Pretérito paterno: experiências de narrar o luto nos romances contemporâneos de Jeferson Tenório e Tiago Ferro

Abstract

This paper proposes a critical-comparative investigation into the constructions of paternal images, based on the narration of mourning, in the novels O pai da menina morta (2018) by Tiago Ferro and O avesso da pele (2020) by Jeferson Tenório. The study stems from research conducted on the role of memory as a narrative aspect in contemporary Brazilian literature and is grounded in the tabulation and analysis of novels awarded in the 21st century by three prestigious literary prizes – Jabuti, Oceanos (formerly Portugal-Telecom), and Biblioteca Nacional. The selection of these novels was deliberate as they encapsulate the proposed scientific activity and prompt interpretations of the two narrative perspectives sought in these novels: the first revolves around a father who lost his daughter, and the second one around a son who lost his father. From this/these perspective(s), the idea was conceived to analyze how the narrative instance is configured through a memorialistic lens, specifically through the regulation and confrontation of mourning, establishing distinct styles for novelistic language. The adopted research method is the dialectical approach developed by Candido (2006) and expanded by Schwarz (2012), developing the connections between literary form and the social content of the novel. To this end, we formulated a theoretical framework based on four strands: (a) selection of texts and research on language and literary criticism; (b) readings on memorialistic activity; (c) psychoanalytic texts on mourning; and (d) individual readings, research, and analyses for each novel, focusing on literary language and psychoanalytic mechanisms of the black subject (for Tenório's work analysis) and on fragmentary technique and autofiction theory (for Ferro). We then structured the study into three parts, initially discussing the specificities of each novel and ultimately conducting a comparison of the representation of paternal relationships and the literary formalization of everyday mourning. Among the achieved results is the possibility to interpret narration as a formalized experience in Brazilian literature, primarily because both works, despite their aesthetic differences, incorporate the memorialistic perspective as a structural element for their narrators, articulating subjective images related to and about the father.