Anthropophagic parody and/as decolonial critique: Verissimo, Shakespeare, and literary devouring

This article explores the decolonizing potential of anthropophagic parody in A décima segunda noite (2006), by Luis Fernando Verissimo, a novel that reimagines Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night through Oswald de Andrade’s concept of cultural anthropophagy. By transposing the play into a Brazilian setting...

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Main Author: Caio Antônio Nóbrega
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina 2025-07-01
Series:Ilha do Desterro
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Online Access:https://periodicos.ufsc.br/index.php/desterro/article/view/105076
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author Caio Antônio Nóbrega
author_facet Caio Antônio Nóbrega
author_sort Caio Antônio Nóbrega
collection DOAJ
description This article explores the decolonizing potential of anthropophagic parody in A décima segunda noite (2006), by Luis Fernando Verissimo, a novel that reimagines Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night through Oswald de Andrade’s concept of cultural anthropophagy. By transposing the play into a Brazilian setting, the novel subverts the hierarchical centrality of Shakespeare in the Western canon. The parrot-narrator, Henri, embodies this process by mimicking and distorting Shakespeare’s text in a carnivalesque dialogue that both honors and critiques its source. Engaging with post-colonial and literary theorists such as Walter Mignolo and Linda Hutcheon, the article argues that anthropophagic parody enacts epistemic disobedience, allowing a Brazilian writer to appropriate and reconfigure Shakespeare’s legacy. Through linguistic, narrative, and thematic disruptions, A décima segunda noite illustrates how anthropophagic parody can dismantle colonial epistemologies, demonstrating the subversive potential of Brazilian literature to engage critically with global cultural traditions while asserting its own creative agency.
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spelling doaj-art-a3e730c7e0214911bd4339f13ba807c82025-08-20T03:30:56ZengUniversidade Federal de Santa CatarinaIlha do Desterro0101-48462175-80262025-07-0178110.5007/2175-8026.2025.e105076Anthropophagic parody and/as decolonial critique: Verissimo, Shakespeare, and literary devouringCaio Antônio Nóbregahttps://orcid.org/0000-0003-4614-5769 This article explores the decolonizing potential of anthropophagic parody in A décima segunda noite (2006), by Luis Fernando Verissimo, a novel that reimagines Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night through Oswald de Andrade’s concept of cultural anthropophagy. By transposing the play into a Brazilian setting, the novel subverts the hierarchical centrality of Shakespeare in the Western canon. The parrot-narrator, Henri, embodies this process by mimicking and distorting Shakespeare’s text in a carnivalesque dialogue that both honors and critiques its source. Engaging with post-colonial and literary theorists such as Walter Mignolo and Linda Hutcheon, the article argues that anthropophagic parody enacts epistemic disobedience, allowing a Brazilian writer to appropriate and reconfigure Shakespeare’s legacy. Through linguistic, narrative, and thematic disruptions, A décima segunda noite illustrates how anthropophagic parody can dismantle colonial epistemologies, demonstrating the subversive potential of Brazilian literature to engage critically with global cultural traditions while asserting its own creative agency. https://periodicos.ufsc.br/index.php/desterro/article/view/105076AnthropophagyParodyDecolonialityShakespeareVerissimo
spellingShingle Caio Antônio Nóbrega
Anthropophagic parody and/as decolonial critique: Verissimo, Shakespeare, and literary devouring
Ilha do Desterro
Anthropophagy
Parody
Decoloniality
Shakespeare
Verissimo
title Anthropophagic parody and/as decolonial critique: Verissimo, Shakespeare, and literary devouring
title_full Anthropophagic parody and/as decolonial critique: Verissimo, Shakespeare, and literary devouring
title_fullStr Anthropophagic parody and/as decolonial critique: Verissimo, Shakespeare, and literary devouring
title_full_unstemmed Anthropophagic parody and/as decolonial critique: Verissimo, Shakespeare, and literary devouring
title_short Anthropophagic parody and/as decolonial critique: Verissimo, Shakespeare, and literary devouring
title_sort anthropophagic parody and as decolonial critique verissimo shakespeare and literary devouring
topic Anthropophagy
Parody
Decoloniality
Shakespeare
Verissimo
url https://periodicos.ufsc.br/index.php/desterro/article/view/105076
work_keys_str_mv AT caioantonionobrega anthropophagicparodyandasdecolonialcritiqueverissimoshakespeareandliterarydevouring