Cenários histórico-literários de uma nação na prosa de Ana Miranda

Abstract

This document aims at comprehending the formation process of the national awareness as well as the Brazilian identity in Ana Miranda‟s works, focusing on the novel Desmundo (1996). To do so, it is taken into account the relevance of the important post-modern concept of „presenting of the past‟ in the literary and contemporary texts and the way this concept introduces issues related to the process of construction of the national identity in the novels of historiographic metafiction. Therefore, based upon a descriptive and analytical bibliographical methodology, it is presented theoretical and methodological discussions raised by scholars of post-modernity, formation of awareness and national identity such as: Hutcheon (1991), Baudrillard (1991; 2001), Jameson (2002; 2006), White (2001), Renan (1997), Anderson (2008), Santos (1997), Guibernau (1997), Bhabha (1997; 1998), Hall (2003), Bauman (2005), and so forth. In the analysis of Miranda‟s works it is discussed the formation of the Brazilian nation and the national awareness since its genesis – the colonial period - , which is, broadly speaking, based on transgression, prejudice and discrimination, in a taken-as „rigorous‟ classes structure and power abuse. Furthermore, it is examined the parody presence of the foundational myth, as well as the origin of the nation and the Brazilian identity, emphasizing the importance of the individual acknowledgement. To sum up, it can be noticed that the protagonist of the novel can be taken as a standard of representation of this process of identity acknowledgement. Such process is, at the same time, a plural, multifaceted and decentralized one.