“Lixo e purpurina” and “Uma praiazinha de areia bem clara, ali, na beira da sanga”: narrators and narratives in conflict

Abstract

The exile experience has been of great importance in the 20th century history and largely discussed in modern literature, notably by the writers who were forced to leave their homelands. One of these authors, Caio Fernando Abreu, addresses this theme in the novel “Lixo e purpurina”, published in 1974. In this text, Abreu points out that the exile experience constitutes an internal divide imposed to individuals who go through such experience. In “Uma praiazinha de areia bem clara, ali, na beira da sanga”, from 1988, this theme is handled indirectly, once the cause of the protagonist’s departure is not political. The consequences of such departure, however, are close to the experience described “Lixo e purpurina”. This paper proposes a comparative analysis of both novels in order to sketch a way of understanding the exile experience as a metaphor for modern subjects who are displaced par excellence and constantly emerge as Abreu’s protagonists.