Between life and literature: on the processes of transculturation in Guimarães Rosa and José María Arguedas

Abstract

This essay aims to compare four Latin American short stories – “As margens da alegria” and “Substância”, by Guimarães Rosa, published in Primeiras estórias (1961); “Warma Kuyay” and “El ayla”, by José María Arguedas –, based on the analyzes that Antonio Candido and Ángel Rama make of the regionalist narrative in the different literary systems they study: Brazilian and Peruvian. After presenting the concepts of transculturation and supra-regionalism, the motifs for death and sacrifice are interpreted in “As margens da alegria” and “Warma Kuyay”, and the situations of communion and apartment, in “El ayla” and “Substância ”, in order to verify the differences and similarities in the treatment given to these themes by the authors. Then, a reflection is made on the historical determination of the concept of literature, considering the limits of the universalizing readings undertaken by Rama and Candido, and the violent character of the colonization process to which these nations were submitted. In this sense, it dialogues with the research developed by Marcos Natali on the work of the Peruvian writer and his reflection on the possibilities of humanization through literature. As a result, there is an option, in Arguedas, for non-European narrative practices and for the valorization of a Quechua ritual in its creation process.