José Rubem Fonseca was born in May 11, 1925, in Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais, and died in April 15, 2020, at 94 years old. Before dedicating himself to a literary career, he graduated in Law, starting his activities in the police on December 31, 1952, as commissioner at the 16th Police District, in São Cristóvão, Rio de January.
He remained on the streets for a short time, as most of his activity was devoted to the public relations service of the police. Between September 1953 and March 1954, along with nine other police officers, he went to study Administration at New York University. After leaving the police, devoted himself exclusively to literary life.
Read too: The five most important chroniclers of Brazilian literature
Construction
Among the works cultivated by the author, we can mention:
- the dog collar (1965);
- Lucia McCartney (1969);
- the man of february or march (1973);
- Happy New Year (1975);
- the collector (1979);
- black novel (1992);
- The Morel Case (1973);
- the great art (1983);
- Bufo & Spallanzani (1985);
- August (1990).
short story analysis night walk
Let us analyze one of Rubem Fonseca's short stories, entitled night walk. See an excerpt below:
[...]
Now say, seriously, didn't you think anything at all, when I passed you the note? Do not. But if you do, I think now, I said. Think, Angela said. There are two hypotheses. The first is that you saw me in the car and were interested in my profile. You are an aggressive, impulsive woman and decided to meet me. An instinctual thing. She picked up a piece of paper torn from a notebook and quickly wrote down the name and phone number. In fact, I could barely decipher the name you wrote. And the second hypothesis? That you're a whore and come out with a bag full of pieces of paper written with your name and phone number. Every time you meet a guy in a big car, looking rich and stupid, you give him the number. For every twenty pieces of paper distributed, about ten call you. And which hypothesis do you choose? Angela said. The second. That you are a whore, I said.
[...]
Revealing himself as an authentic postmodernist, the author in question, exactly as Alfredo Bosi affirms, reveals himself as a brutalist. This particularity asserts itself as being a innovation in the contemporary literary scene, dated from 1975. Relentlessly endowed with a realistic style, whose aspect is materialized through a straightforward speech, Rubem Fonseca is not squirms, treats the words as they are, resorting to colloquialism and, often, to swear words, just like that, without biggest rodeos. Proof of this is in the story that served as an example. Other particularities are relevant in many of his works: eroticism, pornography and irony, these aspects are demarcated in the words of Silverman, 2000, p. 120:
Rubem Fonseca's realism is morbid, mixing the appearance of bourgeois normality with the amoral instinct. Whether in the novel or the short story, the tone is aggressive and menacing, while the language, at least in the early works, is colloquial and full of conventionally prohibited terminology. [1]
Thus, continuing the analysis of its peculiarities, let us return to more fragments of the story in question:
[...] I looked at the clock. Shall we go? I said. We got into the car. [...] I'll drop you off a little before your house, I said. Because? I'm married. My wife's brother lives in your building. Isn't it the one that stays on the curve? I wouldn't want him to see me. He knows my car. There is no other like it in Rio. Aren't we going to see each other again? Angela asked. I find it difficult. All men fall in love with me. I believe. And you're not such great things. Your car is better than you, said Angela. One completes the other, I said. She jumped. He walked down the sidewalk, slowly, too easy, and on top of that woman, but I had to go home soon, it was getting late. I turned off the lights and accelerated the car. She had to hit and go over. I couldn't risk leaving her alive. She knew a lot about me, she was the only person who had seen my face among all the others. And he also knew my car. But what was the problem? No one had escaped. I hit Angela with the left side of the fender, throwing her body a little forward, and passed, first with the front wheel-and I felt the thud of the fragile structure of the body. crumbling - and then I ran over with the rear wheel, a coup de grace, because it was already finished, only maybe still felt a distant remnant of pain and perplexity. When I got home my wife was watching television, a color film, dubbed. Today you took longer. Was he very nervous? she said. He was. But it's already gone. I am going to sleep now. Tomorrow I will have a terrible day with the company.
It can be seen, through the outcome of the fiction, that this is a man typically living in the light of modernity, given that, in the face of everyday mishaps, it seeks refuge in the nightlife, as a kind of escapism. In the short story, we can clearly attest to a confusion manifested by the protagonist's unconscious, since it is not clear whether the purpose sought by him (pleasure) was really accomplished.
In this way, well to nihilistic taste, the end that he decides to give to his adventure was remarkably tragic, because, fearing that the woman would reveal something that could compromise her image, he decides to kill her. It should be noted here that this brutal force, often manifested by the crimes committed by the characters, is nothing more than a kind of criticism of social patterns – once camouflaged through some action taken.
Thus, amid the oppressive character of this social stratum, one of the focuses is on the amoralism attributed to the fictional adventure thugs – since they don't feel trapped by any kind of guilt or resentment. We attest once more to the ideological purpose aimed at the Brazilian reality, which is impregnated with incalculable violence.
Perhaps this unique feature of the author is rooted in some facts that guided his very existence, given that before becoming recognized as a writer, he worked in the police field.
Grades:
[1] SILVERMAN, Malcolm. Protest and the new Brazilian novel. RJ: Civil Brazilian, 2000.
By Vânia Duarte
Graduated in Letters
Source: Brazil School - https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/literatura/rubens-fonseca.htm
