“Doramar ou A Odisseia”

Subversion of the epic hero, memory, identity and ancestry in the short story by Itamar Vieira Junior

Abstract

This article aims to analyze the subversion of the epic hero in the short story “Doramar 
ou A Odisseia”, by Itamar Vieira Junior (2017), investigating how the protagonist's wandering places her on the threshold between memory and forgetting. To this end, the analysis is divided into three axes: the first examines Doramar's journey from the upper city as a form of resistance to the exploitation she suffered in her work as a domestic servant. Next, it discusses the role of memory and ancestry – the latter represented by the maternal figure, Dona Santa – with emphasis on nomadism or wandering in matriarchal societies and the importance of traditional knowledge for the heroine's initiatory quest. Finally, it analyzes the shift in narrative focus from the third to the first person as a landmark in the protagonist's journey towards self-knowledge, whose memories are sometimes accompanied by the sound of the tide from her childhood, and sometimes by the maternal voice that welcomes and guides her. The results obtained demonstrate that Doramar's odyssey contrasts with the traditional epic trajectory, since it does not presuppose a heroic return home, but a via crucis: the encounter with oneself and, at the same time, the definitive loss of oneself.