Power relations and mediation procedures in Marajó, availed by Dalcídio Jurandir

Abstract

Of the ten novels of Dalcídio Jurandir’s Amazon Cycle (1941-1978), we focus on Marajó (1947), as it contains the greatest diversity of information on Caboclo culture. This semi-documentary novel is a kind of writing of history, but it also has fictional elements such as an erotic plot. In the description of local society relations of power, which are studied both from the side of the masters and the poor, including their forms of resistance, are emphasized. The central episode of the novel is a Utopian project of social improvement, undertaken by the protagonist, the rebellious son of a large landowner. With the social Utopia and the choice of the novelist of this character as a mediator between the rich and the poor, both in the plot and the “translation” of Caboclo culture to the code of the literate people, Jurandir proposes a subject which is important both for social sciences and literary and cultural studies.