Reflections on Macunaíma, by Mário de Andrade, in the light of limin thinking concept

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to perform a partial analysis of Macunaíma (1928), by Mário de Andrade, from the perspective of some subjects covered by Mignolo in Histórias locais, projetos globais (2003). The idea is to understand how a Brazilian literary work reflects the dilemmas of the "subaltern" and "marginal" condition of Latin American countries like Brazil, on the scenario of the Eurocentric thought standards. Considering border thinking, modernity and coloniality concepts (MIGNOLO, 2003), this analysis will be done in two steps. Initially it will be made some considerations about how the plot depicts the tensions between the colonized (Brazilian) and the colonizer (European), taking into account the questioning narrative against traditional patterns and the language adopted in the work. Then it will be studied the chapter entitled "Cartas pras icamiabas", realizing in which way the choice of linguistic expression reveals an epistemic resistance to conventional language of European Portuguese, and how the civilizing tendencies of a rationalizing logic are satirized and denied. Thus, we seek to comprehend Mignolo's approach along with the issues raised in Macunaíma about the affirmation of the Latin American/ Brazilian ways of thought, resistant to an only form of knowledge (Western's).