Forgetting and Memory in survival narratives

a comparative look between “Terra Sonâmbula”, by Mia Couto, and “Um homem: Klaus Klump”, by Gonçalo M. Tavares

Abstract

Depictions of war and death are among the core aspects of the novels Terra Sonâmbula, by Mia Couto (2007) and Um homem: Klaus Klump (2007), and approximating both works evinces a significant contrast on how construct the concretization of survival, which can be mainly perceived on the novels as a result of either the preservation of memory or its abandonment. Since the literary productions present opposite perspectives concerning said dynamic of survival, but keep it under a same axis, which is how language is transformed in different contexts of violence and invasion, the following paper focuses on investigating the role played by Memory and its counterpart, Forgetting, establish the path through which each achieves and maintains their own survival on the selected works of Couto and Tavares. The perspective of comparing both works is sustained by bibliographic research which aims to analyze and interpret the dimensions by which the evidence that emerges by contrasting one novel with another, guided by literary theory approached to study each work in a comparative way. To uphold the aforementioned objective, the foundation of the production is set on the works Comparative literature, by Carvalhal (2006); Literature and society, by Candido (2008); and The Post-Modern narrator, by Santiago (1989). Correlating the named perspectives to the research is maintained by qualitative research to relate the necessary bibliography with the assigned objective of the indicated scope on the literary works of Couto and Tavares. By comparing the novels, it was possible to realize that, in Terra sonâmbula, connecting to another's memory made the characters' survival concrete through the language, whereas in Um homem the invasion pushes forgetting through silence as the sole way of avoiding death.