Sobre a inferência de valores morais na leitura de ficção (numa análise de Vidas secas)

Abstract

ABSTRACT: from the consilience between linguistics, psychology and narratology, this article investigates how moral values are suggested by implication to the reader of fictional texts, without being ostensibly stated in the narration. By dialoguing with contributions from Jonathan Haidt’s (2012) moral psychological, Dan Sperber’s and Deirdre Wilson’s (2012) pragmatics, and Lubomír Doležel’s (1998) narratology, we propose a descriptive model for this study, exemplified through the analysis of Graciliano Ramos’s Barren lives. The model aggregates: 1) pragmatics (identifying inferential processes in fiction reading); 2) a narratology based on possible worlds theory (describing modes of moralization involved in the construction of the fictional world); 3) evolutionary psychology (identifying the text’s appeal to universal moral biases); 4) the text’s inscription in its context of publication. We used Barren lives as case study to identify how these elements substantiate the inference of moral contents by the reader.

KEYWORDS: Fiction reading. Moral psychology. Linguistic pragmatics. Analytical narratology. Graciliano Ramos’s Barren lives.