RASTROS SILENCIOSOS DA MORTE: ALMAS ENCARCERADAS PELAS PERDAS EM “A DESUMANIZAÇÃO”, DE VALTER HUGO MÃE

Abstract

The idea of death is accompanied not only by the form of how someone deals with a loss, but it is also a theme in which meaning is not present, which makes it responsible for the fear and denial suffered by many individuals. This phenomenon, inescapable to humankind, is capable of framing intersections and connections between different areas of knowledge, thus enabling interesting and significant reflections. But death is not restricted simply to a conception of the body’s efface of life, but it is also related to psychic and social purposes. Considering these points, the present text, in a dialogue between literature and psychoanalysis, focuses on the novel A desumanização, published in 2013, by the Portuguese writer Valter Hugo Mãe. Our focus is on a reflection on the way by which death makes itself present throughout the narrative, considering its multiple manifestations and the different regards and reactions of the characters when they face this indecipherable phenomenon, which has always been, somehow, attached to the mysteries of reality. In this context, our theoretical framework was structured, mainly, on the basis of Freud (1915; 1926; 1927), Kovács (1992), Silva (2005), Safatle (2018) and Mbembe (2018).