A Tale of a Certain Orient (The Vision of Identity and Otherness Concerning Arab Models in Modern Brazilian Literature)

• Main Author: Alva MARTÍNEZ TEIXEIRO
• Format: Article
• Language: Catalan
• Published: Universidad de Salamanca 2015-02-01
• Series: 1616
• Subjects: oriente; brasil; novela; identidad; alteridad
• Online Access: https://revistas.usal.es/index.php/1616_Anuario_Literatura_Comp/article/view/12440

This article intends to critically examine one of most interesting phenomena in modern Brazilian literature: the literary reflection over the identity and otherness regarding the eastern Arab stereotype. The study of the re-creation of East, which is generally carried out by authors of Arab descent living in one of the western periphery –Brazil– focuses on the idea of novel as the fictional means to renew identities. This conception has been introduced by authors such as Raduan Nassar and Milton Hatoum. It will also be analised a different perspective regarding the ontological and cultural distinction between both poles: the traslation as a singular process of art, which encourages the integration of a heterogeneous synthesis of ideas and aesthetic «eastern» principles in the novel of Alberto Mussa O enigma de Qaf, or in Marco Lucchesi’s poetry book Isfahan.