THE POETICS OF THE BODY IN QUEIROSIAN CHARACTERS: MESSENGERS OF DOOM, BETWEEN GOD AND THE DEVIL

Abstract

In the novels of Eça de Queirós, the observation of the process through which is expressed, and especially suggested, the imaginary carnality of the characters constitutes one of the most fertile and seductive characteristics of the work of the greatest Portuguese Realist author. Frequently, however, the representation of the body of many of these characters constitutes only a means to talk about something else – or, simply, a likelihood or a frame to authorize the very character to speak, that is, to provide information to other characters and to the reader. Indeed, for example in the author’s masterpiece The Maias, there are characters who are particularly useful for the messages they enounce: they are messengers, informants, whose mission, that of revealing a diegetic truth, is the main purpose of their narrative function, that almost completely absorbs them and, because of this, to a certain extent, de-carnalizes them and weakens their physical density. Independently of the manner in which the narrative refers to the representation of their body, it is in these cases determined by its functional char acter that thematically relegates the body to a secondary position. This is the case of Castro Gomes or Guimarães, for example. It is specifically this instrumental and episodic level of the physical mention that will be prominently addressed in this presentation, based on the categorization proposed by Francis Berthelot. I will aim here to understand the manner in which the novelistic representation of corporality works in the cases of these characters and their particular functions as enunciators. What semantic-symbolic resonance and relevance does the problematic physical representation of these characters acquire? What unsuspected value does the body have in this novel?