O primo Basílio e a problemática do desejo mimético na literatura e no cinema

Abstract

This master's dissertation seeks to study the notion of mimetic desire based on the theoreticians of René Girard, having as corpus the book O primo Basílio, by Eça de Queirós, and the film adaptation Primo Basílio, by Daniel Filho, and, as an object of research, the triangular relationship built by the characters Luísa, Jorge and Basílio. Thus, the study starts from the following problem: in what way is desire present in literature and cinema? And it leads us to other questions: how can the question of mimetic desire be evidenced through the triangular relationship between Luísa, Basílio and Jorge, both in literary and cinematic narrative? How are these narratives structured to represent human relationships? Thus, our main objective is to elaborate an interdisciplinary study between cinema and literature from the reading of O cousin Basílio and its cinematographic adaptation, in view of the question, according to René Girard's perspectives, of mimetic desire. Therefore, it is necessary to achieve the specific objectives of analyzing the book, bringing discussions about the artistic context, its narrative structure and its unique language; make a study of the film, analyzing its intersemiotic translation process, its artistic context, its narrative structure and its peculiar language; understand the notion of desire, through the psychoanalytic discussions of Freud and Lacan; understand the notion of mimetic desire, according to René Girard, based mainly on the triangular relationship between Luísa, Basílio and Jorge. In this way, the works were previously read in order to understand their dynamics, carrying out the analysis by means of linguistic-literary resources present in the book (adjectives and diguras of language) and cinematographic in the film (frames and speeches of the characters). Subsequently, systematic research on intersemiotic translation was necessary, based on the discussions of Peirce and Jackobson, of desire, according to Freud and Lacan, followed by mimetic desire, according to Girard, which is the main focus of this research. According to Girard's studies, man's desire does not occur in isolation, he is always mediated by the desire for a model, and that the search for what belongs to the other causes a rivalry, which results in violence between the subject and his model, arising from the dispute for the same object of desire. When analyzing the corpus of this research, we perceive the presence of the mimetic triangle in the triangular relationship between Luísa, Basílio and Jorge, since Basílio wants what Jorge wants, that is, Luísa, which causes great violence that is reflected especially in Luísa, for being a woman inserted in a patriarchal society. The culmination of this violence is marked by the death of the protagonist, who took on the role of scapegoat for 19th century bourgeois morality in the book and the 20th in the film.