O silêncio das epígrafes : a construção das Primeiras estórias

Abstract

O presente trabalho apresenta a hipótese de que Primeiras estórias (1962) é o ponto de chegada a uma expressão estética arduamente conquistada por Guimarães Rosa. Parte dessa conquista estaria alicerçada na experiência epigráfica e em personagens que, de um segundo plano, assomam à frente do palco como protagonistas. Aparentes sucedâneos dos poemas narrativos de Magma (1936) os paratextos parecem ensaios paralelos em que o escritor experimenta a narrativa enxuta pelo recorte de textos alheios, ou criados sob a égide do pseudônimo. As epígrafes não encimam todos os textos que antecedem Primeiras estórias, de modo a chamar a atenção para a correspondência entre paratexto, protagonista e tema. Narrativas que trazem protagonistas crianças, personagens paradigmáticos para a compreensão da família, iniciam a série de textos sem epígrafes. Paralelamente, epígrafes e personagens obrigam à constatação da figura do autor implicado, a qual confirma as opções estéticas do escritor, em especial, a do apreço pela forma narrativa curta.

This thesis proposes the hypothesis that Brazilian writer João Guimarães Rosa’s The Third Bank of the River and Other Stories [Primeiras estórias, 1962; English translation published in 1968] is the author’s arrival point after a strenuous path toward aesthetic expression. Such achievement may be partially explained by the support provided by the book’s epigraphic experience, and also by the use of characters who apparently have a secondary role but eventually spring to the narrative foreground as protagonists. The paratextual elements could be described as “narrative poems”, similar to the ones Rosa wrote for Magma [collected poetry, 1936], as well as “parallel essays”, in which Rosa experiments with the genre of the very short narrative, through the excision and framing of texts written by others or the creation of epigraphs signed by pseudonyms. Not all texts have epigraphs, in order to highlight the correspondence between the paratext, the protagonist and the theme. The narratives where the protagonists are children (who are considered as paradigmatic characters in that they allow us to better understand how families are configured) are placed at the beginning of the section without epigraphs. At the same time, both the epigraphs and the characters in the stories lead us to recognize the presence of an implied author, which is a confirmation of Rosa’s aesthetic choices, especially concerning his preference for the genre of the short narrative.