[In the following essay, Zilberman examines the use of myth in Brazilian literature, noting that many narratives employing this technique have as a main theme the justification of the way society is organized.]

MYTH AND BRAZILIAN LITERARY TRADITION

Because myth is a mode of expression consolidated by verbal language, and because it is present in all human societies, it commands a position of vital importance in cultural life. It shows a marked preference for the narrative form, and although its history cannot be traced chronologically, we know that it goes back to the first, most primitive societies. Indeed, these societies could not do without it, and they transformed it into a vigorous institution, able to survive independently of the human groups from which it sprang.

Autonomous and self-sufficient by virtue of its ability to supersede the original circumstances which produced it, myth is quite simply narration, or to be more precise, it recounts the actions of imaginary human beings, following a chronological order to time, and possessing an organization which is internal to it. It is this definition which figures in Aristotle's Ars Poetica.² He not only corroborated the autonomy of this type of narrative, but also considered it the central and crystallizing element in all artistic composition. Following this same line of reasoning, myth frees itself from any links with the society which first produced it, and shows us that its particular significance springs, above all, from the ordering of its various parts. It is the mainspring for the achievement of mimesis, to the extent that it becomes not only the evaluator of the fictional nature of literature, but the basic condition for the artistic value contained in this fiction to achieve its effect. Transferred to the intimacy of literary art, myth renews and amplifies its place in human culture inviting the literary theorist to describe its characteristics.

If one examines myth in the light of Aristotle's definition, it would appear to abdicate from the original content placed in it by its producers. Nevertheless, this is strictly speaking, not a precise conclusion, given that the material which Aristotle was dealing with did not consist of independent narratives, fruits of the individuality of their authors, but rather the entire corpus of Greek mythology, which, time and time again, provided material for playwrights and epic poets. At the same time, the philosopher himself did not fail to mention his preference for certain particular groups of myth because of their dramatic potential.

On the one hand, myth presents itself as an independent entity which unleashes mimesis, that is, the possibility of complete poetic fulfilment. Through it, imaginary actions unfold in such a way as to produce a literature which is universal in its effectiveness and characteristics. Moreover, as universality depends on the fictional elements originating in the narrative form of the myth, this latter becomes assimilated to the content of the plot, or intrigue. On the other hand, myth preserves its links with the culture which first elaborated it, corresponding to a whole repository of tales in which one can distinguish common features which define its very nature. Such similarities ensure the unity of myth as well as its permanence and, to some extent, its immutability, down the ages.

The production of myths can be related to the perception which primitive peoples formed of their worlds. Their vision of the cosmos came to be termed mythical. This term harboured a conception of the reality which surrounded them, and which was seen as magical, peopled with supernatural creatures, to whom some power over the universe was attributed. Mythical thought also embodies a vision of time seen as cyclical, because it is modelled on the natural cycle. For these people, therefore, change was conceived of in terms of a return to origins, to the beginnings of things and society.³

As the links are re-established with the society which produced a myth, the myth itself reassumes its own uniqueness, which is destroyed if one only considers its aspects of fantasy. In effect, the content of this narrative mode is peculiar, because it identifies the form wherever it appears: it deals with the account of the birth of the world (in the case of cosmogenic myths), or with a particular part of it (in the case of myths of origin). As its emphasis is on the beginning, this becomes the ‘strong time’, to which the narrative leads back, and, as the world, or part of it, springs from this act of creation, each primordial object acquires deeply sacred qualities which cannot be disputed or rejected, because to do so would be to reject the very society which had placed its faith in it.

Therefore, myth is not merely a type of narration, but consists of a unique network of themes which concern the appearance and motives of any institution or custom. Within it, one notes the presence of magic and the predominance of the natural world, which are recurrent in human culture and guarantee the permanence of this mode of expression.

Given its narrative tradition, Western literature has become the greatest repository and transmittor of myths. If such transmission was largely oral and essentially collective in the beginning, the crystallization of the genre depended upon its transference to the field of poetry, even though, in the course of time, this has assumed a written form, and has become an increasingly private activity. The process of transition was witnessed by Aristotle, and it intensified thereafter, incorporating various mythical traditions originating among the peoples of the Orient and America, even when the primitiveness of the mythical cultural was filtered by technologically and intellectually more advanced societies.

The persistence of this mode of expression in literature has already been widely recognized by various thinkers. Clearly, Brazilian literature is no exception to the rule. Nevertheless, in the context of this mode, Brazilian literature assumes features which are worthy of note, for one encounters a whole sequence of novels in which one is not only faced with the themes and motives mentioned above, but also the fundamental subject matter of myth—namely, the narration of an origin, of segments of Brazilian society which explain and justify Brazilian life. The theme of these narratives is the appearance of society, justifying the organization of this society, and legitimizing it in the eyes of its members.

At the same time, this variant of Brazilian literary tradition involves a concern which is one of the fundamentals of the culture of that country, namely, the representation through art of a national identity, capable of breaking the country's dependence on the European colonizing powers which imposed their own cultural values on America, stifling native expression and causing the historical process to serve foreign interests.

The aims of decolonization have coincided, ever since the Romantic movement, with a desire to reassert a local identity and strengthen national feeling. These aims were to be given substance by means of the recognition of an identity, or of the discovery of traits which were peculiar to a Brazilian—or by extension, American—civilization. A process of this type was therefore interpreted as a birth, or the generation of a new world. For this reason, myth was used, as it was considered the most appropriate narrative form, and was incorporated into the novel, which, at the time, was still in the process of formation as a literary genre. The continuation of the problem has, in turn, caused this mythical form to be preserved up to the present day, and to this extent, one can talk of the existence of a tradition, the significance of which is exemplified in the following works by José de Alencar and Mário de Andrade, who were the main exponents of literary movements which sought to radicalize the aims described above.⁴

INDIANISM

Romanticism was the literary movement which, generally speaking, heralded the nationalist aspirations of Western literature during the 19th century and was the artistic counterpart of political phenomena which developed out of the struggle for emancipation, either from absolutist regimes, or from colonialism. The American colonies, as examples of the latter case, had but recently achieved political autonomy, and sought to consolidate their newfound status with the support of cultural institutions, including literature. Indianism thus found fertile terrain in Brazil, for while born out of the influence of Rousseau, it was able to feed on the uniqueness of the American past, rather than on French philosophical currents.

On the other hand, the movement did not emerge immediately after independence, which was declared in 1822 and consolidated in 1824. Indeed, its apogee coincided with the period of the Second Empire, between 1840 and 1880, when political autonomy was no longer at risk, and the country's agricultural economy, based on coffee, sugar, and cotton, was firmly tied into the export market. The discrepancy between this artistic movement and the situation of Brazilian society is self-evident, and can be explained, in the first instance, in terms of a desire to return to a narrative form such as myth, in which the notion of time is abolished. At the same time, the choice was justified for other reasons, as my analysis of José de Alencar's Iracema, a novel which synthesizes the aims of Indianism, will show.

In this novel, the heroine is an Indian priestess who falls in love with a Portuguese soldier, Martim. Because of him, she abandons her tribe, and her religious responsibilities, eloping with her lover and going to live with him on the coast, near the mouth of the River Ceará. As Martim has been ordered to establish Portuguese colonization, he is often away. She becomes pregnant, and gives birth alone. Weakened as a result of having to wean her newborn son, Moacir, she dies. Martim returns, finds the child, and takes it back to Portugal, where he stays for some time, before returning to Brazil to continue his mission.

The first attempt to create a mythical atmosphere is indicated by the novel's sub-title: ‘Legend of Ceará’. The other mythical elements are:

• a) the time at which the events occur is at the beginning of the colonial period prior to the full establishment of colonial customs and institutions;
• b) the place where Martim and Iracema meet is sacred. It is a forest where the ‘secret of the ‘jurema’ and the mystery of sleep’ are preserved⁵, accessible only to religious figures endowed with magical powers;
• c) magic is present and manipulated by the chief Araquém, Iracema's father, who passes on these gifts to his daughter;
• d) the subject of the narrative is the formation of the first Brazilian family, resulting from the fusion of the American and European (Portuguese) races. Therefore, its subject is the foundation of Brazilian society, embodied by the nuclear family;
• e) the founding heroes have divine attributes: Iracema is a priestess with magical powers, Martim is associated with the god Mars, both by name and by his function as a warrior.⁶
• f) the narrative reproduces in a Brazilian context the myth of the founding of Rome:
• - Iracema, like Reasylvia, is a vestal maiden who must remain untouched, but is seduced by the representative of war, Martim (= Mars, as seen above);
• - Iracema's seduction leads to her exile, and to the need to give birth far from her tribe, but near a river;
• - the child, Moacir, cannot be fed by his mother, but is saved, in this respect, by a canine animal.

The similarity between the two myths pinpoints the intentions and, at the same time, the complexities of the work. On the one hand, it seeks to emphasize the strength of the emergent nation, with its first inhabitant Moacir, comparing it to the power of imperial Rome. On the other hand, it cannot prevent the influence of Europe and the supremacy of foreign culture, for it is from this that the themes and the basis of the narrative are derived. The superiority of Europe emerges in other elements in the book:

a) although Iracema is chosen to represent the nation, she does not survive to the end of the story. Her destruction is accompanied by the defeat of her tribe at the hands of the Pitiguar Indians, who are allies of the Portuguese. If the catastrophe expresses literally the suppression of Indian society as a result of colonization, the text itself presents this as resulting from fate:

“Never before has such a hard won victory, such a bitterly contested battle been fought on the lands ruled by Acaraçu and Camucim; both sides fought with equal valour, and neither of the two peoples would have been beaten, had the god of war (symbolically, Martim himself) not decided to give these shores to the race of the white warrior, allied to the Pitiguaras.”

(p. 105. My stress)

This is acknowledged by the Indians, as revealed by Batuirité, the leader of the Pitiguaras, whose authority is uncontested, and who formulates the Indians' acceptance of their historical destiny to be dominated by the whites:

“Tupã wanted these eyes, before their light is extinguished, to see the white hawk next to the snipe.”

(p. 88)

b) While Iracema is obliged to leave her people and is later abandoned by her lover, the punishment which brings about her early death, the Portuguese soldier is the victor in the story, given that he fulfils the task demanded of him. He conquers the new lands and begins the process of colonization, while obtaining the loyalty of the Indians who ensure his victory over his enemies—namely, those tribes which were rivals to the Portuguese, as well as the French interlopers who aspired to conquer the North of Brazil.

The representative of European civilization dominates the action of the tale, occasioning the complete or partial sacrifice of the representatives of America. Thus, the mythical context, as initially presented, is abolished, for it was Indian magic and religiosity that assured the primitive, timeless characteristics of the myth. It is Portuguese imperialism which is affirmed, and which results from the destruction of hostile tribes through the help of natives who have been baptized in order to ensure their collaboration and permanent alliance.

Alencar resorts to 16th-century Portuguese colonial ideology, which seems to link the theme being represented and the situation being depicted through fiction. However, at the same time, the author appears to reject the nationalist aspiration enshrined in the Indianist mould of the narrative. The result is the creation of a mythical world which dissolves in the end, together with the disappearance of its main representative, the Indian Iracema.

In effect, the book accepts a historical process whereby civilization was established in America at the cost of the destruction of the native population and the modification in cultural habits of its survivors. The story also underline the author's apparent identification with the process on a global scale, and with the methods which brought it about, and this, in turn, illustrates the fragility of the nationalist ideology which motivated the work, given that if this ideology had been taken to its fullest consequences, it would have required that the losers be favoured.

At a time when political autonomy had been achieved, but when the economic dependence of the country continued because of the demand for raw materials in Europe, any admission of national inferiority would have been unacceptable. The book therefore ultimately sides with the opposing party, presenting the historical facts, but without assimilating their most important lesson.

ANTHROPOLOGY

The Modernist Movement was also animated by nationalist sentiment. Although the prime motives of the group of artists who participated in the movement were to “modernize aesthetic consciousness” and to propagate “the right to research”, according to Mário de Andrade⁷, these motives soon became confused with a posture intent on making use of the vast repository of folklore in the country. It was a question of regenerating the inventive capabilities of literary art through the incorporation of elements originating in other social classes, such as the popular masses, or in far flung geographical areas, such as the Amazon, which was still inhabited by tribal Indians. These objectives were given particular substance in the ‘Cannibals’ Manifesto’, which was the brainchild of Oswald de Andrade. For this reason, narratives such as Mário de Andrade's Macunaíma, and poems such as Cobra Norato, by Raul Bopp, resorted to Indian myths and motifs originating in primitive culture, as a basis for artistic creation. They also adopted a mythical vision of the world not only to establish an affinity between the material used and the literary result, but equally, to recuperate the basic theme which underpins nationalist feeling: the expression of a Brazilian identity.

This development can best be understood through an analysis of Macunaíma, Mário de Andrade's ‘rhapsody’, the hero of which is born in Amazonia and belongs to the Tapunhama tribe (a tribe of black Indians). He is the youngest of three sons, his brothers being Jiguê and Maanape. As an infant, he is very lazy, and does not utter a word until the age of six. However, he reveals an extremely erotic temperament, and seduces the wives of his adult brother, Jiguê. One day he kills a pregnant doe, an act which brings about his mother's death as punishment. The three orphaned brothers go out into the world until, one day, Macunaíma encounters a sleeping Indian maid whom he rapes with the help of his brothers. The maid is Cy, whom he marries, thus becoming Emperor of the Virgin Forest. She becomes pregnant, a child is born, but as his mother's milk has been poisoned, dies. Cy also dies, but leaves to her husband a ‘muiraquitã’, a magic amulet which will bring good luck. Once again on the move, Macunaíma loses the magic stone. On discovering that it has fallen into the hands of Venceslau Pietro Pietra, a trader who has become rich because he possesses the stone, he leaves for São Paulo to try and get it back. After a number of adventures, he succeeds, and can now return to the Amazon. However, once there, he quarrels with his brothers, and is the cause of their deaths. Now abandoned, Macunaíma has few pleasures left. One hot day, he decides to go for swim in a lake, but the Uiara, a mythological being responsible for the type of mutilations associated with pirana fish, attacks him and devours one of his legs, at the same time causing him to lose the amulet once again. Macunaíma becomes tired, and with the following words, “I did not come into the world to be a stone”⁸, he rises up to the sky, where he is transformed into the Great Bear constellation.

Unlike Iracema, Mário de Andrade's ‘rhapsody’ does not narrate the constitution of Brazil's first family. Its main character is “a hero without character”, in the words of the author. However, it is through the decharacterization of the hero that the work creates its links with the savage world which gave birth to the legend:

• a) Macunaíma corresponds to the ‘trickster’ who appears in many American myths, invariably playing jokes on his brothers and getting the better of them, even when he is apparently beaten or has lost something (Mário de Andrade stuck closely to the original spirit of the legends which he used, and in which the changing personality of the hero is evident).
• b) As he has no defined personality, nor any existential aspiration beyond his immediate world, the hero also lacks a definite form. He goes through various metamorphoses, both in childhood and in adolescence, which give him extraordinary qualities. Moreover, he is able to move through space and time without any concern for geographical or chronological limits.
• c) Temporality is shown to be reversible, given the continual deaths and rebirths of the hero. In addition, figures from the past reappear in the present, thus breaking the linear sequence of time.

As in Iracema, the author establishes a mythical base on which he builds his narrative. If he does not relate the founding of Brazilian society, the objective behind the multi-form constitution of the hero is to show how this hero embodies the Brazilian character. United within this one figure in all its varieties and contradictions are the multiple characteristics of the Brazilian inhabitant. This lack of unity could be justified because of the global intentions of the narrator.⁹ Apart from this, in order to achieve a totality, Andrade did not restrict himself solely to the possibilities offered by the character (or lack of character) of the main protagonist. He also sought to situate him in all the geographical areas of Brazil, caused him to encounter various figures from Brazilian history, and resorted to a style of language which, during the course of the narrative, and in the dialogues, was intended to incorporate the greatest possible number of regional variants and popular expressions.

The assimilative character of the hero reveals the author's totalizing intention, which could only be achieved through his adherence to a mythical world, for this guarantees the verosimilitude and unity of the work. The mythical interpretation of Brazilian reality expressed in the book, depends, in turn, on the sequence of actions narrated, because it is through these that the whole mass of legends is made use of and reinterpreted, and also because it enables the narrator to formulate the utopian vision inherent in the book.

The events in the book, which I have already summarized, can be grouped into three narrative blocks, each of which corresponds to the three geographical locations where the protagonist acts:

1. from his mother's death to that of Cy - Amazonia
2. his attempts to retrieve the amulet - São Paulo
3. from the death of his brothers to his final metamorphosis - Amazonia.

With regard to the unfolding of the action, Macunaíma uses elements from various sources:

• a) from the European fairy tale, for it concerns the search for a magic object and its retrieval,¹⁰
• b) from Iracema,
• - in the parody at the beginning of the narrative:

‘Far, far beyond those mountains, which appear blue on the horizon, was born Iracema.

Iracema, the virgin of honeyed lips, whose hair was blacker than the wing of a blackbird, and fell below her slim waist …’

‘In the depths of the virgin forest was born Macunaíma, hero of our people.

He was jet black and son of the fear of night …’

• - and because it related two element which are basic to the text:
• ∗ the abandonment by the hero of his original family, because of a crime of which he is the cause,
• ∗ the constitution of a new family, with the consequent death of the mother during the initial stage of weaning.

However, if the beginning of Iracema is parodied, the work makes use of the narrative model in order to show up its failings. For the circumstances in which the character loses his family immediately after it has been constituted, are repeated three times during the course of the tale:

• a) the death of the mother is provoked by Macunaíma, at the point where he obtains food which would guarantee the survival of the group,
• b) Cy dies and provokes the loss of her son by inadvertently feeding him poisoned milk,
• c) Macunaíma is responsible for the death of his brothers when he returns to Amazonia, while his final act causes him to renounce the world of men, and to turn himself himself into a star.

Macunaíma's individualism prevents the establishment of a family structure as well as the organization of a civil society. He is not concerned with continuing the family line and even eliminates those, such as his brother Jiguê, who might do so. Consequently, he breaks with the European social model and paves the way for the inclusion of a utopia suggested by the work and supported by the book's geographical scheme.

As I have already shown, the sequence of actions is reflected in the hero's physical displacement. Born in Amazonia, this black Indian of the Tapanhuma tribe is obliged to make for São Paulo in order to retrieve the amulet. The first movement of the work involves the hero's passage from the interior of Amazonia (‘the depths of the virgin forest’, as pointed out at the beginning of the book) to the capital of the nation's economy. The second involves the return, given that Macunaíma does not wish to remain in the city. It is necessary to analyze both segments in order to appreciate the utopia which is heralded, and the reason for the rupture with previous narrative models.

The first journey is motivated by the need to track down the archvillain Venceslau Pietro Pietra in São Paulo, because he has come into possession of the magic stone and as a result has become suddenly rich. It is during this journey that the following incident occurs, in chapter 5:

“One day, the Sun had covered the three brothers with a thin layer of sweat and Macunaíma thought to go for a bathe. However, this was impossible in the river, because of the piranas which were so voracious that from time to time, in their struggle to get a bit at a chunk of prey, they would leap in great bunches fully a metre out of the water. Then Macunaíma saw a pool full of water in a rock in the middle of the river. And the pool was just like a giant footprint in shape. They approached it. The hero, after shouting a lot because the water was cold, jumped into the pool and washed himself all over. But the water was enchanted because that hole in the rock was none other than Sumé's footprint, from the time when he was travelling around spreading the word of Jesus among the Brazilian Indians. When the hero emerged from his bath, he was white, blond and blue eyed. The water had washed away his blackness. Never again would anybody be able to tell he was from the black tribe of the Tapanhumas.

When Jiguê saw the miracle, he immediately jumped into Sumé's big old footprint. But the water was already very dirty with the hero's blackness, and no matter how hard Jiguê scrubbed, and he scrubbed and scrubbed, splashing water all around him, he could not get any lighter than the colour of new bronze. Macunaíma felt pity and consoled him:

- Look, brother Jiguê, you're not white, but at least your blackness has gone, and better to talk with a bit of twang then to be without a nose.

Then it was Maanape's turn to wash, but Jiguê had splashed about so much, that there was no water left in the pool. There was only a tiny bit at the bottom, and Maanape only managed to wet the soles of his feet and the palms of his hands. So he remained black and a true son of the Tapanhuma tribe. Only the palm of his hands and the soles of his feet were pink because they had been cleaned by the holy water. Macunaím felt pity and consoled him:

- Don't be upset, brother Maanape, don't be upset, old Judas suffered more.

And the sun shone beautifully down on the rock, and the three brothers, one blond, one red, and the other black, standing there bare and with their heads held high’.

(P.48/9)

The episode has a clearly mythical significance, as it narrates, in concise fashion, and by recourse to magical effects, the formation of the Brazilian race, in which the participating elements are the Negro (Maanape), the Indian (Jiguê), and the White (Macunaíma), who go to form a strongly united family. On the other hand, the myth narrated at this rhapsodic point of the book, when the Amazonian sequence has drawn to a close, suggests other consequences:

a) it coincides with the ‘whitening’ of Macunaíma who therefore prepares himself to face the civilized, urban world, by adapting himself to its characteristic features. A break with his original environment is therefore produced, a break which is irreversible because

• - Macunaíma cannot return to his original form,
• - he is weakened by his confrontation with the European world, as on the occasion when he is tempted to run away to France with a student's grant, or in the episode in which he is seduced by a Portuguese girl, which stops his marriage to the daughter of Vei, the Sun. The importance of this episode, according to Gilda de Mello e Souza¹¹, is decisive, because by renouncing this alliance with the Sun, the hero loses the chance of once again becoming an emperor. What is more, he causes his betrothed to despise him, and this will lead to his final punishment when Vei pushes him into the lake where Uiara awaits him, thus causing his final mutilation and his abandonment of life in this world.

b) This is the first in a series of episodes which could be classified as narratives of origin. Whereas, up until that time, life had been presented as being static, from the point where he moves to São Paulo, after the formation of the different races, reality becomes more dynamic and more mobile as a result of this new beginning instigated by the hero.

He therefore becomes a type of founder from the moment when he leaves his natural habitat in order to integrate into urban civilization. This latter, in turn, is placed within a clear historical context, given that it is at once recognizable as corresponding to the São Paulo of the 1920's. Therefore the period when the book was written. This fact is relevant because it shows that

• - the focus for change is São Paulo,
• - the reason why the only clear historical period is the contemporary one, is that it heralds the beginning of a new world, the true beginning of Brazilian civilization.

On the other hand, the founding hero returns the moment he has completed his task. His decision immediately shows his desire to rediscover his origins, that is, to shun the negative influences of urban civilization which have corrupted him. However, as has already been indicated, the process is irreversible, because civilization has left its indelible mark on him: the change of pigmentation has also destroyed the natural protection he enjoyed against the sun. His return, therefore, coincides with his gradual degeneration which culminates in his final abandonment of human life, an act even designed to preserve the integrity of his character, once again under threat. His final words underline his desire to preserve the mobility and mutability which constituted his very being.

The process of returning to origins also points towards the utopia upon which this act is founded. The first movement, the hero's departure, was in the North-South direction, and reflected, in its own way, the rural exodus, which the whole nation witnessed, towards São Paulo, where rapid industrialization meant that there was a growing demand for cheap labour which the Northeast, still suffering the effects of the draught of the previous decade, could provide in abundance, especially as the Amazonian rubber boom, hitherto a magnet for the unemployed, had ended. The second movement, the return journey from South to North, clearly reflects a romantic ideal. It constitutes the reversal of expectations, the renouncement of the seduction of urban life, to which the protagonist had adapted so successfully. It is the product of a conscious initiative, the strength of which can only be derived from the ideal of remaining loyal to one's origins. On the other hand, it also betrays something of the ideals of the ‘bandeirantes’, the colonial explorers who were first responsible for opening up the interior and who, moreover, themselves originated from São Paulo.

It is in this sense that the return is utopian, even though marked by a vision of the world seen from São Paulo, nerve centre of the Brazilian economy, as being the centre of the world. This is once again coherent with the first movement of the work, which situated the beginnings of civilization, and therefore of a true Brazilian reality, in that area.

On the other hand, the end of the book is devastating in its implications, for Macunaíma abandons his original environment, and everything returns to the ‘vast silence’ (p.221), indicative of absence. But it was this silence which had heralded the appearance of the hero at the beginning of the narrative:

‘For a moment the silence was so deep, as if listening to the murmur of the Uraricoera, that the Tapanhuma girl gave birth to an ugly child. That child they called Macunaíma’.

(p.9)

As can be seen, the return to origins is so complete that the presence of the protagonist is abolished and it involves a return to the point zero from where the hero had departed. For this reason, utopia is used in its literal meaning of a non-place, or of the hope for an authentic place, after this new silence has given birth to a new and less contradictory world.

As in the case of Iracema, Macunaíma deals ambiguously with the myth and with the theme which feeds on that myth. If its message is at bottom nationalistic, its expression depends on the isolation from the non-indigenous factors which might interfere with the result. For this reason, it resorts to the repository of indigenous legends, and here, the protagonist finds both the motives and the mythical dimension which he seeks. It confers on the hero a type of nativism which, in order to be preserved, requires him to retract ever more deeply into the interior of the country to escape from the destructive influences of a modern, technological civilization. It is this resistance which the work proposes, and which is related to the original world in which it was conceived.

At the same time, it also attributes the function of forging this new nation to its dynamic civilization, symbolized by the city of São Paulo, which synthesizes modernity and progress. At the place and time when the work was written, both of which are reflected in the book, the new Brazil is born, encapsulated by the very author of the work, Mário de Andrade, and the movement to which he belonged, Modernism. Thus, motive and actual historical experience are inextricably linked, and this fact is illustrated by the euphoric tone of the book which has Macunaíma as its emblem: he is the ‘bandeirante’ who is the driving force behind the conquest of new frontiers.

In this sense, the book oscillates between Macunaíma the conqueror, a type of revitalized image of the ‘bandeirante’, and Macunaíma the perplexed figure, who seeks to escape from the anxieties of the modern world. This ambiguity is never resolved, given that the spirit of euphoria and that of dejection alternate as the action progresses, and this has the effect of both consolidating and, at the same time, questioning the mythical basis which permits the presence of both these states. Whatever the case, the unbridled advance of modern civilization is never put in doubt, and this means that at the end of the book, the rhapsody comes to similar conclusions to those of Alencar, although with certain qualifications which Andrade's predecessor was never capable of formulating.

CONCLUSIONS

The analysis of these two works of Brazilian literature, characterized by their reciprocal links with myth, leads to conclusions of a theoretical and historical type. With regard to the historical contribution, it can be seen that the preference for myth is connected with the possibilities it offers in terms of presenting a national identity as a concrete object, which the heroes of these two tales embody. Thus, a theme of obviously generic connotations, such as that of the nature of national identity, acquires a consistency and an anthropomorphic sense when it is incorporated by any of the protagonists, globalizing, though nevertheless contradictory form, and this prevents the idealization and spiritualization which national heroes who are converted into literary figures usually achieve.

The mythical attribute is based on the circumstances experienced by the protagonist during the course of the narrative; he is the founding figure who causes the appearance of society's basic institutions, such as the family in Iracema, or the fraternal mixing of races, which is one of the themes of this novel and of Macunaíma. It is the hero's task to create, and this must situate him at the beginning of the world, that is, at a primordial time and in a place which, by dint of his first act, must be sacred. As he is responsible for creation, the hero becomes confused with the product of his act. And as the world which he has created lacks homogeneity, its creator falls victim of the errors which he has unleashed. He becomes a victim of his actions, a fact which also reveals the contradictions inherent in the reality which his founding act had originated.

The discovery that the world produced and experienced by the mythical hero is neither homogeneous nor perfect, also prevents mythifying idealization. At the same time, it throws into jeopardy the original project. Such a project stems from nationalist sentiment, justified as a rupture with the process of colonial domination experienced by the country from which it failed to free itself, economically and culturally, during the 19th century, despite the political autonomy which had been achieved. This bequeathed a literature which sought to express through art a national identity, choosing its models among Indians and other individuals as yet uncontaminated by European influence. Contact, however, is inevitable because of the need to execute a project which places two worlds face to face—the native world and the civilized world. From this point on, original purity is lost, corrupted by the seductive powers of a more advanced and technologically dominant society. If this society is unshakable in its power, the other must inevitably succumb, despite subsequent attempts to escape and regain one's original condition.

In view of this, the project present at the beginning of these texts is ultimately refuted, and it is for this reason that they assume an additional meaning: they reveal the contradictions within Brazilian society, pointing to the problem of dependence and the persistence of a colonial type of relationship with nations which are culturally more developed and economically more powerful. Although it may seems paradoxical, it is by failing to accomplish the initial project that these works fulfil their task, for they show that if a Brazilian identity is impossible to achieve as a target through literature, and is even debatable as such (given that it is a type of compensation through literature for a real situation of dependence), one of the peculiarities of Brazilian prose fiction stems from it capacity to highlight the theme, questioning its implications through the trajectory of the protagonist who is its very embodiment.

Another of its peculiarities can be found in the fusion of theme, firmly rooted in an ideology, and its literary presentation, which is achieved through the incorporation of a mythical and legendary theme elaborated by primitive, but culturally active groups within Brazil's population. Thus, folklore and the indigenous traditions are absorbed by the text, without causing it to lose its fictional and artistic characteristics, or converting it into a segment of the folklore which it uses, or causing it to make use of regional traditions and customs within a document of mere historical importance.

The analysis also contributes further to the study of the relationship between myth and literature. If the two modes of expression have been associated with one another ever since the birth of Western written culture, such contact has permitted myth to make its contribution to literature in terms of motives and themes, although there is no evidence that the opposite has occurred. In this sense, Brazilian literature confirms this tendency, using elements form various sources, in accordance with the various traditions which contribute to its local culture. Yet another peculiarity is worthy of mention: a work of literature also resorts to myth to achieve greater integration with the aspirations of the society from which both modes of expression stem. As myth is both collective and anonymous, it has sufficient power to at once penetrate and represent the interests and anxieties of its producers, who are also its consumers. Literature, by using this already familiar source, abdicates from one of its fundamental aims—that of inventiveness. However, it compensates for this by producing greater impact among its readers, because it channels their desires and gives shape to these in a language with which they are familiar, given that they are also its creators.

This coincidence of interest between a sector of literary production and the anxieties of society, or a segment of that society, occurs in Brazilian literature, just as it does, at certain periods, in North American or Iberian culture, to cite but two contrasting examples. The recurrence of this phenomenon proves its validity and shows how myth is continually revitalized in its relationship with literature. On the other hand, if one were to analyze the process only from this angle, one would merely reveal how literature can by mythified, in so far as literature becomes the repository of the myths and aspirations which are contained in it. Nevertheless, the opposite would seem to occur: just as Aristotle had indicated, once myth is introduced into the literary work, it loses its original characteristics and comes to be used as a function of the objectives which govern the world of fiction. Consequently, it becomes a part of this world, whether in the shape of a novel or fantasy.

This transformation into a novel is completed as a consequence of the presence of the last factor which we analyzed—namely that concerning the failure of the nativist project. As has been noted, the works of Alencar and Andrade finished up by denying the project which had constituted their point of departure. And if this had begged the formulation of a myth of origins, the result obtained could be described as de-mythification, which shows, on the one hand, the mythifying nature of the original intention, and on the other, the impossibility of fulfilling such an intention with instruments which had their source in literature. This genre shows itself to be, above all, critical and analytical. Therefore, when it is associated with a mythical structure, this latter absorbs similar traits, which thus completes the process of its adoption by literary art.

Having been incorporated into artistic narrative, myth reveals no more than what it is. Moreover, it is at this point that it becomes de-mythified, attaching itself to the meaning of literature in its widest sense, which aims at representation, and therefore, knowledge. In this way, when placed alongside each other, myth and the novel reveal their mutual dependence, but because the tendency towards fantasy on the one hand, and interrogation on the other, latent in the novel, ultimately predominates, then it is clear that it falls to the discipline of literary theory to reflect on and analyze it. By unravelling their affinities in the context of their respective origins, it can be seen that literature and myth belong to a common field of investigation which, under the aegis of the science of literary theory, will undoubtedly contribute to a greater understanding of their reciprocal qualities.

Notes

1. This study takes up and further develops certain themes considered in Do mito ao romance: tipologia da ficção brasileira contemporânea, Porto Alegre, Escola Superior de Teologia; Caxias do Sul, Universidade de Caxias do Sul, 1977.

2. Concerning Aristotle, see, La poétique, trans. by Roselyne Dupont-Roc & Jean Lallot, Paris, Ed. du Seuil, 1980. Also, Aristoteles, Poética, trans. by Eudoro de Souza, Porto Alegre, Globo, 1966.

3. On the concept of myth, see, Roland Barthes, Mythologies, Paris, Seuil, 1970; Christopher Caudwell, Illusion and Reality, New York, International Publishers Inc., 1967; Adolpho Crippa, Mito e cultura, São Paulo, Convívio, 1975; Mircea Eliade, Mito y realidad, Madrid, Guadarrama, 1968; also, El mito del eterno retorno, Madrid, Alianza, 1972, Tratado de história das religiões, Lisboa, Ed. Cosmos, 1977, O sagrado e o profano, Lisbon, Livros do Brasil, n/d; Manfred Fuhrmann (Hrsg.), Terror und Spiel. Probleme der Mythenrezeption, Munich, Fink, 1971; Ernesto Grassi, Arte e mito, Lisbon, Livros do Brasil n/d; Georges Gusdorf, Mito y metafísica, Buenos Aires Nova, n/d; Karl Kerenyi, ‘Was ist Mythologie’, in Karl Kerenyi (Hrsg.), Die Eröffnung des Zugangs zum Mythos, Darmstadt, Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1967; G. S. Kirk, Myth. Its Meaning and Functions in Ancient and Other Cultures, Berkeley & Los Angeles, Cambridge University Press & University of California Press, 1975; also, Greek Myths, Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1977; Edmund Leach, Genesis as Myth, London, Cape, 1971; Claude Lévi-Strauss, ‘Le triangle culinaire’, L'Arc, Paris, L'Arc, 1968; Also, Antropologia estrutural, Rio de Janeiro, Tempo Brasileiro, 1970, O pensamento selvagem, São Paulo, Cia. Editora Nacional, 1970, El origen de las maneras de mesa, Mexico City, Siglo XXI, 1970, Lo crudo y lo cocido. Mexico City, Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1972, Anthropologie Structurale Deux, Paris, Plon, 1973; Thomas a. Sebeok (Ed.), Myth. A Symposium, Bloomington & London, Indiana University Press, 1965; Kurt Schilling, ‘Der Begriff der Philosophie’, in Geschichte der Philosophie, 1. Band. Munich & Basel, Ernst Reinhardt Verlag, 1951; George E. Thomson, Aeschilus & Athens, London, Lawrence & Wishart, 1966.

4. Other novels belonging to the same tradition are: José de Alencar, O guarani; Maria Alice Barroso, Um nome para matar; Hermilo Borba Filho, Os ambulantes de Deus; Raul Bopp, Cobra Norato; José Cândido de Carvalho, O coronel e o lobishomem; Simões Lopes Neto, Contos gauchescos e Lendas do Sul; Cassiano Ricardo, Martim Cererê, João Guimarães Rosa, Grande sertão: veredas; Érico Veríssimo, O Continente.

5. José de Alencar, Iracema. Lenda do Ceará, São Paulo, Melhoramentos, 1961, p.21. Other quotations made are from this edition.

6. In the notes following the text, José de Alencar mentions the affinity between his hero and the Roman god: ‘Martim—the foreigner can deduce, from the Latin origin of his name, Mars, what he symbolizes’ (p.132).

7. See Mário de Andrade, ‘O movimento modernista. In Aspectos da literatura brasileira, São Paulo, Martins, n/d.

8. Mário de Andrade, Macunaíma. O herói sem nenhum caráter, São Paulo, Martins, 1970, p.215. Other quotations given are from this edition.

9. See, Manuel Cavalcanti Proença, Roteiro do Macunaíma, Rio de Janeiro, Civilização Brasileira, 1969.

10. See the analysis of Haroldo de Campos, based on the narrative model of W. Propp, in Haroldo de Campos, Morfologia do Macunaíma, São Paulo, Perspectiva, 1973.

11. See, Gilda de Mello e Souza, O tupi e o alaúde. Uma interpretação de Macunaíma, São Paulo, Duas Cidades, 1979.