The metaphorical universe in Paul Ricoeur: subsidies for the study of the Martim Cererê poem

Abstract

The aim of this article is to evaluate the possibilities of thinking about the literary work as a representation of the past. To this end, we will explore the intersection between the fictional narrative and the historical narrative from the reading of Cassiano Ricardo's poem Martim Cererê (1927) in the light of Paul Ricoeur's “living metaphor” thesis. More specifically, we will emphasize how this poetic work made use of metaphors in the elaboration of literary representations of the Brazilian past. When analyzed from its use to define its deviation, this poem literarily narrated human actions becoming a historical narrative of the Brazilian past and, thus, Cassiano Ricardo united in his discourse poetics and history to represent the past and narrate the lived time. In this sense, we will demonstrate how Paul Ricoeur's propositions helped us to understand the intersection between history and fiction present in this modernist poem.