Dialética da impossibilidade social (ou a dialética do sonho e do impedimento): um estudo sobre João Antônio

Abstract

In this study we investigate João Antônio's literature from a specific interpretation of the essay “Dialética da malandragem”, by Antonio Candido. We suggest that if, in addition to a division between poles, in which obedience to laws and customs is considered as a line that separates order and disorder, dialectics can also understand a social logic that divides the country into hierarchical classes among themselves, it will be possible to notice in his texts the literary representation of a system that naturalizes violence and impossibilities, in the mold of a country project that wants to be advantageous for the few and adverse for the many. What we are indicating - which also involves the notes of the "Dialética da marginalidade" - is a conception that starts from the point of view of João Antônio's own characters to try to understand how this specific logic of inequalities affects the texts of the author, who was notable precisely for the interpretation of the Brazilian popular classes. It is as a synthesis of this literary analysis and its probable correspondence with the concrete life of the country that we name the model as the dialectic of social impossibility. It is a proposal that begins with Candido's analytical method and is structured on the perspective of these characters to identify the mechanisms that try to define their place in the world, which meticulously seems to intend to bequeath them violence, impossibility, and abandonment. In view of this, in this study we focus on the known fictional texts by João Antônio, prioritizing those in which the popular classes are markedly addressed and in which the author privileges the figure of the malandro and his contacts with small bandits. Thus, our corpus of analysis is composed of eight short stories from the book Contos reunidos, which brings together all the author's fictional production. Our hypothesis suggests a new debate regarding the work of João Antônio, indicating that it should be seen as the literary representation of the functioning of the social structure organization that affects concrete life of people and classes in the country.