DO PRESENCISMO DE JOSÉ RÉGIO EM SEU JOGO DA CABRA CEGA

Abstract

Anticipating by a few months the celebrations relating to the 90th anniversary of the publication of the novel “Jogo da cabra cega”, by Portuguese author José Régio, published for the first time in 1934, this article analyzes how the discursive materiality of this novel reveals the main issues of the artistic-literary movement Portuguese modernist called “Presença”, namely: psychological imagination, introspective consciousness, confessionalism, sincerity and simplicity. Furthermore, themes such as the scrutiny of human coexistence, the relationship between art and literature and the decadent legacies present in the text are other biases addressed in this analysis. The critical reading undertaken in this text is always intended to be linked to the literary exercise of the novel, with a view to reiterating the exquisite aesthetic work of the present author, who established, in his own way, the lines of a new modernism in Portuguese Literature, establishing itself among the avant-garde and tradition, as the critic Fernando Guimarães had already commented, and leaving for posterity a record of psychological investigation with which readers of all eras will be able to identify.