The faces of violence in Brazilian literary journalism: a study about Meu casaco de general

Abstract

This article investigates the representation of violence in Brazilian literary journalism in contemporary times. The objects of study are the report-novels that were featured in their category at the Jabuti Prize, a decoration of Brazilian literature, considered one of the largest in America. The objective is to understand, in a contextualized way, how violence is represented through these narratives and observe how Brazilian literary journalism contributes to the debate and the promotion of social reflection on the subject. To this end, a mapping of the works is initially carried out, in order to verify predominant themes, types of violence and types of domination that appear in the narratives, in order to start an understanding about the relations of power and the way violence is represented in Brazilian literary journalism. After this phase of comprehension, the analysis of the work Meu casaco de general, by the author Luiz Eduardo Soares, one of the first prizes in the studied period is developed. The novel-report portrays violence especially in the context of relations between traffickers and police in the Rio de Janeiro space, but directing to an understanding of the entire Brazilian context. The results indicate that the decorated novels-reports, in the analyzed period, present several faces of the violence, since they represent how the subjects are affected by the cruelty, besides promoting a sense of empathy with the victims. There is also a strong link between the violence and the power relations that permeate the country. The work studied reveals social problems such as vulnerability to power relations, lack of ethics and corruption, themes that lead the reader to understand and question the system to combat violence in Brazil.