(R) Evolution in the prose of António Lobo Antunes - thanatography and the poetics of chaos

Abstract

This article aims to relate the concepts of thanatography by Biagio D’Angelo, going through the character concepts addressed by Bakhtin in narratives by the contemporary Portuguese writer António Lobo Antunes. The plots of the four novels analyzed in this article, Auto dos danados (1985), O esplendor de Portugal (1997), Exortação aos crocodilos (1999) and A última porta antes da noite (2018) present very simple and circular plots, however it is during the process of constructing the memorialistic discourse, which is the leitmotif of the narratives, in which the narrators are inserted into irreducible temporal labyrinths. Remembering is a fact that causes traumatic existential clashes, such as the conflicting relationship between what the protagonists see in the present and what they remember, thus making their reports strong thanatographic elements, that is, the narratives are experiences related to the writing of death. One can notice in Antunes’ narratives an intricate discourse that, simulating his mental confusion, does not provide answers to his questions. Therefore, the present work seeks to highlight thanatogra­phic memory as an integral part of fiction, and fiction as an integral part of thanatographic memory.