Trauma multitemporal: a ficcionalização da ditadura civil-militar em três romances brasileiros contemporâneos

Abstract

This thesis aims to investigate the process of fictionalization of the brazilian civil-military dictatorship regime (1964-1985) in the following novels: K. – Relato de uma busca (2014), by Bernardo Kucinski; Cabo de guerra (2016), by Ivone Benedetti; and A noite de espera (2017), by Milton Hatoum. In this regard, based on Antonio Candido (1993; 2006), in an attempt to understand how the Brazilian authoritarian experience is reflected in the formal structure of these works, we observed that the recurrence of traumatic experiences is a common element within the three narratives, manifesting itself in different time periods. Thus, our study analyzes the three novels from the concept of trauma proposed by Márcio Seligmann-Silva (2000; 2003; 2005), paying special attention to the role of temporal multiplicity in the aesthetic construction of the selected works. Furthermore, regarding the findings, we noted that the condition of exile and the feeling of guilt play an intensifying role in the traumatic experiences portrayed in the studied narratives. In this sense, the analyzed novels highlight a trend in literature published in the last decade (2011-2020) to expose, through narrators and/or protagonists situated in the present, the persistence and intensification of traumas experienced before, during, and after the dictatorship. By identifying the recurrence of this type of narrative composition, we envision the formation of a new strand in Brazilian literary fiction, whose main characteristic is the unveiling of a traumatic condition that perpetuates over time. Based on this, the overwhelming experience materializes in the structure of the works through a non-linear temporality that mimics the chaotic nature of remembrance in individuals subjected to excessively painful experiences. Therefore, the absence of punishments and proper responses causes the dictatorship to remain a multitemporal trauma in Brazilian life. Its formalization in literary writing is both a cry of hope against censorship and an indication of the persistence of our authoritarian heritage.