EUPHEMIZATION OF THE TRAGIC IN THE SHORT STORY "A MARIA LIONÇA" BY MIGUEL TORGA

Abstract

The tragic as a literary theme appeared in the dramaturgy from Ancient Greece. Over time, the Greek tragedy as a theme has reverberated in other literary genres. Based on the sad aspects of tragic narratives, we consider it relevant to investigate how the tragic is euphemized. Therefore, in this article our objective is to analyze how the euphemization of tragic occurs in the short story "A Maria Lionça" by Miguel Torga (1996), published in Contos da Montanha. The present investigation is justified by the limited number of studies in this perspective. We selected some excerpts from the short story to illustrate our analysis. The theoretical basis of our research, which is totally bibliographical, is based on studies about the tragic and the euphemism from literary perspective. We make use of theoreticians such as Ströngoli (2000), Szondi (2004), Lukács (2000), Machado (2005, 2006), Moisés (2013), Leal (2014), Nietzsche (1997, 2014), Oliveira (2015), among others. According to the studies and analysis made, it was noticed that the short story "A Maria Lionça" is built under a euphemistic aura consisting of exaltation attributed to the space and, mainly, the Lionça figure. Thus, euphemization occurs from the attenuation of death; and this softening is motivated by the attempt to lead the reader to see the integrity and honesty of the character Maria Lionça as virtues which are superior to the misfortunes that came to her.