Externality as aesthetics in O mez da grippe and Anjo Negro: from a Foucaultian perspective

Abstract

This paper aims to analyze and make a comparative study of the constitutive elements of O mês da grippe, by Valêncio Xavier, writer and film-maker, and Anjo Negro, by Nelson Rodrigues, journalist and playwright, aiming to reflect on issues cherished by modern aesthetics that appear in both works, emphasizing formal aspects and highlighting elements that emanate from the affirmation of externality, such as the panopticism, the disciplinary society and the odd/ghost that threatens the order, the characters’ superficiality, as well as the cliche and the irony of the hybrid textual gender. In order to do so, we will use, as main theoretical basis, the ideas of Michel Foucault, particularly his books Discipline and punish and The History of sexuality 1: an introduction