João Gilberto Noll and the aesthetic of non-me

Abstract

The doctoral thesis, defended in 2014 at UNICAMP, has as its object the twelve novels published by João Gilberto Noll. The idea that fueled our initial impetus was to discover in the heterogeneity of the various novels a certain unity that could be the structuring principle of Noll's novels. This thesis is divided into two distinct and complementary moments, namely: first, we trace, somewhat abstractly, what there is in common among the twelve protagonists who speak in the novels. We emphasize, at this first moment, the importance that temporal analysis had, providing the most important interpretative key for the analysis of identity issues evoked in the novels, for which theorists such as Paul Ricoeur and Jean Pouillon provided the theoretical basis. In the second part, each novel is analyzed in order to concretize the corollaries produced in the first part. Thus, it was found that we have identity dramas in which their heroes deliberately seek the non-being, that which they are not, but which they yearn deeply and anxiously. It is not a lack of being, but a search for the limits of the self in the face of the non-self. The analysis of each novel allowed us to demonstrate that this hypothesis is confirmed and that it was necessary to resort to philosophy for a sufficient reflection.