A literatura marginal na obra quarto de despejo, de Carolina Maria de Jesus

Abstract

*Quarto de Despejo: Diário de uma Favelada* (1960), by Carolina Maria de Jesus, is a seminal work for understanding 20th-century Brazilian social dynamics, particularly regarding inequality, marginalization, and life in urban *favelas* (slums). This research focuses on the theme of "Marginal Literature in the Work *Quarto de Despejo* by Carolina Maria de Jesus." Written in diary format, the book compiles entries made by the author between 1950 and 1960, a period when she lived in Canindé, one of São Paulo's largest *favelas*. From an intimate and deeply humanized perspective, Carolina narrates the daily events that shaped her life and that of her neighbors, revealing the routine of hunger, lack of sanitation, prejudice, and violence that defines the *favela* environment. The work’s impact was immediate and significant; the book drew Brazilian society's attention to the reality of the *favelas* and established Carolina as one of the most powerful and original voices in national literature. To this day, *Quarto de Despejo* remains relevant, both for its aesthetic power and for its contribution to debates on poverty, racism, inequality, resistance, and citizenship. This monograph aims to analyze the work as a manifestation of "marginal literature," highlighting aspects of social critique and female resistance in the face of the exclusion experienced in Brazilian urban peripheries during the 1950s and 1960s. The study employs an integrative literature review methodology. This approach was selected because it enables the synthesis and analysis of existing bibliographic knowledge on the subject. The work is theoretically grounded in the writings of Amorim and Frazão (2019), Hollanda (2004), Ventura (1988), and Oliveira (2011), among other authors who contributed to the study's corpus. Carolina Maria de Jesus's writing remains essential, inspiring and mobilizing those who seek to understand and transform social reality.