Homens e cães em "Jordão" e "Nós matámos o cão tinhoso"

Abstract

This study focus on “Jordão” (1951), a short story by the Portuguese writer João de Araújo Correia, and “Nós matámos o Cão-Tinhoso”, written by the Mozambican writer Luís Bernardo Honwana. It starts with a brief survey about the presence of dogs in literature, stressing an evolution from a symbolic perspective to a more realistic one, influenced by new ways of conceiving animals, including human animals. The two narratives are compared in order to stress the similarities they share, namely a lonely and excluded human protagonist and a friendly dog protagonist victimized by a discretionary power that is only strong with the weak.