Diáspora, exílio e loucura em "Os Voluntários" de Moacyr Scliar

Abstract

Researching Os Voluntários of Moacyr Scliar (1979) comes from the desire to continue in studies on madness in literature, in view of the research accomplished in the master's degree, “Autobiography and fictionality in O Diário Íntimo and O Cemitério dos Vivos of Lima Barreto”. On that occasion, the frequency with which madness represents human experience in a world standardized by politics and culture and the voice of resistance against this imposition was noticeable. It is not uncommon to find authors who have worked with the theme of madness. Thus, It was led to the work of Moacyr Scliar and the character Benjamin of the novel Os Voluntários. This narrative represents a production that configures the exile's view, from the perspective of the Jewish diaspora, on the prism of the phenomenon of madness. If in Lima Barreto a narrative of record and / or fictionality is observed, in Moacyr Scliar, It is perceive the literature of exile, whose limits between what it means to be foreign and what it means to be Brazilian get confused. In the universe of Moacyr Scliar, the Jewish world is evidenced from a cross-cultural perspective, in which features emerge leading to the prototype of the exiled and the archetype of the modern man who feels immersed in the emptiness of the search for his origins. In the case of Os Voluntários, there is a picturesque look around the movement of Rua Voluntários da Pátria, in Porto Alegre. There, in that multicultural scenario, are the characters of the narrative and there is Benjamin, whose madness stems from an obsession that leads him, together with four men and a woman, to leave a pier in Porto Alegre towards the port of Haifa, in order to achieve his great desire to see the city of Jerusalem before he died. The diverse cultures that appear in the work, as well as the escape of the characters, compel the reader to revisit the historical, memorialistic past of the Jewish people, central theme of many novels by Moacyr Scliar. Therefore, not only in terms of the theme developed, but especially because of the images that Moacyr Scliar's work recovers, the choice of this story for this research is justified. Furthermore, the work was developed with the desire to answer: how does the feeling of inner exile, emerged from the Jewish diaspora, guide the actions of madness of the character Benjamin? How does madness represent the inter-place that the character Benjamin configures as a Jewish immigrant? It is evident that there is a gradation, diaspora, exile and madness, as well as the fact that Benjamin's psychological maladjustment reflects the lack of place caused by this context. For the development of this work, as theoretical basis, the studies of Berta Waldman are ultilized, Os caminhos da ficção by Moacyr Scliar (2012) and Regina Zilberman, the Viajante Transcultural - Readings of the work of Moacyr Scliar, with a view to outline the writer's literary trajectory; Michel Foucault, The History of Madness (2000), with the aim of reconstructing the insane archetype in the course of the development of Western civilization; Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism - Anti-Semitism, Imperialism and Totalitarianism (2012), for the understanding of the Jewish diaspora and Edward Said, Reflections on exile and other essays (2016), with notes on exile and of exile, from the metaphysical scope , aiming at the construction of this inter-places, among other studies.