O hibridismo ensaístico-auto(bio)gráfico de Silviano Santiago : grafias de vida em “Menino sem passado” (2021)

Abstract

The hybridization between self-writing and fiction writing is one of the strengths of the narratives of contemporary brazilian critic, essayist, and writer Silviano Santiago. From his work Release, published in 1981, to his most recent novels, especially in Machado (2016) and Boy without a past (2021), we see a crossing of dictions with an autobiographical, autofictional, biographical and memorialist content in novelistic writing. Furthermore, his narrative texts revisit historical archives from certain moments in Brazil’s history, especially those related to dictatorial periods. Due to his excellent essay production, one can notice the interference of this critical spelling, as well as the so-called “life-graphics” (NOLASCO, 2023) in the core of his fictional work, especially in his last novel Boy without a past. Starting from his hybridity of dictions and writing perspectives, this dissertation will examine the novel Boy without a past, published in 2021, with the aim of examining the writing strategies that the author uses to construct a hybrid writing that incorporates essay, (auto)biography and fiction. Boy without a past is a novel that addresses the early childhood of Silviano Santiago (1936-1948) in his hometown of Formiga, in the countryside of Minas Gerais. In this work, the autodiegetic narrator remebers events from his childhood: the death of his mother; the support the received from nannies throughout his childhood; living with his brothers and an embarrassing relationship with his father. The novel also encompasses the initial predilections that influenced the narrator-character, such as cinema and comic books. At a certain point in the work, there is a temporal and geographic jump between the city landscapes of Formiga and Paris. Therefore, the narrative voice discusses his experiences as an immigrant student in European lands, as well as his time in the United States, teaching at the University of Texas. Regarding confronting theses narrative tangles, we will start from the notion of hybridism, according to Krysinski (2012), and from the perspective of Silviano Santiago (2008; 2019), especially regarding the relationships between the spellings-of-life and essay writing. To do so, we will rely on the studies of Philippe Lejeune (2008); Serge Doubrovsky (1977; 2011); Foucault (1992); Elizabeth Duque- Estrada (2009); Wander Melo Miranda (2009); Evando Nascimento (2021); Leyla Perrone- Moisés (2016); Eurídice Figueiredo (2022; 2023); Matheus de Lima (2023); Leoné Astride Barzotto (2023); among others. Finally, the life-spellings in Silviano Santiago’s works result in a narrative that transgresses the structures of the novel, which expands its borders and makes it non-specific.