Construir a ficção, reler a História: literatura e ditaduras em Kucinski e Zambra

Abstract

Contemporary literature in Latin American countries often includes works that address the issue of civil-military dictatorships in the second half of the 20th century. The recurrence of the theme shows that literary production has emerged as a way to elaborate on this historical event, and as a means to come to terms with a past marked by oppression and violence. This dissertation analyzes how the narratives K., by Bernardo Kucinski, and Meus documentos, Camilo and Instituto Nacional, by Alejandro Zambra, created literary devices to construct representations of Latin American dictatorships. The tensions between the fictional and the real engendered by the texts vivify the remnants of civil-military dictatorships in Brazil and Chile and their fragmentary character favors the literary elaboration of memory, thus building new representations of their collective historical past. The theoretical framework that supports this research is based on studies by Giovanni Levi (1992), Linda Hutcheon (1991) and Ivan Jablonka (2021) on the interrelations between writing literature and writing history. On the concept of memory in the post-dictatorial context, we benefited from Jeanne Marie Gagnebin’s (2009) and Nelly Richard’s (1999) considerations. The narrative form is examined from the viewpoint of Ricardo Piglia’s (2004) and Julio Cortázar’s (1993) short story theories, as well as from Julián Fuks (2021) contributions regarding the contemporary hybrid novel