Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

O EPISÓDIO DO VELHO DE RESTELO

2007; UNIVERSIDADE ESTADUAL DO OESTE DO PARANÁ; Volume: 1; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

1982-5935

Sheyla Regina dos Santos Farias,

Brazilian cultural history and politics

This article embraces an analisys of the “velho do Restelo” speech, in OsLusiadas, which retakes the Greek chorus within its wisdom, voice of reason andconsciousness. This speech is lately retaken by Fernando Pessoa in Mensagem and by JoseSaramago with Fala do velho do Restelo in Poemas Possiveis and in Memorial do Convento. In Os Lusiadas there is criticism on the sea expansion, greedness and, consequently, theexpansion of Catholic faith. In Mensagem, Fernando Pessoa shows two different and opposing points of view: criticism of expansion because of Lusitanian loss and suffering,which valued the conquest and the sacrifice. In Os Poemas Possiveis, Saramago mentionsthe spatial race and the Vietnamese War, through the “hunger” and “napalm”, this waycriticising the depreciation of vital essence. In Memorial do Convento, the author criticisesthe construction of the monastery of Mafra, in which the men abandoned their wives andchildren in order to work in favour of progress. The chorus of Greek tragedy contains thisvoice of wisdom, precisely recaptured in literature, by the “velho do Restelo” speech.