Ficções sujas : por uma poética do romance-reportagem

Abstract

This thesis seeks to establish a connection between the Brazilian nonfiction novel from the seventies and the contemporary book-length work of literary journalism. The former was condemned as a spurious literary form by literary criticism, for its referentiality and its intention to expose the truth about social reality were considered a mere consequence of censorship and political repression by the military dictatorship; it would have no place in a democratic regime. The latter continues to attract reporters who crave to escape from the "dictatorship of objectivity" they are subjected to when working for newspapers; it is described by Journalism researchers as a successful combination of reporting techniques and stylistic resources borrowed from literature. Through the analysis of the books Aracelli, meu amor (José Louzeiro, 1976), Corações sujos (Fernando Morais, 2000) and Abusado: o dono do morro Dona Marta (Caco Barcellos, 2003), this study intends to show that both the nonfiction novel from the seventies and the new pieces of narrative reportage rely on fictionalising reality . For this purpose, it adopts a concept of mimesis as narrative configuration or the creation of a fictional time experience, proposed by authors such as Paul Ricoeur, Käte Hamburger, and Mikhail Bakhtin, among others.