“O tempo passa”. Uma análise sobre a ruptura estético-histórica do século XX, compreendida nas relações intermidiais presentes nos romances Ao farol, Doutor Fausto e Goya

Abstract

The concept of ekphrasis comprises, in general lines, literary descriptions of other arts and media, and was consolidated back in Classical Greece, having as a priori example the description of Achilles’ shield, written by Homer, in The Iliad. Since its early definitions, the concept has undergone expansions and revisions throughout history. In the twentieth century, it fostered the development of theories about the interaction between two or more art forms, which contributed to new perspectives in understanding the concept and its consequences when used in a narrative. The novels To the Lighthouse, by Virginia Woolf, Doctor Faust, by Thomas Mann, and Goya, by Lion Feuchtwanger, present the developmental paths, both artistic and personal, of their central characters and, within these paths, their creative processes, which are interwoven with the maturing and changing political perspectives of such characters. On the one hand, Woolf’s and Feuchtwanger’s novels narrate this type of development in the sense of clearly constructive outcomes - despite the distancing of central characters from their pasts. In Woolf, there is a reflection on the new aesthetic premises of visual arts, as well as on the woman as an artist and questioner of her place in society. In Feuchtwanger, both the radical formal character of the works produced after Goya’s isolation and the social criticism inserted in these works point to the theories on the historical novel produced by the author. On the other hand, in Mann, the end of the journey of composer Adrian Leverkühn, the central character, serves as a metaphor for the author’s criticism of the escalation of authoritarianism in Germany and the participation of the German population in World War II. The hypothesis of this research focuses on analyzing how Woolf’s, Feuchtwanger’s, and Mann’s use of ecphrastic descriptions defines their ideological and political stances, as well as discusses the convergences or divergences observed in these authors concerning the historical-aesthetic context of the first decades of the twentieth century.