Children of Ɵme: Air of the filiaƟon narraƟve in contemporary Brazilian prose
contemporary Brazilian literature; filiaƟon narraƟve; difficult memories; Julián Fuks; Sheyla Smanioto; Adrienne Myrtes; Victor Heringer.
Having as a starƟng point the idea and concept of the “récit de filiaƟon”, the “filiaƟon narraƟve”, as well as its contextualizaƟon and descripƟon, as was theorized notably by Professors Dominique Viart, Laurent Demanze, and Mathieu Gillot, our research intends to propose a reading of four contemporary Brazilian novels: A resistência (FUKS, 2015), Desesterro (SMANIOTO, 2015), Mauricéa (MYRTES, 2018), O amor dos homens avulsos (HERINGER, 2016). Our aim is not to look for the possible “mirroring” of a literary model that is alien to our social context and specific cultural producƟon; it is rather to understand, to the extent possible, how a quest for a intergeneraƟonal narraƟve revisiƟng painful family memories, which in France was the product of the change of paradigm in relaƟon to WWII legacy, was and, indeed, sƟll is associated, in Brazil, to the movement of re-appropriaƟon of difficult memories by making them publicly known. This, in the Brazilian context, occurred, in parƟcular, thanks to the social acƟvism turned into public debate of the NaƟonal Commissions of Truth (Comissões Nacionais da Verdade), the naƟonal body insƟtuted by Bill 12.528, dated November 18, 2011, for the invesƟgaƟon, examinaƟon and divulgaƟon of Human Rights crimes during the Brazilian civil-military Dictatorship (1964-1985). But far from presenƟng yet another simple mechanism of cause and effect, we aim to comprehend this process, in our context, as a Zeitgeist, a spirit of the Ɵmes. To this end, we adopt the noƟon of airs du récit de filiaƟon, ‘scents of the filiaƟon narraƟve’, in contemporary Brazilian literature, in order to avoid giving the impression of a simple comparison of literary models and works, both here and there. Lastly, we are also interested in understanding how young Brazilian authors perceive this quest for a narraƟve discourse through a filial locus.