The Construction of the Actor “Boy” in “As margens da alegria”

Abstract

This study is part of our undergraduate research carried out in 2010, which aimed at analyzing the construction of the actor “boy” in four short stories in Primeiras estórias by João Guimarães Rosa. As in other works by the same author, the actors not only represent the local color but acquire a universal dimension. Among the actors of Primeiras estórias, we come across the figures of farmers, cowboys, workers, outcasts, insane characters, but the children have a special place in his work. The actor “boy”, protagonist of the opening text called “As margens da alegria”, is the object of this analysis supported by the French Semiotics theory. It is worth pointing out that the actor “boy” is also the main character in the final short story “Os cimos”, and, in both texts, he is established primarily as a cognitive and passionate subject. The objective is to analyze the construction of the actor “boy” in the analyzed text, by observing how he faces the process of acquisition of knowing of the ephemeral states of happiness and how the changes in his states of feelings and his beliefs happen through the acquisition of this cognitive object.