O Ex-cêntrico como herói: uma análise entre João Tordo e Javier Cercas

Abstract

The current dissertation, having as theorists of reference: Linda Hutcheon (1991), Georg Lucáks (2011) and Martin Cezar Feijó (1984), analyses the works Soldados de Salamina (2001), by Javier Cercas and Anatomia dos mártires (2011), by João Tordo. Both João Tordo’s Portuguese novel and Javier Cercas’ Spanish novel are assigned in the category of historiographical metafiction, in which they similarly present a construction based on representative historical facts - the Spanish Civil War, for Cercas, and Salazar’s dictatorship, for Tordo – and pervaded by a historical gap that remains irresolute. With this configuration, the narratives present a historical outlook that departs from a standpoint that escapes the crystallized view by the history. This new view is given by an eccentric character, that, in these narratives, present a mythic condition of hero, possessing the characteristics that brings it closer to the classic hero – epic or tragic. Therefore, it is presented the theoretical ground that discusses the relationship between literature and history, the characterization of the historical novels, the subversion of the genre occurred with the advent of post-modern literature and the perpetuation of the classic characteristics that build the narrative of the eccentric characters, justifying the impossibility of filling the historical gaps that move the novels.