The Serente anteater: old age and violence in Buriti by João Guimarães Rosa

Abstract

This text analyses an excerpt from João Guimãres Rosa’s novella “Buriti” where it is possible to glimpse a mention of a myth from the Xerente tradition collected by German ethnologist Curt Nimuendaju. Through the comparative analysis of the texts by those authors, it is possible to establish a semantic nexus between the mythology of that ethnicity and Rosa’s literary abundance, mainly concerning the protagonist, Miguel. That relationship takes place involving both the violence theme and the association between old age and the figure of the anteater, a common element in the work of both authors.