A máquina moedora das gentes: a relação entre o homem e a máquina em alguns contos da literatura brasileira contemporânea

Abstract

In this paper, we analyze the short stories "A máquina extraviada"-The misplaced machine- (1968), by José J. Veiga, "Passeio noturno" - part I (Evening walk) and "Passeio noturno" - part II (1975), by Rubem Fonseca, "O homem que procurava a máquina" (1976)- The man who was looking for the machine-, by Ignácio de Loyola Brandão, and "O importado vermelho de Noé"- Noah's Red Imported- (2007), by André Sant'Anna. The proximity of the contemporary man to the machine constitutes the link between the analyzed elements. We intend to amplify the meaning of machine, taking into consideration the different machines that act in the construction of societies. It also aims to highlight the idea of reification, as well as to reflect on the progress in a technologically modernized society that, in the human dimension, has not reached this level. This is an analytical-interpretative and bibliographical research, with a comparative and dialogical methodological proposition between the short stories listed. In the theoretical scope raised by the corpus of this analysis, the main theoreticians guiding this study are: Theodor Adorno, Lewis Mumford, Stuart Hall, Karl Erik Schøllhammer, Michel Maffesoli, Marshall Berman, and Deleuze and Guattari. The research undertaken revealed that machines, in the literary sphere, are not merely objects, for with technological modernization, they have entered society in the political, economic, and spiritual spheres; as well as, in power relations and the alienation of the masses.