Veredas-mortas: um Fausto no sertão mineiro

Abstract

The present work aims to analyze the faustian tradition at João Guimarães Rosa's novel The Devil to Pay in the Backlands. For this, we start from an analysis of the mythical form and its literary function, based on the theoretical perspective of Barthes (2001) and Mielietinski (1987), following for a study focused on the birth, development and importance of the legend of Faust. In a second moment, the dissertation proposes to verify the text of Rosa in three aspects: The hero as a Faustic character, attempting to the bildungsroman as a mediator process; the Devil as a narrative thread and, finally, the pact (under a metaphysical and social interpretation) as a carrier element of the mythical tradition of negotiating the soul in exchange for reaching certain goals. To develop this dissertation, we have the theoretical support of Anatol Rosenfeld (2009) and Antonio Candido (2002) to a better understanding of the elements that make up The Devil to Pay in the Backlands as a modern novel, as well as the positioning of Riobaldo as a problematic character corresponding to the modern man. Finally, we mention the works As formas do falso (1972) by Walnice Nogueira Galvão and Labirintos da Aprendizagem (2010) by Marcus Mazzari as a starting point for the discussion proposed here.