Geovani Martins and the “dialectic of marginality”: an analysis of the short stories “Rolézim” and Espiral”

Abstract

The present study aims the analysis of Geovani Martins’ short stories, “Rolézim” and “Espiral”, published in his first book, O sol na cabeça (2018), using as base the theory of the “dialectic of marginality”, developed by the literary critic and university professor, João Cézar de Castro Rocha. In a dialogue with the essay “Dialectic of  rascality” (1970), from Antonio Candido, the “dialectic of marginality”, proposes a “substitution” of the conciliation between individuals from different social classes as a measure to avoid conflict, inherent to Candido’s essay, in name of confrontation, what results in a methodic exploration and exposition of violence, presented in the relations of the pointed groups, instead of its concealment. The short stories presented by Geovani Martins modulate, in different ways, the dilemmas of Brazilian social inequality, crossed by the contemporary urban violence, assuming and confirming, with authentic voice and conflicting enunciative place, the impasses of a “symbolic war” between an apologetic interpretation and another critique of current Brazilian culture. This article produces, in addiction, a brief reflection on the speech space of the excluded strata, as well as the visibility (or lack of it) that literary and university criticism offer to these culture producers today, ending with a discussion of the possible status of marginal literature in the next years.