A memory made of shadows: the dictatorship experience in Tropical sol da liberdade

Abstract

The memories from the dictatorship have been widened and got space throughout the last decades, highlighting several ranges which have been affected by such event and its effects either inside public or private scopes. From such perspective, the present work aims to discuss the representation of the military dictatorship on Tropical sol da liberdade, by Ana Maria Machado, published in 1988. The main objective is to analyze how this event was inserted in the characters’ family life. The clampdown, the violence, and the exile lived by the main character are remembered in the light of a conflicted relationship between mother and daughter, the main characters in this novel, depicting a female point of view concerning the dictatorship, mainly considering the mother figure. In this sense, memory becomes a linchpin to this representation and the country’s historical past reordering intertwines with the reconstruction of the family’s memories. This process shows the dictatorship’s influence on the private universe of those characters, defining their paths. Throughout this process, the writing comes up as a strategy chosen by the protagonist to disclose her experience and recreate the pain she and many others suffered in the past.