O tempo da morte: uma leitura filosófica de Enquanto Agonizo, de William Faulkner
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Data
2019-12-13
Autores
Barros, Leila de Almeida [UNESP]
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Universidade Estadual Paulista (Unesp)
Resumo
No romance Enquanto agonizo (1930) o modernista estadunidense William Faulkner apresenta a jornada da família Bundren que, a fim de enterrar o corpo de sua matriarca, marca a saga de Yoknapatawpha com uma emblemática e tragicômica jornada até Jefferson, sede do condado imaginado pelo escritor. Em trânsito constante, os enlutados membros da família seguem absortos em um trio de conflitos – internos; entre si; e com seu tempo, lugar e meio. Comum às narrativas faulknerianas, o luto gera, mormente, a reflexão acerca daquilo que foi perdido, mas que permanece latente na memória, bem como acerca do que pode ou não ser reconstruído sobre as ruínas que restaram no presente. Ademais, o ciclo infindável da morte, expresso no título do romance no idioma original (As I Lay Dying), e a agonia, que figura no título traduzido para a língua portuguesa, atestam a experiência temporal da modernidade como marcada por irreparáveis perdas nos campos da metafísica, da teologia e da estética. A ênfase do autor nos aspectos existenciais das principais personagens dessa narrativa, por meio da exploração artística do fenômeno da morte, revela uma dimensão filosófica da obra faulkneriana ainda pouco estudada pela crítica. Nosso objetivo neste trabalho é o de evidenciar – por meio da recorrência às reflexões de filósofos modernos e contemporâneos como Arthur Schopenhauer, Martin Heidegger e Maurice Blanchot – como as reflexões feitas por Addie Bundren de dentro de seu caixão conectam a vida à morte em um movimento pendular, perpetrando seus silêncios e vazios por todos os elementos constituintes do romance. O it em que a personagem se transforma e seu cadáver em trânsito são evidências de uma existência que, mesmo transformada pelo tempo, permanece como que suspensa em agonia pelas rodas da carroça que levam a família protagonista até seu destino final. Cada uma dessas rodas que sustenta Addie e todo o restante da família Bundren – à exceção de Anse – pode ser nomeada com conceitos que permanecem em constante movimento de construção/desconstrução pelas próprias personagens em seus monólogos filosóficos: morte; existência; tempo; silêncio. Em Enquanto agonizo esses e outros conceitos tornam-se questões ontológicas, por isso a filosofia nos auxilia a abrir caminho para uma infinidade de novas análises de um romance que é por vezes reduzido pela crítica especializada como mero relato caleidoscópico de uma jornada familiar homérica.
In the novel As I Lay Dying (1930) the American modernist William Faulkner presents the journey of the Bundren family, one that marks the Yoknapatawpha saga with a symbolic and tragic journey to Jefferson, the seat of the author’s imaginary County, with the objective of burying the family’s matriarch. Continuously moving, the family members remain engrossed in a trio of internal conflicts – with themselves; among each other; and with their time, place and environment. Mourning, common to Faulknerian narratives, mainly generates a reflection on what has been lost but which remains dormant in memory, as well as on what may or may not be rebuilt on the ruins that have remained in present times. Moreover, the endless cycle of death, expressed in the title of the novel in the original language, and the agony, which appears in the title translated into Portuguese (Enquanto agonizo), vouch for the temporal experience of modernity as marked by irreparable losses in the fields of metaphysics, theology and aesthetics. The author’s emphasis on the existential facets of the main narrative characters, through the artistic exploration of the phenomenon of death, reveals a philosophical dimension of faulknerian works that remain insufficiently studied by critics. Our goal in this thesis is to demonstrate – by recurring to the reflections of modern and contemporary philosophers such as Arthur Schopenhauer, Martin Heidegger, and Maurice Blanchot – how Addie Bundren’s ponderings from within her coffin connect death and life, perpetrating their silences and voids through all the constituent elements of the novel. The it into which the character transforms herself and her transient corpse are evidence of an existence that, even though changed by time, remains suspended in agony by the wheels of the wagon that takes the protagonist family to its final destination. Each of these wheels that sustains Addie and the rest of the Bundren family – except for Anse – can be named with concepts that remain in constant construction/deconstruction by the main characters in their philosophical monologues: death; existence; time; silence. In As I Lay Dying, these and other concepts become ontological issues. That is why philosophy helps us pave the way for a plethora of new analyzes of a novel that is sometimes reduced by criticism as a kaleidoscopic account of a Homeric family journey
In the novel As I Lay Dying (1930) the American modernist William Faulkner presents the journey of the Bundren family, one that marks the Yoknapatawpha saga with a symbolic and tragic journey to Jefferson, the seat of the author’s imaginary County, with the objective of burying the family’s matriarch. Continuously moving, the family members remain engrossed in a trio of internal conflicts – with themselves; among each other; and with their time, place and environment. Mourning, common to Faulknerian narratives, mainly generates a reflection on what has been lost but which remains dormant in memory, as well as on what may or may not be rebuilt on the ruins that have remained in present times. Moreover, the endless cycle of death, expressed in the title of the novel in the original language, and the agony, which appears in the title translated into Portuguese (Enquanto agonizo), vouch for the temporal experience of modernity as marked by irreparable losses in the fields of metaphysics, theology and aesthetics. The author’s emphasis on the existential facets of the main narrative characters, through the artistic exploration of the phenomenon of death, reveals a philosophical dimension of faulknerian works that remain insufficiently studied by critics. Our goal in this thesis is to demonstrate – by recurring to the reflections of modern and contemporary philosophers such as Arthur Schopenhauer, Martin Heidegger, and Maurice Blanchot – how Addie Bundren’s ponderings from within her coffin connect death and life, perpetrating their silences and voids through all the constituent elements of the novel. The it into which the character transforms herself and her transient corpse are evidence of an existence that, even though changed by time, remains suspended in agony by the wheels of the wagon that takes the protagonist family to its final destination. Each of these wheels that sustains Addie and the rest of the Bundren family – except for Anse – can be named with concepts that remain in constant construction/deconstruction by the main characters in their philosophical monologues: death; existence; time; silence. In As I Lay Dying, these and other concepts become ontological issues. That is why philosophy helps us pave the way for a plethora of new analyzes of a novel that is sometimes reduced by criticism as a kaleidoscopic account of a Homeric family journey
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Literatura e filosofia, Modernismo norte-americano, Morte, Existência, Tempo, Silêncio, Literature and philosophy, American modernism, Death, Existence, Time, Silence