In search of the lost unity

Abstract

This article seeks to explore aspects of the psychic dimension present in São Bernardo, Graciliano Ramos’s second novel. The analysis of the protagonist’s two relationships – one,
successful, with his foreman, the other a frustrated relationship with his wife – allows us to identify his means of appropriating the other’s trace. For this reading, concepts from Psychoanalysis and the Philosophy of Language, as well as data regarding contemporary Brazilian history, are used, in an integrated perspective.