Religious identities in the novel Marajó, by Dalcídio Jurandir

Abstract

The novel Marajó is one of the most important works of Dalcídio Jurandir, Amazonian writer, identified by critics as one of the canons of Amazon literature expression. The story of the book takes place in the city of Ponta de Pedras, in Marajó archipelago, located at the mouth of the Amazon. This book and nine other novels of the writer compose the "Cycle Far North" and reveals, with literary primacy, the historical and cultural complexity of the region. Here, we will take as the object of study, specifically, religious practices and their cultural diversities, from the characters Manuel Rodrigues, Master Jesuíno and Nhá Leonardina. We consider the romance genre as a universe of multiple languages, which presents the reader, sociocultural conditions can reveal, in great detail, the cultural practices of societies at different historical moments. Also we have considered in the discussions that propose the identity as a process always under construction, which fits into a tension between the local and the global. Finalizing our references, we seek to support the work of scholars in Dalcídio Jurandir and researchers who investigated the religious practices in the Amazon. The construction of the three characters lets see how the religiosity of these populations constitute Marajoaras with religious practices established by the Portuguese colonization and indigenous cosmologies, African and other traditions that have come and are still coming to the region.