Os Lusíadas e Paraíso Perdido : dois momentos estéticos da poesia épica

Abstract

This dissertation aims mainly to make a comparative study of the renaissance and baroque aesthetic resources in epics, using, therefore, The Lusiads (1572), which is a heroic poem on the Portuguese maritime expansion, and Paradise Lost (1667), by John Milton, better known and studied as a protestant humanist epic about the fall of the first human couple. The main theoretical basis for this study is the formulations of Gilbert Highet (1954), Anazildo Vasconcelos da Silva (1984, 1987, 2007) and Christina Ramalho (2013) on the epic genre and the classical tradition. There were also major contributions to this work: Joaquim Nabuco (1872), Bowra (1950), Metzer and Coogan (2002) and Saraiva and Lopes (2010). The aspect of comparison between the works is the permanence of classical mythology in the literary plan of the works. Therefore, it was adopted Hesiod (1995, 1996) as a mythographic source, because of the educational intentions of his works. The Lusiads are considered, according to the theory of literary speech and semiotization of Anazildo Vasconcelos da Silva, a renaissance epic and, thus it contains the reference to authors, works and pagan mythology present in the classic epic model (Iliad, Odyssey), besides the balance between thought and emotion and the formulation of universalizing concepts. While Paradise Lost is understood as a work of baroque epic model, which proposes the projection of the poetic persona in the narrative, the narrator as agent of the character subjective logic and sentimentalization of the epic proposition. Although, both have what Gilbert Highet calls classic influence. In other words, they are impregnated by classical thought, whose presence in the body of the poems varies in strength, importance and penetration. Consequently, this research will specifically treat the ways how the classic influence manifests in Camões and John Milton epics.