Stopped clocks: time and space in William Faulkner and Autran Dourado

This critical trend on the part of both U.S. and Latin American critics represents a growing recognition of the importance of examining the links which bind U.S. fiction and culture with Latin America. One writer whose work clearly echoes that of Faulkner is the Brazilian, Autran Dourado, but as yet this relationship has been left largely unexplored. My comparison of Dourado´s The Voices of the Dead with Faulkner´s short stories "Elly" and "The Brooch" will investigate how the work of both writers emerges from an era of social crisis. By examining the function of key visual symbols within the texts I will demonstrate how the burden of historical time forced upon the characters results in their psychological entrampment and subsequent urge to escape by means of physical violence and sexual transgression.This critical trend on the part of both U.S. and Latin American critics represents a growing recognition of the importance of examining the links which bind U.S. fiction and culture with Latin America. One writer whose work clearly echoes that of Faulkner is the Brazilian, Autran Dourado, but as yet this relationship has been left largely unexplored. My comparison of Dourado´s The Voices of the Dead with Faulkner´s short stories "Elly" and "The Brooch" will investigate how the work of both writers emerges from an era of social crisis. By examining the function of key visual symbols within the texts I will demonstrate how the burden of historical time forced upon the characters results in their psychological entrampment and subsequent urge to escape by means of physical violence and sexual transgression. Relógios parados: tempo e espaço em William Faulkner e Autran Dourado A relação de William Faulkner com a ficção latino-americana tem sido objeto de muita discussçao nas últimas décadas. Esta tendência crítica, tanto por parte de críticos norte-americanos como de críticos latino-americanos, representa em crescente reconhecimento da importância do estudo dos vínculos entre a cultura e a ficção norte-americanas e a América Latina. Um escritor cuja obra claramente ecoa a de Faulkner é o brasileiro Autran Dourado, embora permaneça ainda permanece inexplorada. Minha comparaçã de Ópera dos mortos, de Dourado, com os contos "Elly" e "O broche", de Faulkner, investigará como o trabalho dos dois escritores emerge de uma era de crise social. Examinando a função dos símbolos visuais-chave presentes nos textos, pretendo demonstrar como o fardo do tempo histórico sobre as personagens resulta em seu aprisionamento psicológico e numa subseqüente necessidade de escape por meio da violência física e da transgressão sexual