Humanitas é a “filosofia” concebida pelo enlouquecido personagem Quincas Borba, a qual ecoa, de forma satírica, o darwinismo social em voga no século XIX. A força cega da natureza – a própria essência de Humanitas - obscurece todo o restante, e aprisiona o sentido, ou a falta dele, à máxima: “ao vencedor as batatas.” Trata-se de conquistar as “batatas” sem lamentar o processo ou as consequências. A crítica machadina à modernidade oitocentista – ao cientificismo, ao individualismo e ao racionalismo - guarda muito pontosem comum com a de Dostoiévski, não apontando, porém, na religiosidade de maneira geral, ou no cristianismo em particular, uma alternativa viável. Neste sentido, em Machado, “o punhado de pó” mencionado por Spiéchniev a Dostoiévski diante do pelotão de fuzilamento, predomina. Em Dostoiévski há um enlace entre Cristo e o “pó”, entre o sagrado e a miséria (material e espiritual) humana, entre finitude e transcendência. Este enlace tenso encontra-se com grande força em O idiota, e na forma como a obra tematiza o CristoMorto de H. Holbein. Entre o ‘punhado de pó’, a força cega de “humanitas” agindo sobre o cadáver do “Cristo Morto”, e, por outro lado, a fé cristã, o autor russo propõe uma alternativa de redenção.Humanitas is the name of a new “philosophy” conceived by Machado de Assis´s mad character Quincas Borba, which satirizes Social Darwinism. The blind forces of nature – the very essence of Humanitas – are the foundations of a senseless worldview in which the only existing law is the survival of fittest, regardless of human suffering or the violent consequences of a continuous dispute. Machado de Assis´s criticism on 19th century modernity – concerning scientificism, individualism and rationalism - can be compared in many aspects to that developed by Dostoevsky. However, Machado de Assis does not think of religion in general or Christianity in particular as a path of redemption. In this sense, in Machado´s work prevails the “handful of dust” mentioned by Spechniev to Dostoyevsky when the Russian author was about to be executed. In Dostoyevsky´s novels there is an encounter between Christ and the “handful of dust”, between what is sacred and human misery, between finitude and transcendence. This tense encounter is very much present in the novel The Idiot which presents Holbein´s Dead Christ as one of its motives. Between the “handful of dust” or the blind force of Humanitas acting upon the dead body of Christ on one hand, and Christian faith on the other, Dostoyevsky proposes and alternative path of redemption.
Towards a Kenotic Identity Politics: Migration, Transformation and the Eucharist
