PERSONAGENS SEM ROSTO OU A ÉTICA DA PERSONAGEM (NO ROMANCE BARROCO)

Abstract

The goal of this article concerning a reflection on the ontological existence of the character in the “baroque” novel lies not so much on the discursive methodology used by novelists of that era to introduce figures of fiction in allegorical universes; it lies instead on a number of questions on the existence or non-existence of the “character” and the place of its aesthetical autonomy in an universe not yet compelled to legitimate (or to portray) the individual. Starting from the theoretical reflection that has been developed within the “Figuras da Ficção” project, and with the 16th and 17th centuries’ “libros de pastores” as a textual canvas, one will assess how, before Garrett, the character can be presented as an ethical and social model (shepherds, knights, nymphs and satyrs), based on the confrontation between Utopia, History and Fiction. One can therefore presume the possibility of deeming pastoral characters as “faceless figures” that, however, seem to already exist as characters. As a demonstrative argument, one will use cinematographic reconfiguration of the characters from L’Astrée employed in Eric Rohmer’s latest movie (Romance of Astree and Celadon, 2007): Celadon’s androgynous face states, in a way, the essential ambiguity of the face (or the non-face) of Sheppard Peregrino de Rodrigues Lobo, without illuding, in the 17th century, the novelist conscience of the “protagonist”, which the filmography of the french director makes sense out of in the 21^st century.