Resonances of greek-latin epic in the Ubirajara of José de Alencar

Abstract

This article analyses the novel Ubirajara, by José de Alencar, and shows the author's debts to the classical tradition. It focalizes the intertextual relations between the alencarian text and the homeric epics, especially concerning a group of themes, among which are highlighted the warrior excellence and the hospitality. It shows also how these themes are interwoven artistically with the epithets, an important stylistic resource of the classical epic, in order to compose a complex plot, supported by peripeteia and anagnorisis. Based on this greek-latin material, the narrator's discourse is arranged as an aition, a narrative genre which intends to explain the causes of the things of the world, that was very appreciated by the greeks and the romans. The Ubirajara defines itself with the subtitle 'tupy legend'; this legend, constructed by the author, explains the causes that originated an indigenous people named Ubirajara; the historical existence of this people is showed by Gabriel Soares, a XVIth century portuguese chronicler; Alencar reference him in the first of the many notes he adds to the fictional narrative. This narrative aims to show the glorious feats done by the warrior Ubirajara, that made him an eponimous hero of that indigenous people.