Uma tentativa de discutir uma tragédia anunciada em um conto de Brendan Mathews

Abstract

According to Aristotle a “perfect” tragedy has the power of producing a complexity of emotions and sensations that result in catharsis, the purging of our senses. Therefore, observing the compilation of feelings in the short-story My last attempt to explain to you what happened with the lion tamer (2010) from the North-American writer Brendan Mathews, it is a goal in this work to discuss the dramatic features that corroborate with Aristotle’s Poetics and its purgatory and dramatic theory. Due to the fact that the story is totally affected by the character’s actions, an analysis of these ones will be held along with Beth Brait’s theory in her book A personagem (1985). Through these paradoxical characters stands up the figure of the trapeze artist, the one who seduces and involves the male figures in the story, raising a question about her place on the trapeze and also in people’s imaginary; what makes her irresistible and especially what makes her – no matter the efforts – unattainable. To make this discussion possible some concepts in Cleide Rapucci’s book Mulher e deusa (2011), will be used.