"E o mar gerou o Brasil": figurações da épica e da identidade nacional em Invenção do Mar, de Gerardo Mello Mourão

Abstract

The present work aims to analyze the process of creation of literary figurations in the postmodern era present in the Invenção do mar (1997) by Gerardo Mello Mourão. The idea revolves around the bibliographical analysis as a way of evidencing the national identity construction in the work of the author through the epic presupposition in which the work is structurally inserted. Aligned with this, it is striking that Mourão evidences a process of social and multicultural portraiture of Brazil from the earliest years of colonization, emphasizing the relevance in the construction of the "brazilian race" as a great cultural nuance coming from portuguese, africans and natives. The objective of this analysis is to observe two points around Mourão's work: the evidence of an epic premise with a classical influence for the construction of his narrative and the true epic substance when he presumes the subject's identity construction in production literary. For our analysis, we will use as base Bhabha (1998), Hall (2003, 2014), Anderson (2008), Neiva (2009) and Aristoteles (2014). It is hoped by this analysis to build a greater knowledge around the national identity question and to help in the understanding about the persistence of the epic in postmodernity as a unifying and figurative narrative form of the collectivity