PERSPECTIVAS LITERÁRIAS DE GRANDES CONFLITOS DE NOSSA HISTÓRIA EM NETTO PERDE SUA ALMA (1997), DE TABAJARA RUAS

Abstract

This article proposes to reflect about the importance of the new historical novels regarding the gaps existing in a text that, according to Iser (1979), are awaken in the reader especially through the literary one. Every novel features this characteristic, although, it is undeniable that, through the reading of the genre at issue, the reader is pushed to fill these gaps far beyond their perspectives; it is done through research in historical sources, or even through the reading of other works on the same subject. This occurs during the reading or when the reading is already done, once the reader questions the whole time, among narrated facts, what is fiction, what is historical fact, what are the intentions of the narrative voices in the construction of discourses. The reader that engages in the reading of a new historical novel puts great demands upon him/herself and other sources to reach the catharsis defended by Jauss (1979) in his texts on the Aesthetics of Reception. The analysis we propose will focus on Tabajara Ruas' Netto perde sua alma (1997), which has as its general theme the many revolts that General Netto took part in, among them the Ragamuffin War (1835-1845) and the Paraguayan War (1864-1870). We seek to highlight what writing resources were used to the configuration of the character and its effects in the process of reading History through fiction.