FROM DENIAL TO TRANSGRESSION: THE MANIFESTATIONS OF SILENCE IN LITERARY DISCOURSE

Abstract

The proposed article explores the possibilities of interpreting silence in literary texts as a way to contemplate individuals living in conditions of subalternity. These interpretations are referred to as “poetics of silence” and will be presented in two dimensions: as denial and as transgression. The discussion of these concepts is based on a conception of literary language as performance, capable of subverting certain concepts to bring new forms of understanding reality to the reader. Clarice Lispector’s novel A hora da estrela and Conceição Evaristo’s short story “Macabea, Flor de Mulungu” will guide the discussion, as they both depict situations where the silence of the protagonists resonates either in the absolute denial in which the characters live or in a sharp cry of denunciation performed through the muteness of the analyzed characters.