O FRACASSO DA NORMATIZAÇÃO

HISTERIA E SUBVERSÕES DO DISCURSO NO ROMANCE O HOMEM, DE ALUÍSIO AZEVEDO

Abstract

Naturalism is commonly associated with scientific theories such as Darwinism, determinism and positivism. In fact, they are present in the works, but this same scientific discourse used as an instrument of ideological imposition can, in the hands of the narrator, be subverted. In the novel O homem, by Aluísio Azevedo, the protagonist Magdá, a young woman from a petit-bourgeois family, develops a case of hysteria due to a disappointment in love. As her mental state worsens, attempts to control the “disease” fail and her sexual drive increasingly emerges, especially after contact with “the man” who gives the book its title, the Portuguese immigrant who works in the quarry across the street from her house. Assuming that neutrality is something unattainable, considering the social, subjective and historical issues of individuals, this article aims to analyze how the process of standardization imposed by the scientific knowledge of the period leads the protagonist to madness, bringing to light a critique of this same knowledge now defended by naturalist aesthetics.