The 100-year-ols Saci: a mythocrtytic analyses on Saci Pererê - result of an inquiry

Abstract

This article revisits the book O Saci Pererê – resulto of an inquiry, organized by Monteiro Lobato in 1918. The Inquiry counts on more than 70 testimonials that gives us plural versions of the most Brazilian of the myths; the saci - a black and legless imp with a red cap inherited from the European gnomes and with indigenous origin. Starting with the identification of the Canonical Narrative and the recognition of the symbolic coverage of the Name of the myth, this works develops a mythocritic analysis based on the archetypological aspect of the General Theory of the Imaginary, seeking to highlight the symbolic constellations that emerge from the ouvre. Tensioning readings that the text would evoke racist and demonized images, through the analysis we’ve found the following mythologems: the Indigenous, the Bird, the Slave, the Transgressor, the Demon and the Hero, which show an innate complexity in the myth as that who hesitates between ally and punisher, between the devil and the elect of God, between the deviation used to maintain the status quo and the inspiration for freedom.