The past intertwined to the present: echoes of the silence that comes from Araguaia

Abstract

The present article has as its main objective the analysis of the testimony of a family member of a missing political dissident that disappeared during the Brazilian military dictatorship, which was published as a book in 2012 under the title Before the past: the silence that comes from Araguaia. Having as its starting point the perspective that the narration contributes to overcoming the trauma of those who are willing to express their life experiences, the approximation between the feelings of grief and melancholy through psychoanalysis and understanding melancholy as a variation of mourning, as Idelber Avelar points out, it is intended to highlight passages in Liniane Brum’s narrative testimony that operate as a form of resistance to the silencing policy that surrounds the theme of dictatorship in Brazil, also functioning as a melancholic writing that contributes to the resolution of trauma and grief.