LITERATURE AND PSYCHOANALYSIS: EXISTENTIAL ANGUISH IN OLD AGE IN THE SHORT STORIES “NEGOTIATING THE END” AND “THE FOUR SEASONS” BY S. BARRETO

Abstract

This investigation aims to problematize the existential quests of talented people, telling us “Negociando o fim” and “As quatro estações” by Brazilian writer S. Barreto; based on an interdisciplinary dialogue between Literature and Psychology. Founded, above all, in Freud’s contributions (1990, 1996, 2006); Lacan (1975, 2010); Winnicott (2005); Foucault (2004, 2007); Beauvoir (2018) and Mucida (2002), the study understands aging not only as a mere stage where greater care is required, but as a “limited experience” marked by the intensification of helplessness, the loss of memory, the breaking of family ties and the confrontation of death. Therefore we understand the stories s. barretiana as a privileged field to problematize Etarism, the ethics of care and the intergerational relationships to denounce practices that reduce the state of being or being subject to the condition of “undesired” subjects, denying the basic rights of existential dignity. Furthermore, a fictional work that touches on aspects of the fantastic, allows for a forceful critique of current and modern society, serving, in this sense, as an important instrument of emancipation, reflection and raising of social consciousness around people under this condition.