XVII Congress of the Brazilian Studies Association

Fictions of Education: An Approach to Writing Identity in Twentieth-Century Brazilian Literature

• In Event: Race, Gender, and Class in Brazilian Literature II

Abstract

In this paper, I propose an examination of representations of education in twentieth-century Brazilian novels as a way of understanding the role of literature in formulating individual and national identities within a context of social and political movements that contributed to a critical shift in conceptions of identitarian representation. In the writings of Lima Barreto, Oswaldo de Camargo, Romeu Crusoé, Rachel de Queiroz, and Lygia Fagundes Telles, how does education facilitate or complicate female and black characters’ quest for rights, mobility, and representation? How do these individuals make sense of their identity through the forging of “narratives of education”? I address these questions through an analysis of selected novels about a character's education which, when read in relation to feminist, black arts, pro-democratic, and anti-capitalist movements throughout the century, provide insights into the rise of identity politics in fictional writings of the self. By turning to the novel as a rising literary form for Afro-Brazilian and women writers of the time, I demonstrate how representations of education became an important narrative strategy for capturing the expansion of both individual and collective identity expression alongside the struggle for social inclusion.

Author

• Georgia Soares, Harvard University