Masculinidade em questão: lei, corpo e desejo em "Dão-lalão"

Abstract

In the present essay, I examine eroticism in "Dao-lalao," by Brazilian fictionist Joao Guimaraes Rosa (1908-1967). Calling into question Benedito Nunes’s argument that the dialectics of love in Guimaraes Rosa's oeuvre points to a sense of harmony and totality, I view the erotic element in Guimaraes Rosa’s work as a form of transgression. Focusing on the body in “Dao-lalao,” I revisit Guimaraes Rosa’s skepticism regarding reason as the primary vehicle for understanding reality. Whereas Nunes relies on Plato, the Neoplatonists, and the mystic traditions of hermeticism and alchemy, I turn to the philosophy of Georges Bataille (1897-1962). Finally, I propose that in addition to asking probing questions about eroticism as an expression of what Bataille called non-savoir , "Dao-lalao" invites its readers to reconsider race and gender relations within a Brazilian cultural and historical context.