"Meu coração, naquelas lembranças…": tentativa de catarse no relato testemunhal de Riobaldo

Abstract

This essay aims to analyze the memories of Riobaldo, protagonist of The Devil to Pay in the Backlands, by
Guimarães Rosa, as a testimonial account, established as a “topography of memory” (Selligmann-Silva, 2009), a
consequence of an exhaustive remembrance, suffered and (re)constructed in many layers, as a way to overcome
the trauma marks of their crossings. Even if faced with a fictional testimony, the story goes beyond the meanings
of the individual to the collective memory, also acquiring a historical character. In the reports of the memory of
this problematic narrator, split from traumatic experiences, a testimonial discursive work is recognized, which
approaches those verified in the writings of himself of the testimonies of the great tragedies of humanity. Based on
Benjamin’s concepts of memory and experience, it is intended to allude to the ways in which Rosa updates the idea
of remembrance, passing through the transmission of wisdom, through Riobaldo’s account, for the elaboration of
a traumatic memory of the sertão, starting from a complex process of revisiting experiences in the face of extreme
situations, which ultimately have catharsis