The Presence-absence of the Maternal Figure and the Deconstruction of the Patriarchal Lineage in Boy without a past

Abstract

This article analyzes the work Boy without a past, by Silviano Santiago, to highlight how, since childhood, the author’s life was marked by the premature death of his mother. For this, we seek to understand the maternal figure not as an absent body, but rather as a lack that loves, establishing a reference to Drummond’s poetry. This discussion about Silviano’s orphanhood, manifested in the presence-absence of his mother, is based on Carlos Drummond de Andrade (2015), Mário de Andrade (1988), Roland Barthes (1984) and Silviano Santiago (1988, 2005, 2021a, 2021b). Considering the maternal figure as a lack that loves, we reflect on the deconstruction of the patriarchal structure in the work. After all, the narrative abandons the image of the family tree and uses the Charthes’s stained glass, made of grafts, to remove the centrality of the paternal image. For this, we mainly use the studies of Silviano Santiago (1976, 2021a, 2021b).