Noble Women, Ignible Monkeys: Nelson Rodrigues and Sherazade

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5433/boitata.2017v12.e32950

Keywords:

Nelson Rodrigues, One Thousand and One Nights, Sexual obsessions, Archetypes.

Abstract

A short story by Brazilian author Nelson Rodrigues and a tale told by Shahrazad in One Thousand and One Nights have a striking affinity in their subjects and atmosphere, despite of the reverse fate of the two protagonists after meeting an enormous ape. One of them departs from her wedding celebration and life renewing to being swallowed up by death, while the other one departs from a destruction process to being rescued back to life. In both cases, an obsession for a monstrous animal comes up. This animal is a symbol of the most primitive forces underneath our fragile and superficial layer of civilization. Both stories retake the psychoanalytic idea of human requirement to renouncing or at least controlling our instincts as a base for civilization and they have many convergences, in spite of belonging to very diverse epochs and cultures. Through a close reading approach, this article analyzes the two stories, their meanings, and the narrative strategies used by the two authors.

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Author Biography

Adriano de Paula Rabelo, Universidade de São Paulo

PhD in Brazilian Literature and postdoctoral fellow in History at the Universidade de São Paulo.

References

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Published

2017-12-27

How to Cite

Rabelo, A. de P. (2017). Noble Women, Ignible Monkeys: Nelson Rodrigues and Sherazade. Boitatá, 12(24), 99–114. https://doi.org/10.5433/boitata.2017v12.e32950

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