A narração infantil no romance de formação To Kill a Mockingbird, de Harper Lee

Abstract

This dissertation aims to present an analysis of the relationship between childhood and heteroglossia in the novel To Kill a Mockingbird (1960), by the American writer Harper Lee, as a novel of formation (Bildungsroman, in German, and coming-of-age in English) and its particularities. It is proposed to emphasize how the definitions of a Bildungsroman, such as heteroglossia, are configured in the novel in question. Since the maturation of the protagonist and child narrator, Scout, takes place in a racially segregated environment, we intend to approach it in its intrinsic relationship with the discourse of the other or, according to the concept proposed by Bakhtin’s theory of the novel, with heteroglossia. The present work is the result of bibliographical research that was carried out by reading articles, dissertations, websites and books to compose the theoretical framework on childhood, the Southern Gothic novel, the novel of formation (Bildungsroman) and heteroglossia. Among the theorists and scholars who have contributed to this research are: Walter Benjamin (1913-1932; 2013) with his essays on children and childhood; William C. Spengemann (1978) and Anne Scott McLeod (1992; 1994) on American literature, Mikhail Bakhtin (1981; 1992) with his theory of the Bildungsroman and heteroglossia, among others. Considered a classic of American literature, Harper Lee's novel has Scout as its protagonist/narrator, a child who recounts the decisive events in her childhood that shaped her personally. From a child’s point of view, To Kill a Mockingbird portrays themes of racism and prejudice in the American South during the Great Depression. As a result of this event, Scout loses her innocence as a child and is led to her otherness, where the child puts herself in the place of the adult and her worldview changes drastically, leading to her coming of age.