De ficção e de heróis: romances políticos de Erico Verissimo

Abstract

The literary legacy of Erico Verissimo presents a moment of privilege for the contemporary socio-political issues. The romances O Senhor Embaixador (1965) and O Prisioneiro (1967), subjects of this study, are part of this moment. In order to understand the implications of the ideologies and the representation of reality in his work, two exemplary characters were chosen: Leonardo Gris and Tenente, from O Senhor Embaixador and O Prisioneiro, respectively. These characters undertake what G. Lukacs defined as the search for the authentic values in a degraded world. This analysis seeks to comprehend to what extent is the human dimension particularly subjugated by forces that are as powerful as obscure in certain historical periods. The narrative material of romances, since the fictional form which it is elaborated, makes possible to relate them to the recent Latin America history, in the case of O Senhor Embaixador, and to the Brazilian political history, in the case of O Prisioneiro. Thus, the option for doing a literature of a realist statute and the configuration of characters who are representatives of the individual and social freedom, make the romances of Erico Verissimo a means of knowledge and critical penetration, using the terms coined by Benedito Nunes, such as it is sought to demonstrate in this dissertation.