The Nostalgic Affect on Graciliano Ramos' Novel Anguish

Abstract

We aim, in this article, to demonstrate that the nostalgic affect is fundamental on the form/content construction of Graciliano Ramos' novel called Anguish. In order to examine the edification of this feeling on this book, we have investigated how the form/content of Anguish constructs ontological tensions originated from the affects of deep sadness. In order to achieve this objective, we have used critical essays about this narrative, such as the ones written by Luis Bueno (2015), Rui Mourao (1971), Liicia Helena Carvalho (1983) etc, and studies that lay the historical foundation on the nostalgic affect, and its relations with the melancholy, via, especially, A tinta da melancholia (2015), by Jean Starobinski, A politica da nostalgia, by Marcos Piason Natali (2006) and A potencia estetica da nostalgia, by Andre Antonio Barbosa (2019). Our exegesis has showed that the figuration Luis da Silva's sense of unbelonging, constructed through an incessant temporal movement of the speech, is not only the outcome of historical conflicts; it also derives from the representation of psychological conflicts, highly subjectives, powered by a major nostalgic feeling, building the tragical malaise of the protagonist.