A representação das crianças e as crônicas da guerra na Itália, de Rubem Braga

Abstract

This work aims to analyze how the child is represented in the narratives of the book Crônicas da Guerra na Itália (1996) by the writer and journalist Rubem Braga. The book, which has the Second World War as its historical context, was written between 1944 and 1945, when Rubem Braga traveled to Italy as a war correspondent to report the conflict for the newspaper he worked for, Diário Carioca. However, as the conditions for transmitting information during the War were not favorable, Braga opted to write episodic chronicles with varied themes that would give Brazilian readers an idea of what happened to the soldiers of the Força Expedicionária Brasileira (FEB) during the conflict. Therefore, our work consists of three parts. The first is an overview of the life and work of Rubem Braga that aims to explore the main characteristics of his style as a writer and also aims to highlight his importance in the consolidation of the chronicle genre in Brazilian literature. For this, we use as main reference texts such as “A vida ao rés-do-chão” by Antonio Candido, some essays by Davi Arrigucci Jr., and some academic works that research his work. In the second stage of our thesis, we explore the conception of the child and how it was constructed in our western society. For this purpose, we used the work of Philippe Ariès, História Social da Criança e da Família, and also the work of Lloyd deMause, The history of childhood. In addition, in this second stage, we explore some works in which children are highlighted as characters in the context of war; we mainly chose works referring to testimonial literature for this analysis. The third part was reserved for the exploration of some chronicles in which children are significant characters during the War, which includes the analysis of the narratives of Crônicas da Guerra na Itália. From our research book, we selected the following texts that surround the theme: “A menina Silvana”, “Moleques de Nápoles” and “Em Florence”. As a result of this analysis, we realize that Rubem Braga stands out as a writer who, while being sensitive, as he treats the subject with attention and respect, also produces truly engaged and critical texts when dealing with the situation of children in war. Finally, we consider that our work contributes to the visibility of Rubem Braga's work and also adds to the research on the chronicle genre.