Human being’s mythessence in Primeiras estórias: an analysis from symbolic imagery
Primeiras estórias; symbolic imagery; conscious; unconscious; human being.
This thesis intends to investigate the aesthetic construction work of Primeiras estórias, by João Guimarães Rosa, from the perspective of the symbolic imagery, theorized by Gilbert Durand. In this way, we intend to understand the possible meanings of the stories, from the symbols that govern the narratives and also from the internal organization of the book, given that we believe in a texture of meanings that emerges from the symbols of the individual, in each story, in the whole book’s structure, in other words, in the systematization of the selection by the author. Therefore, we believe that symbolic hermeneutics can help us understand how these stories tell us about our psyche and the structures that helped to sustain our evolutionary process, whether in an individual or collective perspective, and also help us to perceive representative fractions of the individuation process and the transcendent function, described in Carl Jung's thought, which will support the reflections proposed throughout the analysis. That said, it is necessary to clarify that mythessence is related to this tangle of archetypal, symbolic, and mythical energies that permeate us, forces without which we would not have so many stories (and history) to tell. Therefore, it is at the heart of the primitive and essential potencies and structures that founded and still found stories that, in their turn, are part of both our conscious and our unconscious, because they continue to provide us experiences that are never neutral and, consequently, they become part of us, even though they are invisible. In view of this, the systematization of the stories, from opposing and complementary symbolic constellations, offers us the opportunity to reassess "certainties", discover cracks in reality and note that life and overall, the human being is composed of many fragmented parts. Therefore, the ambiguity and ambivalence of the composition of the narratives in this collection stimulate the construction of multiple meanings in the texts and, in this way, promote reflection about what is in the essence of our constitution, what is beyond externality or what we know physically, therefore, in the most hidden paths of the psyche of our being. Thus, we could say that the meanings proposed when analyzing these stories are like human beings themselves, fluid, transitory and in search of complementarity, because they spring from our own intimate experiences and, therefore, continually expand with our readings in fiction or in real life.