Dante Alighieri and Lima Barreto: Possibilities of Intersections and Dialogues

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to approach “limbo” as a concept that refers to the notions of suspension, exception, inclusion and exclusion. Such an approach aims at the dialogue between this concept, its implications and Lima Barreto’s oeuvre, as the author describes (e.g. in his O Cemitério dos Vivos and Diário Íntimo) facts witnessed by himself in the psychiatric hospital to which he had been admitted twice during his brief lifetime. The perception of affinities between Dante Alighieri and Lima Barreto serves as a point of departure for the development of the study herein proposed. We believe that dialectical thinking can bring these two authors closer to each other and, therefore, help us deepen our reflections upon such affinities. From our point of view, dialectics in literature can be materialized by addressing themes that allude to the collective mind. In this sense, the two writers, each in their own time, are singular in critically expressing themselves. Each one expressing concepts such as inclusion and exclusion according to their perceptions of reality and the world in which they lived, making their lives a matter for their literary productions.