Lima Barreto Como Pensador Social

Breves considerações sobre o lugar do negro na Primeira República

Abstract

The aim of this article is to analyze some points about the place reserved for black people after the abolition of slavery. Through the eyes of the writer Lima Barreto, we will analyze how the modernizing process that took place in the First Republic (1889-1930) expelled the newly freed blacks to the outskirts of the cities. From this perspective, we will see how the favelas were formed and how the writer showed us, in many of his works, that this suburbanization was shaping up to become an element of racial segregation. Lima Barreto denounced the fact that blacks were abandoned by the government and at the same time were not welcomed by society. The first formations of what we know today as favelas are described in his works and, for this reason, we will take a look at how they came about. To do this, as well as mentioning some of his works, we'll include a specific short story by the author - O Moleque - in which we'll show how the writer constructs the narrative and casts two black characters as the protagonists. Using the method of sociological analysis proposed by Antonio Candido (2006), we will try to bring out the peculiarities of Lima Barreto's form of expression, in order to understand the historical structure described, its dynamics and contradictions. As a result of the research, we will show how literature can be an important source for understanding the dilemmas of society at a given time and, furthermore, that Lima Barreto was an important social thinker.