VIOLENCE AND FEAR IN A ILHA DA IRA, BY JOÃO DE JESUS PAES LOUREIRO

Abstract

This work intends to analyze some representations of violence and fear in the dramaturgical narrative A Ilha da Ira (1975), by João de Jesus Paes Loureiro. This investigation is built on the hypothesis that the character “A Velha”, the ruler of the island where the actions of the narrative are developed, is characterized according to the elements of the Dictator and strongly associated with Sovereignty. To account for this hypothesis, we use two formulations to analyze the narrative, namely: the relationship between history and fiction; the appropriations directed to the mythical imaginary as a response to the conflicting reality, associated with the history-fiction relationship. As for the story-fiction pair, we note that the narrative dialogues with a set of references to authoritarianism in the Amazon – the uprising of Cabanagem and the 1964 Civil-Military Dictatorship. In relation to the real-imaginary, intertextual dialogues with elements of classical mythology – the Medusa myth; and mythical-legendary – the Amazonian legend of Matintaperera. In this way, we consider some theoretical questions, to understand the study about violence and fear and its ramifications in the process of understanding and analyzing the narrative. In this context, our starting point is the reflections of Walter Benjamin, Jaime Ginzburg, Elias Canetti and Tânia Sarmento-Pantoja to articulate the studies of violence and fear in the literary work.