A LIFE OF SURURU

GRACILIANO RAMOS AND A SENSITIVE REPRESENTATION OF URBAN LIFE AT THE BEGINNING OF THE 20TH CENTURY

Abstract

This article analyzes how Graciliano Ramos, in his book Angústia (1936), constructs a sensitive representation of the city of Maceió at the beginning of the 20^th century, highlighting the social contradictions and existential of urban modernity. The aim is to investigate the relationship between History and Literature, exploring how the author articulates, through the plot of his text, urban spaces, in order to highlight inequalities, political tensions and the impacts of incipient capitalism on subjectivity. The approach combines literary analysis and historical context, taking into account the author's personal trajectory and the symbolic play of the environments described. The conclusion is that Ramos imagines the urban space as an oppressive force that materializes a fragmented modernity, in which the promise of progress coexists with helplessness and alienation. In this way, the city narrated in Angústia acquires almost metaphysical contours, representing the processes of attempting to insert the country into Western modernity.