The muralist minimalism of Rubem Braga in the chronicle “Pedaços de cartas”

Abstract

In “Pedaços de cartas” (“Fragments of Letters”), Braga rewrites pieces of letters supposedly by common people during the Batalha da Borracha (Rubber Battle). This chronicle is a mosaic of voices, in a sort of polyphonic collage akin to the formal strategies typical of the avant-garde. It analyzes as Braga’s way of literarily recreating techniques of the “muralistas”, such as Candido Portinari, in a sort of “muralist minimalism”. Contextualizing “Pedaços de cartas”, it argues it is a critical response to the possible return of Getúlio Vargas to power – a response given “from below”, through the voices of the oppressed. Hence, a “muralist minimalism against the State”. This essay follows the method of Davi Arrigucci Jr., combining close reading and the correlation of literary form and social tensions.