Allegorical reconfigurations of a Revolution

Abstract

To discuss the meanings caused by the dictatorial action of the Portuguese president Oliveira Salazar, this article intends to present reflections on a very important episode of the novel Paisagem com mulher e mar ao fundo (Teolinda Gersão, 1982). Our intention is thinking about the political content of this historical moment as well as the fictional resources used by the novelist to describe this fact, whose meanings go beyond the historical punctuality. We take advantage of the central notion called “event” which, according to Jacques Derrida, doesn’t mean the real fact, but a reality of language. Furthermore, we will consider the concepts of “deconstruction” and “difference”, essential to ones understand what the French philosopher calls “writer”, that means a literary language as a process, “deviate”. The function of the “writer” is to disrupt the fact and re-configurate it to become an “event” in other space or sphere. By means of this punctuality, the Portuguese writer Teolinda Gersão utilizes allegories to call into question not only the power as a system, but also the revolutionary mass which intends to overthrow it. Visionary look, mythology, sacralization, religious rites, profanation, polyphony are aesthetic resources that enable questions about the April Revolution in Portugal. Our critical corpus is constituted by several authors such as Roland Barthes, Octavio Paz, Walter Benjamin, José Miguel Wisnik and Flávio Kothe.