Narrativas autobiográficas e representações da exclusão social brasileira: com a palavra, Sacolinha

Abstract

The goal of this dissertation is to investigate the relation between literature and territory, with an emphasis on the articulation between form and content in the fictional and autobiographical writings of the author Sacolinha, who belongs to the first generation of the peripheral/marginal movement of late twentieth century in São Paulo. Sacolinha says his writing was prompted by the reading of Quarto de despejo: diário de uma favelada, written by peripheral literature pioneer Carolina Maria de Jesus. Questions of gender, race, and sexual orientation are part of his literary universe and his social activism, which prompts a closer investigation of not only his fictional production but also of his interviews and other personal expressions, such as blogs and social media. A comparative analysis of Sacolinha’s and Carolina Maria de Jesus’ autobiographical texts allows us to see a renewal in the representation of the favela and its inhabitants. The aesthetic contributions of João Antônio to the marginal/peripheral movement are perceptible in some of Sacolinha’s texts that use “street language” and experiment with narrative focus. It is worth noticing that the exclusion of the popular classes does not happen only in literature; it is a common phenomenon to all spaces of meaning production in society. It is, therefore, important to discuss the loss of diversity caused by such attempt at silencing, bringing to the center of the debate the need of social recognition of a literary discourse with ethical values. The fact that a great part of Sacolinha’s publications is circulated through independent means – using public spaces and new technologies to breach the barriers imposed by the publishing market – also prompts a debate on the strategies of circulation of peripheral literature in the contemporary era and its insertion in the literary field