Consistent fragmentations in A Morte do Palhaço and O Mistério da Árvore, by Raul Brandão

Abstract

The Death of the Clown and the Mystery of the Tree by Raul Brandão (1926) is a rewritten text of Story of a Clown (Life and the Diary of K. Maurício) (1896). Raul Brandão has always been part of journalistic sphere and it is also through this record that some of his works, chronicles and short stories appear. Perhaps, The Death of the Clown and the Mystery of the Tree emerges as a work of a fragmentary nature, in relation with the features of its characters, but yet with an inner logic of great coherence. Combining the attractive and the repulsive, among the tension conveyed by anguish and death, the grotesque emerges as the major expression of deformation, and in relation with the fragmentary nature of his work.