Abstract

SAVIAN-FILHO, Juvenal. Memories of childhood in the Confessions of St. Augustine: a case of autobiographical narrative?. Scripta Mediaevalia [online]. 2014, vol.7, n.2, pp.139-160. ISSN 1851-8753.

This article aims to give a small contribution to the debate on the autobiographical nature of Saint Augustine's Confessions, by analyzing the link between units I, 1-5 and I, 6. Augustine, in I, 6, narrates his infancy, but the meaning of this narrative seems most comprehensible when seen as a metaphor to express the Augustinian gnoseology's basis. Further, in correlation with the sense of the narrative of the infancy, the article proposes a hermeneutical exercise, based on the distinction between History and historicity, in order to contribute to understand the problem of the unity of the Confessions.

Keywords : Augustine; Autobiography; Infancy; History; Historicity.

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