Do Padre Vieira da História oficial à personagem de Ana Miranda em Boca do Inferno

Abstract

The present coursework has for its initial study corpus the “Boca do Inferno” (Hell Mouth) novel, published in 1989 by the writer Ana Miranda. Created based on a historical perspective, the book is a historical novel that narrates episodes of colonial Bahia in the seventeenth century during the government of the military Antônio de Souza Menezes, nicknamed the “Braço de Prata” (Silver Arm). In this context, the novel presents characteristics that refer to the related period, focusing on elements such as the language related to written records that we have from the represented time, the fictional construction of events and historical characters. One of these characters is Priest Antônio Vieira, with emphasis on his characteristics as sacred orator, philosopher and political participant in several important events in colonial Brazil. In this way, we analyze the aspects that configure the formation of the character Vieira in the “Boca do Inferno”, in literary historiography and in Vieira’s own speech found in his defense against the “Santo Ofício” (Holy Craft) Tribunal, having as support the records that celebrate his historical and literary personality. Based on this aspect and taking the theoretical contribution of historiographical metafiction and the Aristotelian basis rhetoric, we define the similarities and the differences that interact in the textual context, with the intent of dimension the mechanisms used for the construction of Antonio Vieira character in Ana Miranda’s novel and in literary historiography.