Vidas Secas, de Graciliano Ramos, à luz do pós-colonialismo

Abstract

This research has as its theme, the study on the work, Vidas Secas (1938) by Graciliano Ramos, with a focus on aspects related to post-colonial studies. In order to observe Postcolonialism in this work, this work will be based on the studies of Fanon (1968), Bonnici (2012), Said (2011), Bhabha (1998) and Santos (2018). In the work Vidas Secas, there is a reflection on a power and knowledge that has been maintained since our colonization, justifying exploration, and silenc ing the voice of non-hegemonic identities. Postcolonialism tries to understand how colonialism imposed an episteme, knowledge, and power on the colonized and how these mechanisms of domination remain even after the independence of the countries. The policy of being able, more precisely the exploration, European culture as centrality despising other cultures and the idea of inferiority implanted in the mentality of the colonized are points linked to the dominant / dominated issue. Vidas Secas shows this permanence of the colonist's social practices in the former colonies: Fabiano, protagonist of history, is not accepted, in various situations he is despised by the authorities and in silence he remains becoming alienated. The characters have characteristics related to interiorization, alienation, silencing, all linked to aspects of post-colo nial theory. Graciliano Ramos denounces the situation of poor and northeastern Brazilians seen by the most favored as bodies whose exploitation is permitted within an economic, political, and social system that identifies non-hegemonic identities solely as a disposable workforce. The story takes place in the 1930s when we see Brazil immersed in repression, in addition, in the Northeast, the drought. This scenario is explored by the work Vidas Secas to portray a country that silences, despises, and disregards its most vulnerable populations. Focused on the transformation of cities, at the same time that they strengthen large rural landowners, Brazil advocates for a modernity that sees in the archaic and in the past the obstacles to the country's prosperity. The archaic are the remains, the ruins of Brazilian modernity projects and must be abandoned in favor of the narrative of Brazil as a country of the future. This thought of looking at the “other” as the rest, which fails to integrate, is the same dynamic used by colonialism in the face of the colonized. Thus, the Brazilian economic and political elites identify with this thought in order to maintain their privileges and to occupy the positions that, previously, were those of colonizers. Supported by this thought, they will control their populations and silence the drama of social problems brought about by this exclusionary vision of society. Therefore, in the work Vidas Secas it is possible to visualize aspects of post-colonial studies and remnants of their permanence in contemporary reality