Social drama and narratives on the murder of Aline

Abstract

This article examines the “Aline case”, a national impact murder which occurred in Ouro Preto/MG, in October 2001. The case is approached as a Victor Turner’s social drama, highlighting how narrative arenas arise, confronting versions on the case that engages several paradigms, tropes and values. I discuss how narratives makes the case transcends the rational logic of the juridical field, configuring different struggles around notions of youth, fiction and reality, demonic influence, creating a culture of terror. The finale of “Aline case” social drama is examined by the tensions it causes on the canonic narratives of justice making and the aporia it apparently generates in face of a non-guilty verdict. I suggest that the fragmented, lacunary and open-ended character of the meeting and confrontation of narratives in the Court Room, despite its logic of controversial, might carry on possibilities of justice to “Aline case”.