Date of Graduation

12-2014

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts in Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies (MA)

Degree Level

Graduate

Department

Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies

Advisor/Mentor

Marvin K. Booker

Committee Member

Marvin K. Booker

Second Committee Member

Sergio R. Villalobos-Ruminott

Third Committee Member

Violeta Lorenzo

Keywords

Brazil, Ferrez, Literatura Marginal, Menchu, Neoliberalism, Testimonio

Abstract

In the light of Latin American testimonio theoretical approach, which includes questions such as the cultural production under the intensification of neoliberal policies and the inquiry of the complicity between literary practices and the state as formulated by Rama in The Lettered City, this study examines the novel Capão Pecado, representative work of the writer and cultural activist Ferréz, and the potential relation to the formal elements of the former criticism. By thinking alongside John Beverley's case study on I, Rigoberta Menchú's testimonial narrative and Ferréz, prominent author of the contemporary production of literatura marginal and representative of the expression of the individual residents of the urban peripheries of the metropolises of Brazil, this study finds not only thematic continuities between the two discursive modes, showing that testimonio not only taught us important lessons and continue to provide a pathway to understanding the growing literary branch in Brazil, but also shows alterations in the patterns of relationship between literary practices, literary field, and the state.

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