From Jorge Amado to Evel Rocha

the marginalized youth in Portuguese language literature

Abstract

This article focuses on the forms of precariousness, physical and symbolic violence that affect a marginalized portion of youth, in four Portuguese-language novels, starring children and adolescents in situations of social vulnerability: Capitães da areia, by Jorge Amado; Esteiros, by Soeiro Pereira Gomes; Meu nome é Legião, by António Lobo Antunes and Marginais, by Evel Rocha. Each of these novels, linked to specific historical and geographical contexts, presents similarities and distances between them. The pointing out of possible interactions and convergences between these works, through the analysis proposed here, brings to light questions such as: the relationship between the 1930s northeastern novel and Portuguese neorealism; the reverberations of Brazilian modernism in Cabo Verde and the interfaces of colonial heritage, expressed in these literatures, based on their singularities.