“Com as bestas no vale das sombras”: a questão do subterrâneo na obra de Lourenço Mutarelli

Abstract

The present work has as general proposal to examine the aesthetic universe of the writer Lourenço Mutarelli and, from this examination, to discuss the “issues of the underground” in the work of this author. Focusing on the mutarellian romanesque, we seek to see metonymically the issues, problems and aesthetics of Lourenço Mutarelli. Our fundamental analytical corpus is the novel O cheiro do ralo, from 2002. This work works here not as an exclusive element, but as a centralizing element, cornerstone of our analysis, around which orbit our discussions. We have developed a triadic approach to discuss issues of the underground in Mutarelli: literary reading – and only from it –, philosophical reflection and social criticism. To do this, we take as a basis, besides the mutarellian literature itself, the philosophical perspectives of Plato (2011) and Nietzsche (2005); the philosophical-social critique of Adorno & Horkheimer (1985); and the theories and methodologies of Auerbach (2011) and Candido (2006). At first, anchored by the comparative reading of elements of platonic philosophy – with emphasis on the “allegory of the cave” – and what we refer to as the “mutarellian allegory of the pit”, we discuss the concept and symbologies of the underground: shadows, echoes and antireason. This concept is later used as a key analysis of the work of Lourenço Mutarelli. Next, we turn to the commentary on the formal construction of language, the narrative elements and the thematic discussions of the prose of this author. Finally, our critique is raised at the level of the discussion of representations of reality. We then commented on the criticism of the reality developed in the romanesque work of Lourenço Mutarelli through the issues of the underground.