Carne sufocada

Abstract

This thesis takes part in the context of Creative Writing, a relatively new academic field in Brazil, and has two distinctive parts: a fictional and a theoretical-reflective one. At first it presents Carne Sufocada, a novella portraying events that took place during 1887 and 1888 in the sertão baiano, the backlands of the state of Bahia. It is a critical depiction of that period of time, partially and loosely based on some historical documents, by the perspective of a marginalized protagonist whose memory likely wouldn’t reach the present days. The second part of this thesis proposes an instrumental reflection on the historical and fictional discourses, and also on the historical novel as a literary form – both from a well-established theoretic approach, but also from a more contemporary understanding. This way, both thematic and narratives aspects of the novella are examined. Finally, as an effort of contextualization, it is presented a brief synthesis on how historiography approaches some of the facts referred in Carne Sufocada.