Ecological issues in Não verás país nenhum, by the writer Ignácio de Loyola Brandão

Abstract

The novel Não verás país nenhum (2008), by the Brazillian writer Ignácio de Loyola Brandão, was published in the 1980s and to this day is much read and impresses its readers due to its apocalyptic character with regard to ecological issues. The narrator and character, Souza, tell us about what could become our country, a total chaos created by the human being himself over time. In the novel, there is a frightening shortage of food and water; the prohibition of the free movement of the population; the oppression; the authoritarianism; the falsification of history; the sun annihilating lives; the hunger killing more than the sun and the strong presence of violence. This paper, therefore, aims to study the echological questions that is presented in this literary work, articulating two theoretical concepts: the ecocriticism concept, postulated by the professor Greg Garrard, on the book Ecocrítica (2006) and objective violence, discussed by the Slovenian philosopher and psychoanalyst Slavoj Žižek on the book Violência: seis reflexões laterais (2014). By applying the concepts in an articulated way, we conclude that Brandão's novel is permeated by environmental catastrophes stemming from the malfunctioning of the political and economic system, due to Global Capitalism that excludes and annihilates fundamental human rights.