LOGIC AND CONTRADICTION IN A READING OF “O SENHOR VALÉRY”, WRITTEN BY GONÇALO M. TAVARES

Abstract

The objective of this work is to analyze the novel O senhor Valéry (2002; in Brazil, published with the addition of the phrase "e a lógica"), written by the Portuguese contemporary novelist Gonçalo M. Tavares. It is part of a collection entitled “The neighborhood”, in which the author pays homage to different fiction writers and intellectuals. In that case, the protagonist is represented as an individual who values ​​rationality at all times, even in the most commonplace situations, and the drawing is used as a resource that supports rational manifestations in many moments, as will be shown. However, this apparent fidelity to logic is gradually broken, until the final section of the book, in which word and image combine to highlight the collapse of any certainty. We intend to focus on three chapters of the book, showing how, in them, the logic outlined in the title and throughout the pages, in fact, is broken. By extension, we want to show how the protagonist seems to suffer with a shift and a non-personally identifiable approaching too much of the person's dilemma in contemporary society.