Abstract:
The writer Rui Zink, in an inserted “Author’s Note” at the end of the novel O Destino Turístico (The Tourist Destination), explains that he aims to create a “tetralogy about the crisis”, composed of three novels and a book of short stories – O Destino Turístico (2008), A Instalação do Medo (2012, The Installation of Fear), A Metamorfose e Outras Formosas Morfoses (2014, The Metamorphosis and Other Beautiful Morphosis), and Osso (2015, Bone). In fact, the crisis is at the core of theses narratives and joins the violence, the terrorism, and the fear, reflecting contemporary European problems. The fiction, thus, mimics facets of the empirical world; and Rui Zink, by means of allegoric and ironic plots, draws the contemporary human condition – desperate, frightened, and cruel. This article accepts the author’s proposal as a reading key (and not as an aspect limiting the analysis) and is dedicated to the study of such literary works (specifically the novels) in order to map the sign of the crisis, taking into consideration some propositions of Zygmunt Bauman (2008BAUMAN, Zygmunt. Medo Líquido. Tradução de Carlos Alberto Medeiros. Rio de Janeiro: Jorge Zahar Ed., 2008., 2014BAUMAN, Zygmunt; DONSKIS, Leonidas. Cegueira moral: a perda da sensibilidade na modernidade líquida. Tradução de Carlos Alberto Medeiros. Rio de Janeiro: Jorge Zahar Ed., 2014.).
Keywords:
Portuguese novel; Crisis; Contemporaneity