Images of Brazilian military dictatorship in novels by Caio Fernando Abreu, Bernardo Carvalho and Milton Hatoum

Author(s)

Milena Mulatti Magri

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: São Paulo.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH/SBD)
• Defense date: 2015-09-25

Examining board members

Ivan Francisco Marques; Daniela Birman; Arnaldo Franco Junior; Jefferson Agostini Mello; Marcos Piason Natali

• Advisor: Jaime Ginzburg

Abstract

This research aims to analyze Brazilian novels which refer to memories of the military dictatorship and which were published after the process of political democratization. Frequently we find the statement that contemporary Brazilian literature does not dedicate attention to the theme of the dictatorship. However it is possible to identify a varied number of pieces which recovers memories related to this period of our recent history. Some examples are the novels Onde andará Dulce Veiga?, by Caio Fernando Abreu; Os bêbados e os sonâmbulos, by Bernardo Carvalho; and Dois irmãos, by Milton Hatoum; published in 1990, 1996 and 2000, respectively. In the novel Onde andará Dulce Veiga? we follow the trajectory of the protagonist who looks for the singer Dulce Veiga, who has been missing since the years of military regime. In the novel Os bêbados e os sonâmbulos, we discover the narration of a psychiatrist who confesses that he had participated as a doctor in torture sessions promoted by the military. Finally, the novel Dois irmãos narrates the imprisonment, the beating and the death of a teacher, in a public space, by military agents. In these novels, it is possible to perceive that the fragmentary memory and the witness have a fundamental role in the recovery of episodes from the political past, which remains misunderstood to the narrators themselves. Our interpretation of these works is oriented to understand how the novels produced after the Brazilian military dictatorship present a problem in the relationship between narrator and authority, given that the abuse of authority by the government was a predominant characteristic during the dictatorship. In this sense, we aim to rethink the central role of the narrator in the construction of a story as a possible way of questioning his position of authority. The use of literary resources, such as the constitution of a fragmentary memory, the elaboration of a witness narrator and the construction of the narrative focus can be seen as a way of staging a decentralization of the narrator, in the novel, and, consequently, as a manner of questioning his own authority in the story they narrate. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 11/10472-1 - Representations of the Brazilian military dictatorship in the novels by Milton Hatoum, Caio Fernando Abreu and Bernardo Carvalho
• Grantee: Milena Mulatti Magri
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate