Madness, time and the writing of history in the fiction of José Alcides Pinto

the novel Entre o sexo: a loucura, a morte (1968)

Abstract

This paper focuses on the fictional production of José Alcides Pinto (1923-2008), a journalist, professor and writer from Santana do Acaraú – CE, who was awarded the Olavo Bilac Prize by the Brazilian Academy of Letters (2008) for his body of work. Author of a vast number of books, with emphasis on poetry and novels, Alcides Pinto played an active role in the national literary scene, especially in the 1960s and 1970s. The following text analyzes the temporal dimension of his novel Entre o sexo: a louca, a morte (Between sex: madness, death) from 1968 (Gráfica Record Editora), a work with a non-linear plot and narration, rich in figurations about madness and history, which develop in a complex plot marked by disorder. Reflecting on these characteristics, it is proposed that the novel strains the traditional boundaries between history and fiction through the use of narrative modes such as myth and satire and literary clichés such as the figure of the madman. Based on the ideas of his characters, the writer allows his reader the possibility of reading a temporal experience that proposes the explosion of historical rationality and the celebration of another relationship with the past. The study reinforces the idea of ​​opening up Historiography to the aesthetic, linguistic and creative freedom resources of Fiction so that the former can better understand the historicity of the latter.