Banca de QUALIFICAÇÃO: ALTIERRES SANTOS DE MEDEIROS

Uma banca de QUALIFICAÇÃO de DOUTORADO foi cadastrada pelo programa.
STUDENT : ALTIERRES SANTOS DE MEDEIROS
DATE: 28/11/2025
TIME: 09:00
LOCAL: CCHLA
TITLE:

Cultural memory in the prose of José Bezerra Gomes and in the poetry of Celestino Alves.

KEY WORDS:

Cultural Memory; Literature and Memory; Sertanejo Identity; Memory Construction; Seridó; José Bezerra Gomes; Celestino Alves.

PAGES: 96
BIG AREA: Lingüística, Letras e Artes
AREA: Letras
SUBÁREA: Literatura Comparada
SUMMARY:

This thesis examines the relationship between literature and cultural memory by investigating the sertanejo identity through its Seridó microcosm. The study focuses on Os Brutos (1938) and A Porta e o Vento (1974), by José Bezerra Gomes, and O Nordeste e as Secas (1983), by Celestino Alves, approaching them as interpretative keys that, while rooted in local specificity, illuminate a broader cultural universe. The research stems from the recognition of a gap in the critical scholarship on these authors: although acknowledged for their regional significance, their works have rarely been systematically explored as complex agents and artifacts of cultural memory. The main objective is to demonstrate how Gomes’s prose and Alves’s poetry not only reflect but actively construct, negotiate, and problematize the memory and identity of the Brazilian backlands (sertão). To this end, the dissertation employs, applied to this corpus for the first time, the theoretical framework of cultural memory developed by Jan Assmann (1995; 1998; 2008; 2011; 2016) and Aleida Assmann (2006; 2011), in dialogue with the formulations of Erll, Gymnich, and Nünning (2003) and Erll and Nünning (2008), regarding literature as an active and privileged medium in the formation, circulation, and transformation of memory. This framework is articulated with studies on memory, history, and narrative (Bergson, 1999; Ricoeur, 2007; Le Goff, 2003; Nora, 1993; Halbwachs, 2013) and with the socio-historical contextualization of the Seridó hinterland (Cascudo, 1956; 1984; Faria, 1965; 1980; 2004; Medeiros, 1980; Macêdo, 2012; 2015; Diniz, 2008; Araújo, 2006; Morais, 2020). The methodology combines literary analysis, guided by Antonio Candido’s dialectical method (2009a; 2009b; 2011a; 2011b), with cultural studies, adopting a qualitative and interdisciplinary approach. The findings reveal that the works operate as powerful mnemonic devices. Symbolic elements such as cattle ranching, drought, patriarchy, and the casa-grande are mobilized in distinct ways by each author to mediate different temporalities and worldviews. While Gomes’s prose constructs a more sedimented and mythical memory, centered on existential drama and the decay of social structures, Alves’s poetry captures the immediacy of communicative memory, giving voice to the collective and traumatic experience of drought with a tone of social denunciation. It is concluded that the literature of both authors functions as a potent mnemonic agency rather than a mere documentary repository of the past. By applying the analytical tools of memory studies, the thesis redefines the role of these works, demonstrating that they act as a dynamic medium in which identity is negotiated and continually reconstructed. This approach not only sheds light on the complexity of belonging to the Seridó and the sertão but also proposes a critical reassessment of these authors’ legacy within the Brazilian literary tradition.

 

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
Interno - 1299003 - DERIVALDO DOS SANTOS
Interno - 1675070 - JOSE LUIZ FERREIRA
Externo ao Programa - 1046384 - JOATAN DAVID FERREIRA DE MEDEIROS - UFRN