A literature that mobilizes violence.

Collection explores the marks of oppression, hierarchy and colonization in texts produced in 21st century Latin America

A literature that mobilizes violence.

Collection explores the marks of oppression, hierarchy and colonization in texts produced in 21st century Latin America

The anthology * Under the Signs of Violence* , published by Editora da Unicamp, is divided into ten chapters that explore literary criticism from a single perspective: the power of violence not only as a theme, but as a compositional mechanism mobilized by the most diverse types of literature. The book's organizers, Andre Rezende Benatti, Rosana Cristina Zanelatto Santos, and Wellington Furtado Ramos, have compiled articles that analyze Latin American works produced in the 21st century, based on the representation of different forms of violence, with emphasis on the oppression of women and dictatorial experiences.

Benatti holds a PhD in Neo-Latin literature and works as a professor at the State University of Mato Grosso do Sul (UEMS), where he researches literature and its relationship with violence and marginality. Santos, a full professor at the Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul (UFMS), specializes in comparative literature, fiction theory, and literary horror. Ramos, also a professor at UFMS, studies contemporary Brazilian and Portuguese literature. In the following interview, the three respond, in writing, about how the book was organized and present the contributions of the work to the field of literary studies.

Unicamp Journal – What motivated you to write the book? Why is violence in literature the theme of this collection?

Organizers – Since 2008, we have met to investigate violence and its relationship with literature, culture, and other art forms, with the creation of the Laboratory for the Study of Horror and Violence in Culture, Lehvic. This laboratory, which still exists today occupying a physical space at UFMS in Campo Grande, promotes study meetings and participates in the organization of events. The initial motivation for studying violence in a relational way arose from Rosana Santos's inferences about colonialism in the work of the British writer Joseph Conrad and post-colonialism in the work of the Portuguese writer António Lobo Antunes, and about how violence composes a picture whose meaning is horror, which ended up spreading to other literary objects, especially Hispanic-American ones, and artistic works.

JU – How were the themes and authors of the chapters chosen?

Organizers – We, the organizers, have been researching together since the creation of Lehvic and its involvement with actions carried out outside the walls of UFMS, such as at UEMS, where Andre Benatti is a tenured professor. Thus, in a rhizomatic way, we have been building and participating in national and international research networks responsible for propelling us to the action that culminated in the organization of the anthology * Under the Signs of Violence* . We highlight the research groups of the National Association of Research and Postgraduate Studies in Letters and Linguistics (ANPOLL) and the research directories of CNPq [National Council for Scientific and Technological Development] as collective and collaborative spaces for our contacts.

JU – Are there other aspects (temporal, regional, etc.) besides the thematic one? What other factors contribute to the unity of the work?

Organizers – The thematic unity is ensured by the focus on violence, with no other guidelines beyond maintaining this theme when inviting authors. Initially, we thought we would receive contributions on the connections between violence and other artistic objects. However, the focus of the contributors was on literature. Thanks to the organizers' engagement with the theme, we are at the beginning of a new research project, whose main focus is the representation of violence in literary narratives written by women in Mato Grosso do Sul.

JU – How do you see the evolution of representations of violence in Latin American literature over the last 20 years?

Organizers – In the article entitled “Illusion and Referentiality: A Trend in Contemporary Brazilian Narrative,” Regina Dalcastagnè (2007) warns about how writers are also social agents, critical subjects of certain behaviors. In this vein, violence in Latin American literature, in the last 20 years, emerges as a theme already indicated in literary texts since the beginnings of Iberian colonization. However, until recently, it was largely ignored; after all, violence was/is one of the constitutive elements of our societies, an assertion adequately presented by Jaime Ginzburg (2013) in *Literature, Violence and Melancholy* . Therefore, it is up to contemporary literary criticism, which is also cultural and political, to analyze/demonstrate what, in the textual materiality, characterizes the presence of violence.

JU – What contributions does the book bring to the field of literary studies? What new developments does it present?

Organizers – In response to the two questions, two points seem significant to us, both highlighted by Wellington Ramos in the preface to the collection: violence in Latin America as a hallmark of mechanisms of oppression, hierarchization, and economic and cultural colonization, and the effort to resignify beauty as an aesthetic concept through pain and horror are our contributions to the field. Perhaps these are not groundbreaking ideas. However, if our future readers feel moved enough to read the literary texts discussed in the articles, we will have some certainty that we have affected them.

Title: Under the Signs of Violence 
Organization: Andre Rezende Benatti, Rosana Cristina Zanelatto Santos, Wellington Furtado Ramos 
Edition: 1th 
Vintage: 2024 
Pages: 248 
Dimensions: 14 cm x 21 cm