Uma casa, tempo de espera e silêncio: uma leitura de Ontem não te vi em Babilónia e O arquipélago da insónia, de António Lobo Antunes

Abstract

This work proposes an analysis of two novels by the portuguese writer António Lobo Antunes, taking into consideration narrative instances that, from our point of view, are highlighted in the author s work. The books are Ontem não te vi em Babilônia, novel that was published in 2006, and O arquipélago da insônia, published in 2008. The novels make up the author s most recent production cycle, in which the formal and aesthetic experiences are much more intense than in his previous novels. Besides that, these works show thematic convergences that appear in careful reading of the book s titles: Ontem não te vi is the representation of time passing, time of frustration; Babilônia is Babel, the biggest symbol of incommunicability for the West. Arquipélago is a group of islands, a gathering that is noticeable for its isolation and incommunicability; Insônia is equally a frustrated wait for something that never arrives, in this case, sleep, which is a metaphor for death in his novels. Therefore, this work is going to focus on the analysis of space, taking into consideration the house as a symbol; time, as death and sleepless; and the text, that is, basically, presented as a discursive overflow. This way, we will enter in Lobo Antunes universe and, what seems to be the author s desire to reveal ourselves and our time