Reflections on the Short Story “Colisão ou O Espelho Morto” (1964-1965), by Maura Lopes Cançado: Madness Lived from Within

Abstract

This article proposes to discuss the connections between literature, language and madness in the writing of the short story “Colisão ou O espelho morto” (Collision or The Dead Mirror), by the writer from Minas Gerais, Maura Lopes Cançado, published in the Rio de Janeiro periodicals Correio de Manhã and Jornal do Brasil in 1964 and 1965, and later included in the collection O sofredor do ver (The Sufferer of Seeing) (1968). As the main theoretical references, Michel Foucault was used regarding the writing of the self, in addition to the language of madness present in the baroque theater of the 17th century and in the theater and its double of Antonin Artaud, seeking to shift the theoretical framework to the analysis of the short story, especially through the ideas of “Thinking of the Outside” as a space for the language of other possible worlds. From this, the interchange of Foucault’s ideas with Paul Zumthor’s ideas of performance and reading was traced. It was concluded that literature and madness constitute the vivacity of “Collision or The Dead Mirror”, whose elements open space for a void that is not filled by writing, but pursued to its limit in literary creation.