Palpitação de sombras e luzes: o insólito em Vestido de noiva, de Nelson Rodrigues

Abstract

The present work proposes a reading of the Brazilian dramatic text Vestido de Noiva, by Nelson Rodrigues (1943), focusing on the dialogue between the characters and some theatrical elements that can arouse in readers and spectators sensations such as ambiguity, hesitation and undecidability, which serve as triggers for the uncanny to emerge in the narrative. Because it only focuses on the study of the written theatrical text, not contemplating any specific assembly and staging, this analysis is bibliographic in nature. Throughout the chapters it is argued that this dramatic text presents characteristics of fantastic literature, proven by establishing relationship between components of theatrical text – such as the dialogues of the characters, the rubrics of the author, among others – and theories of the fantastic. The first chapter presents the context of Brazilian theatrical production in which Vestido de Noiva was conceived and differentiates the dramatic text from other literary texts in order to demonstrate how it is possible to perceive some elements of the uncanny in the text designed by the author. Afterwards, the analysis of the text in the second chapter is deepened, taking into consideration that the discussions about the female figures that inhabit it were idealized by a man born of his time and, therefore, are marked by some stereotypes. In addition, we highlight the differential of this study through a brief survey of the critical fortune of the play, since the reading of Vestido de Noiva from this perspective is new in the list of academic research. Finally, the third chapter explores some fundamental elements for the constitution of fantastic literature, trying to clarify how it is presented in the dramatic text. In the theoretical set that underlies the discussions about the theater stand out Peter Szondi (2001), Anne Ubersfeld (2005), Patrice Pavis (2008), and Décio de Almeida Prado (1999 [2008]); whereas considerations about the uncanny are based in particular on Tzvetan Todorov (1970 [2017]), Remo Ceserani (2006) and David Roas (2014). It is concluded that in fact there is the insertion of the uncanny climate in this text starting mainly from elements linked to the unheimlich and psychoanalysis. For this reason, Sigmund Freud (1919, 1933 [2010]; 1923 [2011]) and Jacques Lacan (1998) are also part of the theoretical background of this study.