DEVIR E DESEJO EM VIDAS SECAS

Abstract

this article seeks to demonstrate, from the analysis of the novel Vidas secas, by Graciliano Ramos and from the consideration of its critical fortune, that the cowboy Fabiano and his family, the main characters of the work, manifest a becoming-animal and link themselves to what philosophers Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari denominate “idealistic conception of desire”. Following most of the criticism, we agree that these traits keep the characters passively submitted to the environment’s natural and social oppression, from which they only can leave by evasion. Nonetheless, we also argue (against the hegemonical position of criticism) for the existence of positive aspects in the becoming-animal of the characters, which allows them to resist the inhospitable environment of the Caatinga and, thus, create new forms of existence. In turn, this also assumes another relationship with desire, which is not only one of evasion, but of intervention on reality, which mobilize the characters out of the Caatinga’s environment.