The importance of reading and imagination on childhood: an interpretation of La Rogativa, by Augusto Roa Bastos

Abstract

The present article has as central guid to conduct a possible reading of the tale La rogativa, from paraguayan author Augusto Roa Bastos, with the goal to reflect on childhood, literature and orality. The current research is justified to give greater visibility to Paraguayan Literature. This work comprises na interface between Winnicott’s psychoanalysis theory and literature studies, especially anchored in Michèle Petit (2008) studies. The narrative of the story is about the trajectory of a girl named Poilú, hunger, drought and degradation victim, a child who didn’t have the right to experience her childhood until she found and adult who introduced her to a world of legends and magic. We conclude that the story not only denounces the reality of the drought, the abandonment of the population to its own luck, but also, the irreversible damage that the lack of fantasy, reading and imagination can generate on people.