Decadent features: a reading of Estive em Lisboa e lembrei de você

Abstract

In 2009, writer Luiz Ruffato published the novel Estive em Lisboa e lembrei de você, whose protagonist, Serginho, from Minas Gerais, decides to migrate to Portugal after repeated failures. During the narrative, Portuguese characters are presented who, attached to a past of conquests, show difficulties in dealing with the reality in which they live. In view of this, the aim of this work is to verify the extent to which some of the Portuguese characters in Estive em Lisboa e lembrei de você are characterized by a reality deficit and how, frequently in the narrative, Portugal is addressed with the label of a decadent country. We also analyzed the productivity of the dialogue with Fernando Pessoa for the decadent nature of the protagonist. To this end, the following literary texts were read and analyzed: Estive em Lisboa e lembrei de você and the poem "Tabacaria", by Fernando Pessoa-Álvaro de Campos. In order to investigate the representation of Portugal as a decadent or peripheral country, we sought theoretical support from Boaventura de Sousa Santos (2003) - who, in the text "Entre Próspero e Caliban", states that since the 17th century Portugal has occupied a semi-peripheral position - Margarida Calafate Ribeiro (2003) and Eduardo Lourenço (2012). Laurent Jenny's theoretical formulations on intertextuality were indispensable in the analysis. The results point to the combination of decadent features in the novel: that of the Portuguese characters – which suggests Portugal's semi-peripheral position – and the decadent feature of the protagonist, the Brazilian, who, unemployed, goes to live on the outskirts of Lisbon and accepts work as a bricklayer's helper. Thus, aware of his failure, the protagonist, at the end of the novel, dialoguing with Pessoa-Campos' poem, goes into a tobacconist's shop to buy a cigarette, the only relief for someone who is aware that he has failed at everything.