future in the (re)construction of the unit and establishment of the balance. For the character Paula the element that indicates the division of her personality is the aborted fetus and thenceforth begins the maintenance of the inner Self of the protagonist: find what from her was split.

The representation of the northeastern migrant: interstices and culture in the figure of Francisco da Silva in "Liberdade", by Ruth Laus

It serves as the object of analysis of this article the representation of the northeastern migrant in the figure of the male character Francisco da Silva, protagonist of the short story "Liberdade", by Ruth Laus, as a fictional character who lives "in an interrogatory, interstitial space between the act of representation [...] and the presence of community itself" (Bhabha, 1998, p. 22) where he comes to enter and to settle. Chico, as he is known, embarks on a crowded truck, and his fate, like that of many other migrants, is the Southeast region of Brazil, where, between São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, he chooses the sea. To the same extent, beyond the concept(s) of culture(s), and the need to (re)think the concept of [cultural] human community - here adding the cultural term to the proposal of Bhabha (1998), as a way of thinking about the role of the individual - are taken and analyzed, also, the cultural identity concepts based on the difference itself. It is thought in what way, then, and through what imposing character, the wealth and the values ​​of the Northeast, although managed to be spread on national home soil, yet not are conspicuous by their guarantee of permanence of its inhabitants in their homeland.  

THE PORTUGUESE DIASPORA IN THREE CONTEMPORANEOUS LITERATURE NOVELS: POINTS AND COUNTERPOINTS

In O retorno (2011), Dulce Maria Cardoso invite us to know the Rui’s story, a Portuguese Angolan teenager that returned from Angola, together his family. He is compelled to rebuild his life in Continental Portugal, from a precarious and limited financial situation. The scenario was the seventies and the turbulent period of return of more than a half million of Portuguese citizens, during the decolonization of former Portugal overseas territories in Africa. In this paper, we have analyzed the theme of diaspora in the contemporaneous Portuguese Literature, considering as the start point the sociocultural context contained in the book O retorno. Thus, we have established a bridge with two other novels, within a comparative perspective, in order to find similarities or dissimilarities among them, once they address the same theme: Pouca terra...Poucá terra, by Júlia Nery (1984), that brings to the center of the narrative the emigrants story from France, under the approach of a girl called  Leonor, and Livro, by José Luís Peixoto (2012), which has the main focus, among the multiplicity of themes, the emigration scenario from France, and the loving disagreements between two young lovers: Ilídio and Adelaide. The goal is to sketch a viewpoint, clarified by the cultural studies, which conduct us to understand more largely some questions which come by the Dulce Maria Cardoso novel, and also the two other books in question.  They give us the measure of the construction of the contemporaneous Portuguese novel, and reflect the idea of a nation which uses to have a condition of discomfort. This discomfort is proper to who are at the mercy of the diasporic fateful experience, since the most remote past.