(Re)membering to Resist

The Crime of Praia dos Ossos

Abstract

This article aims to analyze the narrative constructed in the podcast Praia dos Ossos (Rádio Novelo, 2020) concerning the emblematic femicide of Ângela Diniz (1976). It starts from the premise that this construction can be understood as a lieu de mémoire (site of memory, Nora, 1984) and, as such, would function as a manifestation of discourse of resistance, in which narrating constitutes a necessary act both to resist and to perpetuate resistance. Through the analysis of selected excerpts, the study seeks to outline the contours of this narrative in order to demonstrate how the narrator constructs a testimonial ethos, which is essential to this discursive configuration. A further objective is to articulate the historical reinterpretation of the case with the persistent patterns of violence against women in Brazil. Revisiting this crime, in its political, legal, and social dimensions, allows not only for the reconstruction of a fairer image of the victim but also establishes an urgent dialogue with contemporary data from the Atlas da Violência contra a Mulher (2024), highlighting the persistence of structures of gender-based violence. In this way, the podcast reveals itself as an important discursive construction that, by reclaiming the memory of Ângela Diniz, updates the debate on femicide in Brazil and can, therefore, be understood as a manifestation of discourse of resistance. For the development of the analysis, representative excerpts of the theme were selected, guided by a reading grounded in the analysis of argumentation in discourse (Amossy, 2018; Lima, 2006).