Adiamento e suspensão de sentido em Grande sertão: veredas - do pacto demoníaco

Abstract

Riobaldo, the protagonist-narrator of Grande sertão: veredas worries deeply along all the novel about the question of evil and the figure of the devil, and he states more than once that he can talk about such subjects particularly properly. For most of the book, however, he neither explains the main reason why these topics interest him so much nor the reason why he affirms he is so capable of talking about them properly. Riobaldo proposes mysteries and, like in suspense stories, he postpones their solution. Unlike these stories, though, when he at last narrates the episode that would have triggered his worries (his doubtful devilish pact), the “clarification” given is not enough to answer the questions which disturb him. It begets other questions. Thus, the path to elucidation ends up leading to uncertainty and indeterminacy.