El exceso de la muerte, la excepción de la violencia y la escrita como soberanía: Feliz ano novo de Rubem Fonseca

The article theoretically reflects on the relationship between violence and literature. In this sense, Rubem Fonseca’s work is emblematical, first because violence is the principle object of an attempt of artistic representation, going beyond any mimetic temptation, and also because, through his narrative engagement, the author develops a sharp meta-reflection on the possibilities of writing the violence. The book Feliz ano novo, edited in 1975 during the military dictatorship, contains explicit references to violence, for this reason, it was censored for many years. The book is a collection of short stories, centered on many apparently individual cases of material and symbolical violence that, actually, entail larger and political dimensions. The critical approach of the essay is based on some categories of political philosophy, considering the author endowed with a paradoxical sovereignty that allows him to exercise a strong counter-power as a condition to succeed in finding a literary form for a possible, finally full violence representation.