Name: THALITA DE OLIVEIRA SIMÕES BANHOS
Publication date: 08/08/2025
Examining board:
Name |
Role |
|---|---|
| EDILSON DIAS DE MOURA | Examinador Externo |
| GASPAR LEAL PAZ | Presidente |
| WILBERTH CLAYTHON FERREIRA SALGUEIRO | Examinador Interno |
Summary: This dissertation analyzes the epistolary writing of Graciliano Ramos, understanding his
letters not as merely biographical or testimonial documents, but as a constitutive part of
his literary work. Grounded in the epistolographic studies of Brigitte Diaz, Geneviève
Haroche-Bouzinac, and Silviano Santiago, among others, the research starts from the
premise that the letter, although historically marginalized within the hierarchy of literary
genres, carries traces of literariness that challenge the boundaries between life and fiction,
intimacy and aesthetics. The analysis of Graciliano’s correspondence reveals an author
who does not separate the epistolary exercise from his stylistic rigor and literary project.
This project is interpreted primarily through the lens of literary criticism by Antonio
Candido, Alfredo Bosi, Edilson Moura, Ieda Lebensztayn, and Wilberth Salgueiro. The
letter, thus, emerges as a space for the elaboration of the self and the other, of memory
and experience, operating as a cog in the literary machine, in the terms of Deleuze and
Guattari. Far from being a mere communicative tool, epistolary writing becomes a stage
for aesthetic experimentation, image construction, resistance to oblivion, and the
maintenance of affective bonds across distances. Through the reading of his letters, it
becomes evident that Graciliano mobilizes epistolary language as an extension of his
literary ethics and aesthetics, reaffirming the inseparability of life, work, and writing. In
doing so, he aligns himself with a tradition of writers for whom the letter is also a form of
literature — a practice that transcends utilitarian function to become a space for reflection,
elaboration, and permanence.
Keywords: Letters, literary writing, aesthetics, politics
