Triste Fim de Policarpo Quaresma – between the symbolic triad – the webs of an announced violence

Abstract

This article analyzes the forms of violence in the novel Triste Fim de Policarpo Quaresma, by Lima Barreto (published in English as The Patriot and Sad End of Policarpo Quaresma), through the Lacanian materialism proposed by Slavoj Žižek. The methodological process of construction of this research followed the path of selection and review of the bibliography from the readings and studies of printed and digital works that provided the essential data for the construction of the text. As this is a qualitative research, we reached for the readings of Lacanian Literature and Materialism, bringing elements of Philosophy and Sociology in order to complement the specific approach, aiming to investigate the relationship between world, people, events and places, in their forms of social and literary representation. The text presents data on the work of Lima Barreto, highlighting the literary aspects that reflect the behavior and tensions of a country that had become independent and democratic, although not transposing such concepts to everyday practices. Among the various conceptions of violence, we chose those postulated by Žižek (2014) to explain how subjective and objective violence - systemic and symbolic - appears as consequences of power relations between classes in the political and social scenario presented by the narrative of the character Policarpo Quaresma. Research indicates that violence in Policarpo Quaresma is associated with man and society, and that the subjective, systemic and symbolic forms not only maintain the structure of the narrative but also accounts for searching for the meaning of existence that depicts the character.