The will to power and the pactary

Disputes between Nietzsche's philosophy and Grande Sertão: Veredas, by Guimarães Rosa

Abstract

This essay brings together the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche, especially the concept of “will to power” (Wille zur Macht) and the Faustian drama that resonates in the speech of Riobaldo, narrator-protagonist of Grande sertão: veredas (2001 [ 1956]), by Guimarães Rosa. In our hypothesis, there is an interesting dialogue between philosophy and literature insofar as the archetype of the pactary subject is presented as an affirmation of the individual will, willing to transvaluate the established moral values. However, while for the German philosopher the “will to power” would point to a radical demolition of the sacred and the divine, for the Rosean narrator the mystical bias would still present itself as a possibility of meaning to transcend the immediate human experience. In this direction, we understand that it is fundamental to advance in a social and historical reading of the philosophical and literary text, observing correspondences and divergences regarding its ideological and utopian aspects.