A questão racial e as desigualdades sociais na obra Recordações do Escrivão Isaías Caminha de Lima Barreto

Abstract

The present work takes a look at the racial issue and social inequalities in the work Recordações do Escrivão Isaías Caminha (1909) by Lima Barreto. The starting point of the research is based on the idea that with the release of his first novel (such an event) he qualified to enter the literary game. Symbolic struggles and literary games are terms borrowed from sociology to express the inequalities experienced at a given historical moment. The novel Memories of the escrivão Isaias Caminha is an autobiographical narrative that essentially deals with the story of a young, poor, black student, Isaias Caminha, who travels to the city of Rio de Janeiro with a goal and a fixed idea to become a doctor. However, in a post-abolition society, of scientific racism marked by deep inequalities and social hierarchies, socially ascending to the status of doctor, (intellectual recognition) being black is an a posteriori condition is what the character himself - narrator notes. Thus, in order to carry out this research, we privilege the investigation that places Lima Barreto's Literature as a central point, his entry into the literary game, passing through the possible instances that allow the process of legitimation of his literary production, that is, the social spaces as school (dream of being a doctor), the press (magazines, newspapers, editors, entry into the field) and literary criticism