Efeitos da rasura: Memória, história e identidade no romance brasileiro contemporâneo

Abstract

This thesis aims to propose an approach to the reading of three contemporary novels, published in the 21st century. It suggests establishing, as a common thematic and aesthetic axis, the narrative effects derived from what is referred to in this research as 'rasura' (erasure). The central idea lies in a certain attachment to historical past observed in Brazilian contemporary prose due to the uncertainty experienced in the present. In this regard, literary fiction addresses issues inherent to the present but with a foundation considered insufficient in the past, particularly in the realm of representation. Novelists engage with present issues by approaching the past as a form of memory, enabling their narratives, when compared with official history, to reveal hidden nuances and forms of identity concealed or omitted as other possibility of existing in language. Thus, the research focused on three novels: Inferno Provisório by Luiz Ruffato, O Filho Eterno by Cristóvão Tezza, and Um Defeito de Cor by Ana Maria Gonçalves. Starting from the history of the formation of the urban Brazilian proletariat, Luiz Ruffato, in the definitive and revised edition of "Inferno Provisório," narrates the hardships of migrants, mostly descendants of Italians from the Cataguases/MG region, heading towards the developmental promise of prosperity found in the capitals of the states of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. The trajectory connecting material poverty to a certain subjective failure conclude the demystification of positive discourses about Brazil's industrialization and modernization. In O Filho Eterno, there is a third-person narration about a father who, through reveries and reminiscences, tries to understand and accept his son with Down syndrome. The truth status conferred to the word is constantly challenged as the father attempts to integrate Felipe into his life. The impermanence and instability of the novel begin when the reader learns that the narration it is entirely based on the author's life, with the caveat that the narrative constitutes a novel, not an autobiography. In Um Defeito de Cor, Ana Maria Gonçalves narrates the epic story of Kehinde, born in the former kingdom of Dahomey, now Benin, Africa, forcefully brought to Brazil to be enslaved. The novel is narrated in the first person, raising implications regarding the representation of the enslaved in the arts and historiography. By revealing the past of their issues to the present, these novels act as an 'erasure' of history, aiding in transforming the social imagination about certain periods of history and the representation of individuals who were previously portrayed in a generalized manner, devoid of concern for the subjectivity that encompasses the construction of identity. In this sense, a theoretical bibliography by authors such as Paul Ricoeur (1994, 1995, 1997), Régine Robin (2016), Linda Hutcheon (1991), Roberto Gonzalez Echevarría (2000), Giorgio Agamben (2009) was consulted to understand the effects pointed out by the term 'rasura' (erasure) in this work in terms of literary analysis.