Abstract

ROCHA, Clara. Towards a reading of "Um casaco de raposa vermelha" by Teolinda Gersão. Diacrítica [online]. 2012, vol.26, n.3, pp.185-191. ISSN 0807-8967.

Teolinda Gersão’s short story “Um casaco de raposa vermelha” (A Mulher que Prendeu a Chuva, 2007) is a tale of metamorphosis. As in some of Ovid's Metamorphoses, the transformation is provoked by a casual glance that unleashes the force of desire. But while in Ovid the transformation is divine punishment for the accidental transgressive gaze, in this story, it releases the female protagonist from a trivial destiny and transports her to a more natural instinctive identity, which she experiences with the joyfulness of an escape. The reading presented in this paper highlights features such as the careful analysis of the subject of desire and the inner force driving her; the representation of the different stages in the process of identity mutation; the alternation between figurations that animalize the character and others that momentarily restore a humanizing rationality; the wealth of sensory detail, and the rhythmic effects generated by the narrative technique. Finally, attention turns to the metamorphosis that takes place on the level of the text itself; for having started out as a diary-like fragment in Os Guarda-Chuvas Cintilantes (1984), it was later included in the collection A Mulher que Prendeu a Chuva, a recontextualization that not only reveals it to be a work in progress but also completely alters the reading suggested by the first version.

Keywords : metamorphosis; gaze; desire; escape; release.

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