The concepts of "love" and "unlove" in the short story Os Dragões não conhecem o paraíso by Caio Fernando Abreu

Abstract

This work aims to investigate how relationships of love and lovelessness are constructed in the short story Os dragões não conhecem o paraíso, by the Brazilian writer Caio Fernando Abreu. The book, the story's namesake, published in 1988, can be considered a production of contemporary literature according to the classification proposed by Erik Schollhammer (2009). Among the main
characteristics of contemporary literature, Dragons Don't Know Paradise clearly presents the urgency that a subject inadequate in his time has in representing it. The time of “lovelessness” (Hooks, 2021) allows the narrator to find space only in the absence of his loved one, so it is interesting to examine the loving relationship present in the story.