O mar, o rio e a tempestade

The Odyssey, King Lear, and Grande Sertão: Veredas—combining different critical perspectives, the original essays gathered in this book create a dialogue between three literary universes that converge and transform one another. Philosophy serves as the starting point for an original reading of these three classic works, traversing the history of ideas and their reception, from Ancient Greece, through Early Modern England, to Contemporary Brazil, before returning to a philosophical discussion on forms of expression. The works are explored not merely as illustrations, metaphors, or allegories, but in their reflective dimensions.

“A journey across Homer’s sea of verses, through the storm of Shakespeare’s dramaturgy, and along the river of Guimarães Rosa’s literature.”
—Pedro Duarte and Tatiana Salem Levy, coordinators of the “Ensaio Aberto” collection.

O mar, o rio e a tempestade, by Pedro Süssekind, is one of the works included in the “Ensaio Aberto” book collection, a partnership between NOVA FCSH and PUC-Rio.

Ensaio Aberto Collection

In the Western tradition, the separation between Philosophy and Literature has long been taken for granted, resulting in a historical understanding that divides the mind, reflection, or reason on one side, and the body, creation, or emotion on the other. This division forfeited the possibility of a form of knowledge that, instead of separating, could bring Philosophy and Literature closer by asking: do writers not philosophize, and do philosophers not write? The Open Essays in this collection arise from the desire to explore how, despite Philosophy’s well-known metaphysical critique of Literature, the two have never ceased to converge.