The contemporary problematization of the family

Os donos do inverno

Abstract

Contemporary Brazilian literary production is characterized, among other elements, by the diversity of themes and compositional strategies adopted by its authors. In this sense, the artistic treatment given to family structures is the thematic core of the present study. Therefore, we analyze the problematization of family conflicts inherent to the current scenario in Brazilian literary narrative production. We aim to verify how the artistic updating of a theme occurs, whose literary use comes from very remote times, but which, due to its recurrence in contemporary narratives, still proves to be very relevant. Our main corpus of analysis is the novel Os donos do inverno (2019), by Altair Martins, a writer from Rio Grande do Sul who composes the narrative of a family, centered on the figure of two brothers, distanced after the death of Carlos, the older brother. This is a family structure whose formation is peculiar, the parents were neighbors and both became widows, they came together to form this new family in which former friends became brothers. Due to the natural theoretical ramifications of the topic in question, in search of consistent analyses of the text and the problem, we also resorted to theories concerning sociology, anthropology, psychoanalysis and psychology, despite the clarity that our main theme is literary. We found that this is a diegesis characterized by creativity in the use of textual resources, in which form and content harmonize in the coherent problematization of a theme addressed in tune with its current demands, as, for example, in the structuring of the narrator who, in defiance of traditional typifications, is structured, in many moments, in the first person plural, harmonizing with a protagonism that is also plural. The result of this structural/thematic treatment is a product with many aesthetic merits, whose content presents an important level of depth.