The Fervent Fausto in “A Vestal!”, by Álvaro do Carvalhal

Authors

  • Fernando Vidal Variani Universidade Federal do Paraná
  • Antonio Augusto Nery Universidade Federal do Paraná

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17851/2317-2096.27.1.315-333

Keywords:

Portuguese Literature, Álvaro do Carvalhal, A Vestal!

Abstract

The purpose of this work is to offer a possible way of understading the development of the character Fausto of “A Vestal!”, by Álvaro do Carvalhal (1844-1868), specifically concerning the relations between this character and the representation of evil in the narrative. According to Maria do Nascimento Oliveira (1949-), “A Vestal!” is a kind of “romantic realist” tale that deals with the conflict between “matter” and “spirit”. Based on Georges Bataille’s (1897-1962) reflections about the literary world as an “hypermoral” (not “amoral”) open field to human souls’ experimentation, we propose that in “A Vestal!”, as well as in all of Carvalhal’s works, all of the established (and even overexplicit) contradictions tend not only to be complementaries of the same system of thought, but also to cause a considerable oscilation and confusion between what at first sight could seem to be clearly opposite poles. Fausto, in our perspective, is a particularly interesting personification of this idea, as we intend to discuss in this paper.

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References

BATAILLE, Georges. O erotismo. Belo Horizonte: Autêntica Editora, 2013.

BATAILLE, Georges. A literatura e o mal. Porto Alegre: L&PM, 1989.

CARVALHAL, Álvaro do. Contos. Lisboa: Assírio & Alvim, 2004.

ELIADE, Mircea. Mefistófeles e o andrógino: comportamentos religiosos e valores espirituais não-europeus. São Paulo: Martins Fontes, 1999.

GOETHE, Johann Wolfgang von. Fausto: uma tragédia. São Paulo: Editora 34, 2004. 1ª parte.

KAYSER, Wolfgang. O grotesco: configuração na pintura e na literatura. São Paulo: Editora Perspectiva, 1986.

OLIVEIRA, Maria do Nascimento. O fantástico nos contos de Álvaro do Carvalhal. Lisboa: Instituto de Cultura e Língua Portuguesa, 1992.

TODOROV, Tzvetan. Introdução à literatura fantástica. São Paulo: Editora Perspectiva, 2010.

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Additional Files

Published

2017-07-03

How to Cite

Variani, F. V., & Nery, A. A. (2017). The Fervent Fausto in “A Vestal!”, by Álvaro do Carvalhal. Aletria: Revista De Estudos De Literatura, 27(1), 315–333. https://doi.org/10.17851/2317-2096.27.1.315-333

Issue

Vol. 27 No. 1 (2017): Literatura e Mal

Section

Dossiê - Literatura e Mal

License

Copyright (c) 2017 Fernando Vidal Variani, Antonio Augusto Nery (Autor)

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