THE HOMO ECRANIS IN “GRANDMA'S BLOOD, STAINING THE CARPET” BY MIA COUTO

Abstract

Since modernity, the West has been known for its inventions and innovations in science and technology fields. The massive use of the screen, for example, allowed humanity to perfect sophisticated and universal communication mechanisms, and its impact on social structures has already deserved contemporary philosophers’ reflection. Gilles Lipovetsky (2011) proposes the concept of hypermodernity to describe the current state of global culture, in which Homo sapiens is metamorphosed intoHhomo ecranis. This philosophical reflection can be illustrated in a literary chronicle entitled “Sangue da Avó, manchando a alcatifa”, by Mia Couto. Based on the intertextual analysis method proposed by Julia Kristeva (1969), which admits the dialogue between the literary text and other texts (bibliographic method, therefore), this communication aims to develop a reflection around the characters of the chronicle in allusion in the light of the Lipovetskian concept of hypermodernity. As a result, we hope to demonstrate that the massive and excessive use of the screen has repercussions on the social space covered by the characters in the chronicle, in addition to foreshadowing the birth of a new cultural model of the 21st century.