Espaço, memória e identidade em Quarenta dias (2014), de Maria Valéria Rezende

Abstract

Trends in contemporary Brazilian literature have shown the representation of space and the individual’s subjective experience. The purpose of this dissertation is to analyze the novel Quarenta dias (2014), by Maria Valéria Rezende. The Brazilian author works with important themes in her literature such as: the proposal of a social and political vision, feminist criticism, migratory movements, the relationship between space, memory and identity. The narrative presents itself as a novel whose theme is geographical displacement. Alice, the protagonist, moves from Paraíba to Porto Alegre to monitor her daughter’s pregnancy plans. However, the story unfolds with the disappearance of Cícero Araújo. The narrator is dedicated to this quest to find him. Thus, Quarenta dias becomes a reference to the time experienced on the streets, traveling and sleepingon the corners of the city. Brandão and Pessôa (2019) have already said that the transformations in space happen because of the subject of memory, who intends to solidify the textual construction from the materialization of certain places such as houses, streets, neighborhoods, cities. Based on these reflections, this work, therefore, investigates the city’s space as a reflection of memory and identity in the novel by writer Maria Valéria Rezende. Methodologically, the research is qualitative, based on literary analysis and anchored in the bibliographic-exploratory method. The data collection instruments took into account the novel as an essential element, taking advantage of the main theoretical supports for analysis such as Luis Alberto Brandão and Silvana Pessôa (2019), Walter Benjamin (2020), Yi-Fu Tuan (1980 and 2015), Jeanne Gagnebin (2009) and Aleida Assmann (2011).