Working family, memory and subjectivity in a narrative of Roniwalter Jatobá

Abstract

This article investigates the narrative “The red cloth”, published in 1978 by Roniwalter Jatoba. The research emphasis is on the narrator’s process of remembering. He review 25 years of his life, a period of time that begins in 1952 and ends in 1976. Through the process of remembering, which is presented in the form of notes for each of the years, the reader comes in contact with the experience of the narrator, a migrant who became worker in the city of São Paulo. The social relations of the narrator’s family, that it is the great reference group in the process of remembering, and the values , desires and subjectivity of some of its members were analyzed. I argue that this narrative can be understood as a literature of testimony. I used concepts from the social sciences, psychology, history and literary theory to interpret the diversity of themes that the narrative raises.