O vivido, o escrito e o lembrado: autobiografia e memória em Rabo de Foguete, de Ferreira Gullar

Abstract

Autobiography is a genre that has emerged with great intensity in contemporary literature. Through it, we have a wider possibility of understanding how the authors see and feel their own life. It also makes it possible to know, and recognize, the contexts of their experiences and the impacts on their lives, as well as allowing an understanding of how memories of individual and collective experiences unfolded. This is what happens in the book Rabo de Foguete (1998), by Ferreira Gullar. Thus, the aim of this research is to analyze the autobiographical characteristics in Rabo de Foguete, which discusses in its plot the dilemmas the narrator lived in exile, as a result from political persecutions in the context of the military dictatorship. For this analysis, some questions are necessary: What autobiographical traits does the narrator reveal in his writing about himself, in order to establish a pact with his reader? To what extent does the narrative of exile include autobiographical features based on memories? How can the work in question be situated in contemporary Brazilian literature, especially regarding the autobiographical approach? What is the role of autobiographical writings when they are observed from their historical and political context? Through a qualitative and bibliographic methodology, our discussions on autobiography will be based on the studies by Philippe Lejeune (2008) and Leonor Arfuch (2010). Then, we will establish a dialogue with the topic of memory, having as theoretical base the studies of Beatriz Sarlo (2007) and Jeanne Marie Gagnebin (2006).