A árvore Carolina Maria de Jesus: Uma literatura vista de longe

Abstract

This article discusses the literature produced by maids, garbage collectors, prostitutes, street children, drug users, inmates at detention centers for minors, detainees, individuals who carry the burden of a difficult access to formal education. Formerly the characters in the works of educated middle class authors, these subjects have, at a given moment, become writers of their own histories. We maintain that this is what happened with Carolina Maria de Jesus, the writer of the best-seller Quarto de despejo. However, as she did not experience the same success with her other books, she was treated as an isolated phenomenon, unlikely to repeat itself. Franco Moretti, a mordant critic to the old vice of holding to singularities, opens a new path with his work A literatura vista de longe. Since Carolina, a significant number of writers have appeared on the literary scene, who need to be studied, quantified, tabulated with graphics, maps and genealogical trees, in the other words examined using, the tools of the Italian critic. Taking as its point of departure Moretti?s ideas, the article visualizes a development that begins with Carolina. Nonetheless, the problem lies in the difficulty in obtaining quantitative data, Moretti's main raw material, which requires a search for said materials that has to start as soon as possible.