• Color Metamorphosis In Mário De Andrade’s Macunaíma And In Heliodorus’ Aethiopica

    Author(s):
    Andrea Kouklanakis (see profile)
    Date:
    2022
    Subject(s):
    Comparative literature, Canon (Literature), Modernism (Literature), Mock-heroic literature
    Item Type:
    Article
    Tag(s):
    Aethiopica, classics, Heliodorus, Macunaíma, Mário de Andrade
    Permanent URL:
    https://doi.org/10.17613/m75q-5f88
    Abstract:
    In Mário de Andrade’s novel Macunaíma, the eponymous hero is born ‘deep in the forest,’ ‘ink-black’ (retinto), and ugly. Macunaíma’s blackness becomes synonymous with ugliness, just as he becomes beautiful when he becomes white. This paper juxtaposes the circumstances of Macunaíma’s birth, the impression of the surrounding nature on his mother at the time of birth, and his skin color, with similar conjunctions attending the birth of the Ethiopian princess Chariclea in Heliodorus’ Aethiopica. Chariclea is unexpectedly born white by the influence of maternal impression at the time of conception. The Aethiopica offers a productive parallel to Macunaíma because both novels include skin color and color metamorphoses as critical part of their plot embedding therein questions of origin, identity, assimilation, and heroic quest.
    Metadata:
    xml
    Published as:
    Journal article     Show details
    Pub. DOI:
    https://hdl.handle.net/10520/ejc-aar_rhetoric_v14_n1_a10
    Publisher:
    African Association for Rhetoric
    Pub. Date:
    July 2022
    Journal:
    African Journal of Rhetoric
    Volume:
    14
    Issue:
    1
    Page Range:
    189 - 209
    Status:
    Published
    Last Updated:
    4 months ago
    License:
    Attribution
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