Metamorphoses of the Laughable in Contemporary Satire: Satirical Register and Axiological Assumptions in Gonçalo M. Tavares' Fictional Works

Abstract

The work I set out to develop, in the ambit of literary satire and political/ social reflection, takes as its point of departure a set of ideological presuppositions and postmodern civilizational discourses which value humor as a levelling and ethically neutral or sceptic device, associated to practices of socialization that are largely post-humanist. However, it is to these presuppositions and contexts that Gonçalo M. Tavares’s satirical fiction responds, be it through parody and the burlesque, closer to humor and so complacent and inclusive, or through irony, sarcasm and the grotesque, via the complex deconstructive polyphony or demolishing critique of the author-narrator vis-à-vis the pathologies of the characters and their social, civic and/or political practices. The article surveys the corpus comprised by the works O Senhor Valéry and O Senhor Juarroz, the poliptych O Bairro, the short story collection Água, cão, cavalo, cabeça and the novel Aprender a rezar na Era da Técnica.