ABSTRACT
Essentialized and caricatured in literature, art, film, history, anthropology and politics, indigenous peoples paradoxically represent numerous contradictory elements in the Brazilian national ideology: they are savage yet passive, both backward and wise, the emblematic and incompatible Other who is also an ancestor. Paulo Scott's novel claims to be the first Brazilian novel to really give voice to an indigenous woman and make her an active protagonist rather than a two-dimensional symbol. Habitante irreal is an ambitious undertaking in both form and content, covering 20 years of Brazilian history and a lot of ground, not to mention its palindromic structure, eccentric syntax and punctuation and voicing of multiple consciousnesses. It is worth considering Iracema fairly closely, since Habitante irreal can be read almost as a critical updating of, as well as a sequel to Alencar's legend. Like Iracema, Maina is the one who takes the initiative, and Paulo rejects her advances twice before succumbing.
