Revista Subjetividades
Print version ISSN 2359-0769On-line version ISSN 2359-0777
Abstract
SCORSOLINI-COMIN, Fabio and SANTOS, Manoel Antônio dos. What Substance Makes up Love?: Building conjugality in Guimarães Rosa. Rev. Subj. [online]. 2014, vol.14, n.1, pp.18-28. ISSN 2359-0769.
This study aims to discuss the process of forming love/conjugal bonds through the analysis of the short-story entitled "Substância" (Substance) by Guimarães Rosa, present in his book Primeiras Estórias (First Stories), published in 1962. It seeks to comprehend the influence the choice of love has had over the subjectivity of the main characters, Sionésio e Maria Exita. Following Fulgencio's (2013) orientations on analysing works-of-art, it presents an in-depth analysis of conjugality and intergerational psychic transmission on a psychoanalytic perspective. Maria's affectional bonds with her family are marked by negativity, bearing the possibility of keeping sinful, transgressive and morbid traditions alive. With time, she ceases to be a meek girl and becomes a beautiful woman, cultivating Sionésios love. At the moment he allows himself to see Maria Exita's essence (or her substance, beyond the sour starch), new conditions are created so that love could arise and fulfil the emptiness of his life. All the daunting memories that haunted their lives are mitigated by the brightness of the sour starch macerated on the slab; a process of transforming the substance which links the couple: the loving feeling. Thus, conjugality plays an important role in transforming the characters identities, reached by recognising the other as a trigger for psychic reorganization.
Keywords : love; marital relationships; intergerational psychic transmission; psychoanalysis and literature; guimarães rosa.