The representification of the absent in The interminable body by Claudia Lage

Abstract

The objective of this work is to analyze the “representification of the absent” (Catroga, 2009) in Claudia Lage’s novel The Interminable Body (2019). The main hypothesis is the existence of a compressive force that acts on the protagonist creating tension between the absent body and the desired body. Brazil’s recent past is also revisited through fiction that strategically reincarnates anonymous voices, recovers the silence of missing politicians, and offers them a platform to testify. The novel provides an aesthetic and ethical open space for reflecting on a story compelled towards conclusion. Through literature, a critique is made not only of the official discourses of history, but also of the constitutive devices of collective memory that ignore the traumas left by state violence. In this context, The interminable body establishes a “dialogue with signs of absence” (Catroga, 2009) and serves as a testimony to those who did not survive state violence.