Geovani Martins’s The Sun on My Head

The Slum’s Literature

Abstract

Abstract: This paper analyzes Geovani Martins’s work The sun on my head, from a renewed thematic perspective on the slum – the so called favela – performed by the writer when leaving aside a stereotyped view of the slum-dweller that for a long time has been part of Brazilian literature. On his writing project, Martins takes possession of the slum-dweller’s speech in order to break down and decentralize the literary word, inserting it in a new syntax, unique and inaugural, that, consequently, demands a new reading pact from the reader. A more aggressive and participative pact. Based on this reading pact, the paper is divided into three moments: the study of the literary word decentralization, the difference between society and community and, at last, the issue of the other as difference, not as similarity.

Keywords: slum’s literature; peripheral society; Geovani Martins.