A Anti-Humanist Regard: Evil in Crônica da Casa Assassinada, by Lucio Cardoso, and Memórias de Lázaro, by Adonias Filho

Abstract

This article seeks to think with Georges Bataille the the ethos of the dilapidation in the novels Crônica da casa assassinada, and Memórias de Lázaro and to explore how they operate the construction of a certain imagery of evil seen in the narrative, imagery that is originated from the correlation between disseminations of excess, be it of the linguistic sign, the ethical repertoire and the attractions to the risk, even to bestiality as a catalyst of an anti-humanist diction. The article also discusses the literary language that is concentrated in the consummation of the world in place of the preservation, and is forged in the assumptions of violence and jubilation to antithetical pairs of law and progress and it disseminates its fictional projects, the collapse of moral and utilitarian from an economy – of meanings – that dissipate virtues through experiences of violations, of transgressions, and still, that operates the survival of an entire literary tradition of anti-humanist cast that does not see its language in a salvationist and edifying mission of the world or the nation.