TRACES, MEMORY AND HUMAN DRAMA IN THE NOVEL BANGUÊ

Abstract

This paper aims to present a reading of the novel Banguê (1934), by José Lins do Rego, based on Walter Benjamin's (2006) theory of the trace (SEDLMAYER, GINZBURG, 2012). Banguê presents as its central theme the context of the sugar cane mills in northeastern Brazil and has as its protagonist narrator Carlos de Melo, grandson of the miller coronel José Paulino. It is from Carlos' life stories (the traces) that the reader will understand what happened in his past. Based on the transformations experienced by Carlos and the Santa Rosa mill, we will try to map the traces that the narrative presents to signify the remains. It is possible to see that the trajectory lived by Carlos de Melo reveals a meeting between past and present, a past of abundance and apogee of Santa Rosa; a present of decadence of the mill and loneliness of Carlos de Melo. In this way, the trace theorie consists of an interpretative procedure of the past that presupposes thinking the narrative from a historical point of view, placing the thing lived in times of yesteryear. According to Ginzburg (2012), novels like Bangê expose conflicting worlds without conciliation in which strangeness is accentuated. Amidst so many conflicts experienced by the characters, we can try to understand the historical, economic, and social past of the country.