FACES AND IMPORTANCE OF VIOLENCE IN THE NOVEL ASSIM NA TERRA COMO EMBAIXO DA TERRA, BY ANA PAULA MAIA

Abstract

The present study aims to elucidate some considerations about violence, as well as to emphasize its importance in the book Assim na terra como embaixo da terra (2017), by Ana Paula Maia as an aesthetic and structural mechanism of the text. The narrative explores violence by different strands, one of them is the link between violence and power. The plot brings us to the routine of a fully isolated maximum security prison, surrounded by drought, scarce vegetation and rough soil. In addition to the inhospitable environment, the prisoners sent to this prison face an extremely authoritarian, violent and sadistic director, Melquiades, a disturbed man who seeks power through violent actions, threats and psychological pressure under his wards and detainees, illustrating the concept of subjective violence. Among the detainees, one stands out, Bronco Gil, a crossbred Indian with a glass eye and an assassin to order, who had been convicted only of a murder of a mayor. Bronco becomes the main target of Melquíades, as much for his cold and indifferent position before the authority of the director, as for its historical criminal.Throughout the narrative, terrifying episodes such as the human hunt created by the director of the penal colony show us the reflexes of violence on the mind of detainees. Melquíades exposes the loss of rationality and the emergence of bestiality itself, due to the fascination developed by violence. However, the director's brutality is not the only representation of violence present in the novel, other manifestations are approached by biases that overcome it, such as the impact on the relationship of power and respect between prison officers and prisoners. The understanding of the meaning and significance of violence in Ana Paula Maia's work will be based on the theoretical and critical contributions of Hannah Arendt (2011) Slavoj Zizek (2014), Ronaldo Lima Lins (1990) and Xavier Crettiez (2011). Moreover, in understanding the literary text of Maia, we will contribute to questions of the structural order of the narrative.