Literatura, memória e violência: análise dos romances Pilatos e Quase memória, de Carlos Heitor Cony

Abstract

This thesis focuses on the analysis of the novels Pilatos (1974) and Quase Memória (1995) by Brazilian writer Carlos Heitor Cony. We highlight the hypothesis that memory and violence can be constituent categories of a literary image concerning acts of repression, social interaction, and the reconstruction of the past. Specifically, we aim to analyze the discursive formatting in the construction of memory about social life, considering the exposure of scenes of violence present in the narratives. To do so, we adopt as theoretical guidance an understanding of literary discourse filled with social materiality (ADORNO, 2003; BAKHTIN, 2017; AUERBACH, 1987; CANDIDO, 2000; EAGLETON, 2011), and we also consider Cony's work as literature that presents politically engaged discursive markers in the face of social representations in the analyzed novels (BENOÎT, 2002; DALCASTAGNÈ, 1996). Regarding memory, our aim is to identify and analyze the elements that emerge in the narratives to outline a social image of social life, drawing from Halbwachs (2006), Bergson (1999), and Pollak (2006), while also considering the marks and discourses of violence as mechanisms of domination (BOURDIEU, 1989; HAN, 2017). Therefore, this thesis allows for an understanding of Cony's work and, specifically, the materiality of novels that address, with their particularities, a problematic and conflict-ridden social environment where the characters are confronted with challenging events