A crise do sujeito: aspectos da modernidade em dois contos Primeiras estórias, de Guimarães Rosa

Abstract

This dissertation proposes a reading of "Nenhum, nenhuma" and "O espelho"short stories present in Guimarães Rosas book Primeiras Estórias. Both stories are inserted in the context of modernity in order to carry out the analysis, which has as its main theme the crisis of the subject. This research discusses how the notion that the subject is, in fact, fragmented is built in both narratives, as well as the pursuit and the impossibility to attribute meaning to the "self". In "Nenhum, nenhuma"if one consider the importance of the past to the constitution of the subjectthe impossibility of reconstituting the self through memory ends up in an identity crisis, marked in the story by the constant oscillation of the narrative focus and by the interrogation about the "self" presented in the narrative. Meanwhile, in the short story "O espelho", the identity crisis begins when the narrator-character, in front of a mirror, sees, instead of his reflection, the image of a monster, which he perceives to be himself. Recognizing, then, the existence of a "self" that hides behind the appearances, the narrator proposes to perform an "experiment", seeking, thus, to reach this hidden part of himself.