AWARENESS OF MAN IN OPPOSITION THE IMPLACABILITY OF TIME: CONFLICT IN VIAGEM AOS SEIOS DE DUÍLIA, BY ANÍBAL MACHADO

Abstract

In modernity, due to the process of acceleration that the perception of time suffers in this new era - especially in the 20th century -, the time shall be experienced by the subject in an almost obsessive and confrontational way. This work aims to analyze how the various formal elements of the tale Viagem aos seios de Duília, by Aníbal Machado, converges to the disclosure of conflict introduced inside the protagonist, that is precisely because of his awareness of misfit between he and the world he lives. In Viagem aos seios de Duília, narrative focus, time and space build together the meaning of the tale. The degradation of spatial elements does be revealed, in narrative, the consciousness about the irreversibility of time – fact that is experienced by the protagonist as a conflict of existential order insofar it shows him what he refuses to see: the huge misfit between their beliefs and expectations and the external reality. The inexorability of time progression toward the total destruction of everything that is alive becomes for the character the tyranny of time; in continuous and constant war with this, trying to deny their relentless effects, the character find, however, only suffering, anguish and defeat this illusory endeavor. Nothing can endure - neither the man nor his dreams, nor their hopes, not even their illusions.