“This is the malice of the work”: an archival reading of A rainha dos cárceres da Grécia by Osman Lins

Abstract

The present essay explores the creative process of Osman Lins (1924–1978), highlighting how his personal correspondence and manuscripts offer a profound insight into the work and the tensions between practical life and literary creation that can be traced in his last novel, A Rainha dos Cárceres da Grécia, from 1976. The study adopts a methodological approach based on close reading and genetic analysis of Lins’ correspondence and manuscripts. The research unfolds through an investigative protocol that involves reading and interpreting textual layers and paratexts, such as notes and citations, aiming to reconstruct the author’s creative path and uncover the influences and dilemmas he faced throughout the writing process of the novel in question. One of the research hypotheses presented in the essay is that A Rainha dos Cárceres da Grécia can be understood as a parody of the theoretical and critical discourses of the time, especially in relation to structuralism, which predominated in the Brazilian academic context of the 1960s and 1970s.