DA LAPA AO PELOURINHO: ONDE VIVE A MALANDRAGEM? O SURGIMENTO DO PERSONAGEM MALANDRO E SUA COMPARAÇÃO NAS OBRAS DONA FLOR E SEUS DOIS MARIDOS, DE JORGE AMADO, E A ÓPERA DO MALANDRO, DE CHICO BUARQUE

Abstract

From an urban provocation arises the questioning about the typical character in the national dramaturgy. Is there such an interlocutor, capable of giving an identity to the theatrical production of a model to be replicated? The research proposes to answer the question through an extensive literary deepening, searching from the first records until the disappearance of such a character. The malandro is the center of this dissertation and its entire trajectory from its emergence in an Iberian Peninsula to its perfect insertion in the tropics. Co-opted by Brazilian behavior, its diffusion will be widely addressed by theater and literature. Through records of his circulation, two cities are identified as being occupied by his figure. Namely, Rio de Janeiro and Salvador, cities where this investigation is applied through everyday observation and bohemian insertion. The occupation of two coastal towns with different behaviors bequeaths the port region to the malandro, where all his possibilities for action take place in excellence. Understood as a person at first, his transformation into a character is inherent in his popular imagination. Gaining the nickname of an adjective, malandragem is narrated in models that become classics in literature, taking to the stages according to the social transformation of the streets. As an urban chronicle, the produced dramaturgies insert the malandro as a provocateur of conflicts and articulator, oblivious to a Manichean balance. Observing political variations, the malandro transforms and adapts to maintain his existence. Faced with the examples of different authors, we perceive the decline of the character until his definitive disappearance. Proving to be the typical representative of national dramaturgy, two examples are cited to suggest a model of malandragem understood between the acting environments. Namely, public and private become the spheres where the characters Vadinho by Jorge Amado and Max Overseas by Chico Buarque perpetuate the archetypal conduct, justifying all the deepening of this research.