Stories erased by the military dictatorship

an analysis of the short story “Joana”, by Bernardo Kucinski

Abstract

The military dictatorship in Brazil is considered one of the most remarkable episodes in terms of repression, censorship and the murder of innocent people in the country. In this context, the lives of many people were extinguished and remained only in the memory of those who survived. This paper analyzes the short story "Joana" by Bernardo Kucinski, a contemporary narrative that deals with the search of a woman for her husband, a victim of the military dictatorship in Brazil. The objective is to identify the esthetic means used to represent the suffering of anonymous subjects hurt during this dictatorial period in the country and to recognize the convergences between literature and history. Studies by Paul Ricoeur, Márcio Seligmann Silva and Linda Hutcheon are used to support the analysis. Based on the study, it was found that short story elaborate the construction of a history that shows a more human and sensitive view of situations in authoritarian contexts, giving voice to anonymous characters and experiences that have been excluded from the official history. The short story shows a construction similar to a love story told by a character who observes, from a certain distance, the pain and resistance of a widow of a victim of the Brazilian military dictatorship.