A crônica de Graciliano Ramos: de laboratório literário a instrumento de dissidência

Abstract

The chronicles published by Graciliano Ramos and gathered posthumously in two books Linhas tortas and Viventes das Alagoas are the main focus of this thesis. A brief study of the chronicle as a literary gender, based on theoretical studies is presented. The research also views how the writer took the chronicle as a literary laboratory in two distinct moments of his life. The research focuses on Ramos’ third endeavor on chronicles, when they are not the way to literary experimentation, but a way to his survival, space of literary reflection and releasing the critical-aesthetic thought of the chronicler With Viventes das Alagoas the texts produced for the magazine Cultura Política come to scene: a publication subordinated to the Department of the Press and Propaganda of the dictatorship. This governmental agency and its role are assessed. Also the circumstances which led Graciliano Ramos to collaborate for four years with the same ideological system of the State that had him arrested previously are investigated. For some experts, economic needs, for others, a political or ideological alignment is the reason for Ramos’ involvement with that political system. Irony is detected in the texts and the sarcastic tone that destroyed the new-State nationality project and, therefore, empties the insinuations of Ramos’ engagement to the cultural project of the magazine. However, in spite of the ironies and the contrary discourse, it is possible to note a contradiction by the author who did not abandon the magazine.