The fragility of convictions: Correr com rinocerontes between freedom as harm and tradition as refuge

This article offers a philosophical reading of Correr com rinocerontes, by Cristiano Baldi, through the lens of two British liberal traditions: John Stuart Mill’s pragmatic liberalism and Edmund Burke’s liberal conservatism. The analysis explores how the novel stages the exhaustion of institutional and moral mediations in contemporary Brazil, articulating a liberal sensibility capable of responding to suffering and subjective disintegration. Rather than applying external philosophical frameworks, the study uses these concepts as critical instruments to illuminate the novel’s ethical and aesthetic reach. By intertwining literary criticism, political philosophy, and novel theory, the article contributes to the understanding of the dilemmas faced by contemporary Brazilian literature in times of civilizational collapse. Ultimately, the essay proposes an interpretive model that situates Baldi’s work within a broader debate on the role of moral imagination in the face of the brutalization of everyday life.

Keywords:
contemporary Brazilian literature; Cristiano Baldi; liberalism; conservatism