A representação dos contadores de histórias em Sagarana

Abstract

This work investigates the representation of the storyteller in four tales of Sagarana, by João Guimarães Rosa, published in 1946. For that purpose, the characterisation of characters-narrators and characters-listeners; the techniques applied by the storytellers when structuring their narratives and the effects they intend or can have upon the listeners they interact with and upon themselves were analysed. Furthermore, comparisons between the strategies applied by the characters-narrators and those applied by the main narrator of the text in which such characters are included were carried out. By the end of the research, the main conclusion was that the narrator who is set in first person undertakes a process of discursive complexification in his report as compared to the narrator who uses third person. It was noticed that the narrators are characterised, as a whole, by the naive way through which they interact with their listeners, ensured by factors such as naturalness, intimacy, trust and complicity. It was also observed that the main effects the narrators reports provoke or tend to provoke upon their listeners and upon themselves are: the therapeutic effect, deriving from the comfort motivated by the need to speak; the cathartic effect, deriving from the relief experienced through the identification with the issue being reported; the aesthetic effect, which releases individuals, momentarily, from the constraints brought about by everyday routine