Violence, cruelty and social inequality in Contemporary Brazilian literature: De gados e homens, Ana Paula Maia, and O matador, Patrícia Melo

Abstract

Since the colonial period, violence is constitutive of Brazilian culture, being linked to society in different forms. Therefore, it is understood that literature can be an important tool for reflection on this reality, insofar as it reflects contexts of suffering and can problematize them. This study aims to analyze the contemporary novels O matador, by Patrícia Melo (1995), and De gados e homens, by Ana Paula Maia (2013). It seeks to understand how cruelty and social inequality are approached in the constitution of narratives, as well as the occurrence of a formal construction articulated to the social content represented. For this work, the theoretical-critical works of authors like Calegari, Ginzburg, Adorno and Arendt were important to approach contemporary literature, violence and their relationship. Based on the analysis, the works are relevant to problematize real situations of violence, revealing a cruel, unequal and selfish face of the subjects, related not only to the figure of the murderer, but also to the society responsible for the formation of human conduct. Also, this is reflected in the language, which reveals sometimes fragmented writing between character speech and thoughts, just as in the first text, other times fast and related to cinematographic narratives, as in the second.