An aesthetics of inextricable meanders: shadows and lacune in the fiction of Cornelio Penna / Uma estética de inextricáveis meandros: sombras e lacunas na ficção de Cornelio Penna
AUTOR(ES)
Carlos Eduardo Louzada Madeira
DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO
2009
RESUMO
Having as an object of study the fiction of Cornelio Penna, represented by his first book, Threshold (1935), this dissertation is structured into two parts. In the first one a brief approach to the political and ideological climate of the Thirties is developed. In this context, the changes occurred with the arrival of Getúlio Vargas to power and with the institutional rearmament that Church had been experimenting since the previous decade are relevant. This state of affairs had reflections on cultural production and was seen by literary criticism as responsible for the establishment of a polarization between regionalist and Catholic/intimist authors, reproducing, to some extent, the existing left-right political opposition. The intention here is to problematize the rigidness of this categorization, which, in a hurried manner, ends up mixing writers of extremely different orientations. In the last instance, what is questioned is the validity itself of the term Catholic novel, which, because of its vague delimitations, leads easily to mistakes and generalizations. The second part of the dissertation consists of a reading of Threshold. Exploring in a deeply original way the possibilities of psychological realism, Cornelio creates a novel that does not fit in the space dominated by works with documentary and political concerns. Set in the nineteenth century, the narrative shows some quite peculiar characteristics, especially when it comes to its slow rhythm and to an anguishing lack of explanations to the depicted events. Although manipulating social and historic elements, Cornelios introspective text keeps itself formally distant from literature of denunciation, being at times inappropriately associated with conservative Catholic intellectuality. Starting from specific aspects of the novel, such as the problematic relationship that is established among individuals and the impossibility of them harmoniously being part of a space which is in fact hostile and threatening, the analysis intends to identify constitutive marks and fictional mechanisms that allow a better understanding of the particular logic that governs the functioning of Cornelios text
ASSUNTO(S)
penna, cornelio, 1896-1958. fronteira introspection lacunar realism realismo na literatura romance católico realismo lacunar catholic novel threshold ficção brasileira história e crítica cornelio penna fronteira penna, cornelio, 1896-1958 - crítica e interpretação cornelio penna introspecção literatura brasileira
