"You cherish it… it washes away sorrow..." : euphoric and dysphoric images in the short story "O Vinho" by Miguel Torga

Matteo Pupillo

doi:10.5817/ERB2025-2-22

"You cherish it… it washes away sorrow..." : euphoric and dysphoric images in the short story "O Vinho" by Miguel Torga

Vol.46,No.2(2025)

Matteo Pupillo

https://doi.org/10.5817/ERB2025-2-22

Stable URL (handle):
http://hdl.handle.net/11222.digilib/digilib.83324

PDF (French)

Abstract

This paper offers an analysis of "O Vinho", a short story from Miguel Torga's Contos da Montanha, through the lens of Freudian psychoanalysis and Bachelardian imagery. Focusing on the inner monologue of a drunken man torn between elation and despair, the study highlights the wine's ambivalent role as both a source of sensorial euphoria and a trigger for existential confrontation. The narrative unfolds in three phases – unconscious, preconscious, conscious – marked by contrasting images in both landscape and psyche. The article thus reveals a tragic and intense short story in which human subjectivity oscillates between impulses and repression, light and darkness, within a dialectic of euphoria and dysphoria.

Keywords:
Miguel Torga; Tales from the Mountain; wine; euphoria; dysphoria

Pages:
299–307

References

Bachelard, G. (1992). La Psychanalyse du Feu. Gallimard.

Binet, A. M. (2007). Ici ou ailleurs, mais que toujours l'ivresse s'écrive. In F. Argod-Dutard, P. Charvet, S. Lavaud (Dir.). Voyage aux pays du vin (pp. 968–971). Robert Laffont, Bouquins. | DOI 10.3917/etu.076.0696ag

Cioran, E. (1990). Sur les cimes du désespoir. Éditions de L'Herne.

Collot, M. (2011). La Pensée-Paysage. Actes Sud.

Durand, G. (1994). Les structures anthropologiques de l'imaginaire. Presses Universitaires de France.

Freud, S. (1899/2014). L'Interprétation du rêve. Gallimard.

Lourenço, E. (1994). O Canto do Signo – Existência e Literatura (1957–1993). Editorial Presença.

Merleau-Ponty, M. (1961). Le Visible et l'Invisible. Gallimard.

Ponce de Leão, I. (2003). O Essencial sobre Miguel Torga. IN-CM.

Saramago, J. (2016). Viagem a Portugal. Porto Editora.

Sá de Miranda, F. de. (2002). Obras completas (Vol. 1). Sá da Costa.

Torga, M. (1944). Novos Contos da Montanha. Oficinas Gráficas de Coimbra.

Torga, M. (2010). Diário – Vol. I a IV. Dom Quixote.

Metrics