Ritos de passagem: ceremony, alchemy and initiation through the stages of life in Ana Paula Tavares

Abstract

This work intends to investigate the theme of poetry, memory and ritualistic and alchemical image in Ana Paula Tavares and, especially in the work Rites of passage, her first published work, which took place in 1985. In this book, there is a self- lyrical that talks about his ritual of existence using themes that cover everything from birth to death, from childhood to the world of discoveries, from puberty to life in transition and ritualistic phases; women's freedom of choice and betrayal as a dissonant element in the marital relationship. Tavares proposes to talk about women's language, their experiences, their pleasure and experiences inserted in the sociocultural context, as well as the result of this feminine discourse based on what the lyrical self enunciates in the poems, that is, memories that coexist associated with the metalinguistic plane , semiotic (verbal and non-verbal aspect of the sign) and poetic construction and creation and, in addition, proposes to weave paradoxical relationships established by the dichotomy of the clear enigma, of light and shadow, of life and death, in short, of points engendered in the social relationship that favors the metamorphosis and transformation of the individual in the collective sphere. Considering this horizon, this study intends to investigate the link between the Rites of passage and the structures of the ritualistic and alchemical imaginary, just as the alchemists sought the transmutation of vile metals so that man could achieve enlightenment, the philosopher's stone, that is, the self -lyrical undertakes an ontological search, intertwining the poetic with ritual and alchemical symbolism, with the aim of unveiling, as in the process of alchemy, the epiphany and encounter of the self with oneself, which happens intertwined with the metaphor of fruits proposed by the writer, as they reveal a feminine condition of freedom, learning and transgression in the face of patriarchal discourse. To do so, we will use authors such as: José Luandino Vieira (2014), Arnold Van Gennep (2011), Norbert Elias (1994), among others.