Homo Homini Lupus: A learning of Aprender a Rezar na Era da Técnica

Abstract

Aprender a rezar na era da técnica, Gonçalo M. Tavares’s novel brings an important issue: the question of political control by insertion of fear in citizens. Political strategy discussed since Thomas Hobbes, in works such as Leviathan, the fear of the unseen would be worth that Hamm Kestner and Lenz Buchmann, characters in the novel in question power. The Portuguese author does not find the spatially or temporally novel, but we can trace the hypothesis that we are facing an allegory of totalitarianism experienced by European countries in the twentieth century. The names of the characters suggest a germanic origin, which would direct us, perhaps for the German totalitarian regime. However, the historical contours are not accurate: we are facing a literature that rescues the story "like figure" as assures us Juliana Sá, one of the authors who analyze the novel.