Space as destiny in A origem dos dias, by Miguel D’Alte

Abstract

This article examines the novel A origem dos dias (2024), by Miguel D’Alte, through the articulation of space, landscape, and metafiction. In light of the tension between literary creation and reality, the novel’s reading reveals how the narrative constructs an existential geography marked by the protagonist Tomás Franco’s continuous displacement between rural and urban spaces beyond the Portugal’s borders. These places function as instances of meaning that shape states of consciousness, affects, and ways of being in and perceiving the world. Landscape is understood as a substantial analytical category, following Michel Collot (2013), conceived as the result of the encounter between the world and a point of view, thus revealing the process of the “spacing of the subject.” Tomás’s trajectory is read in light of Lukács’s (2009) notion of the “problematic hero”, whose inner pilgrimage unfolds as a search for origin, self-knowledge, and meaning. In addition, this study highlights the metafictional dimension of the novel, drawing on theorists such as Patricia Waugh (1984), Hutcheon (1984), and Dällenbach (1979) to demonstrate how the narrative reflects upon its own writing process and problematizes the boundaries between fiction and reality. Ultimately, the return to the landscape of origin suggests literature as a possible space of belonging. Thus, A origem dos dias emerges as a narrative in which space, memory, and writing intertwine in the construction of contemporary subjectivity. This study was financed in part by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - Brasil (CAPES).