The Possible Novel

Abstract

We present a critical reading of The Possible Romance (2015) by Helder Macedo, published in Lisbon by Editorial Presença. The emergence of a “merciless” narrator and the author’s intentional refusal to meet the demands of the cultural market, which seeks “platitudes” such as ease of understanding and speed of reading, is observed. The novel, by disorienting the reader and referring to other works, establishes a dialogue with Bernardim Ribeiro, especially his “Romance”, the subject of the author’s previous study. Macedo’s work is presented as being “under construction”, characterized by simultaneous and contradictory spaces and times that generate a “hallucinogenic effect”. This approach is connected to the “literary modes of hallucination”, where the fantastic focuses on the “mental processes of those who see what cannot ‘be there’”. The narrative is described as a “conversation of fiction with itself”, without commitment to verisimilitude. Temporal fluidity and “unknown language” reflect the instability of contemporaneity.