Relations between fictional discourse, history and society in the book Mamma, Son Tanto Felice, by Luiz Ruffato

• Grant number: 11/22933-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: June 01, 2012
• End date: May 31, 2013
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Literature - Literature Theory
• Principal Investigator: Márcio Scheel
• Grantee: Ingrid Zanata Riguetto
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biociências, Letras e Ciências Exatas (IBILCE). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de São José do Rio Preto. São José do Rio Preto , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This work consists of the study of the fictional approach of the late modernization of Minas Gerais, in the novel Mamma, son tanto felice, by Luiz Ruffato. The narrative is developed in the region of Cataguases, in the interior of Minas Gerais, taking place in the second half of the 20th century. Back then, people were living the apex of the modern. Innovations on the areas of industries and technologies seized the predominantly rural civilization and, soon, would be recognized in the attractions provided by the industrial cities. Thus, the city, in the book of Ruffato, shows this contradiction: at the same time that the modernization of the small cities of Minas Gerais, represents the hope for a better life of the small rural Italian-descent peasants, it is also taken as disaggregating and excluding, as it can be noticed in the places represented in the book (the alley, the factory, the city and the crop field). So, a new realism and regionalism leads the thematic of Ruffato, who sees in the representation of the city of Cataguases, a way to depict the Brazilian society and culture, showing a diversity of lifestyles, in which the cities are formed. The breaking down into independent chapters is an intensification of the thematic of rupture, which lead us, also, to investigate the characteristics that make the book of Ruffato a different and advanced novel; because, at the same time, in which it has independent chapters, it also represents thematics and usual characters, causing certain connection between the unities, in a process that only intensifies the shattered character of the narrative and, the universe, itself, represented by it. (AU)