The city as a body in words: fragments from the agreste

Abstract

This article analyzes letters written by young people from the Agreste region of Pernambuco as a methodological and political tool to interpret the cities they inhabit. Through the work of LiACA – the Academic League for Multidisciplinary Studies and Research on Agreste Cities – the study adopts a qualitative and affective approach to urban reality, drawing on methodologies such as affective cartography and epistolary  writing.  The  letters  reveal urban  inequalities,  silenced  memories,  erasures,  and desires,  constituting  a  sensitive  counter-cartography  of the  territory.  The  objective  is to understand how writing can act as both a form of resistance and a strategy for insurgent urban planning. The findings show that, by naming their cities through personal  narratives,  the youth also  assert  themselves  as  urban  subjects  capable  of producing knowledge and claiming belonging. It concludes that writing here becomes a gesture of academic foundation through affection, embodied experience, and narrative, challenging the technical-instrumental logic of traditional urban planning.