Percurso simbólico do espaço em contos de Mia Couto sob a perspectiva de Gaston Bachelard

Abstract

This work aims at studying the symbolic dimension as well as the poetization of the space within four short stories of the book, The thread of beads (O fio das missangas), by the Mozambican writer, Mia Couto, published in Brazil in 2009. The corpus was composed by the following short stories: A matter of honor, and The grandmother, The city and the traffic lights, in which spaces are built to house the elderly in society, then the short stories The wrinkled skirt and The basket spaces where the woman‟s oppression were made present. The proposal of this analysis was to reflect upon the ways in which the image is transformed into a new being of language, becoming a change of expression that is a change of our being . The studies developed by the French philosopher Gaston Bachelard in The poetics of the space, where life shows a profound and daring novelty, and The Poetics of the Air and the Dreams, which studies the mobile and creative function of the making of art, as a privileged function in regards to the perceptions were used as theoretical framework. The concept of space here is taken as a tool of analysis of the human soul, in that it acquires floating and imaginary traits of mythical and symbolic order, as proposed by Jean Chevalier and Gheerbrant in the Dictionary of Symbol. In addition, the studies on African literature and culture, especially critical literary studies carried out by Maria Fernanda Afonso, Ana Mafalda Leite, Carmem Lúcia Secco, Maria Zilda Cury and by Mia Couto himself were considered important. Thus, we sought to reflect upon the way this particular author has to perform his creative transfiguration, bring to life not only a master piece full of enchantment, but also it provides us with a much deeper dimension of the human soul.