Prolegômenos para uma leitura d’A Rainha dos Cárceres da Grécia, de Osman Lins

Abstract

This dissertation aims to deal with the metafictional reading of the novel A Rainha dos Cárceres da Grécia (2005) [The Queen of the Prisons of Greece], by Brazilian author Osman Lins. Theoretically, we refer to Linda Hutcheon’s (2013) description in Narcissistic Narrative: the metafictional paradox, on how Aristotle's mimesis theory can be read in so-called “contemporary” novels (a discussion from Agamben (2009)). We sustain the argument that absence, a hybrid between all that is not representable and all its attempts at said representation, is the essential motivation for each of the narrators in A Rainha dos Cárceres da Grécia. Henri Lefebvre (1983) is evoked to briefly discuss the theory of representations; concerning the theme, the melancholic nature of a creation founded on absence, as well as the anguish of those who face their internal labyrinths (SONTAG, 2017) also come to light. In regard to the romanesque structure, we aim to investigate the interpenetrations between theoretical, thematic and structural axes, in a phenomenon we call “allegorical projection”, which occurs among the characters through the several narrative levels. To do so, we turn to the theory on allegory, present in The Origin of the German tragic drama, by Walter Benjamin (2016). It is also important to explore the termed “founding myths” because they offer ample symbolic material for structuring the verisimilitude of each of the interlocking levels of the novel; specifically, myths that can be considered, according to Eliade (1986), founders of the presence of a primeval time, as well as bring with them the archetype of Memory – one of the fundamental myths in the novel. The other myth analyzed in the present work is the character Ana da Grécia, the hero of the primordial saga that happens in the “Prisons of Greece”, and that derives the heroic saga of all the other protagonists along the several levels of the novel.