A quarrelsome spirit: an interpretation of Memórias de um sargento de milícias

Abstract

This paper aims to suggest a new reading of Manuel Antônio de Almeida's novel, Memórias de um sargento de milícias (Memoirs of a militia sergeant), by developing Antonio Candido's interpretation present in his essay "Dialética da malandragem". I intend to take a step further the investigation of the social foundations of the form of Memórias through the study of a dimension of the novel that has been left hitherto unexplored: the core of violence which appears, at the level of the characters' relationships, under the guise of quarrels, scuffles and vengeances. As I try to suggest, the structure of quarrels and scuffles determines the formal organization of Almeida's novel, and it is at the same time a result of wider social practices peculiar to a slave-based peripheral country.