Racism and violence

the city from contemporary literature

Abstract

It is proposed to investigate the relationship between space, racism and violence as a problem in the contemporary city, through the analysis of fictional works taken as discourses with the power to establish the reality. The literary works Marrom e amarelo (Phenotypes) by Paulo Scott (2019), O avesso da pele (The flipside of skin) by Jeferson Tenório (2020), and Os supridores by José Falero (2020). Methodological, it describes socio-demographic conditions and the cartographic position as also the landscape of the places setting in the works, evidencing the heuristic power taken to analyze fiction in the field of socio-spatial studies. It has epistemological implications, from the recognized of art as constituent of the socio-spatial problematic, thus overcoming the position analytically subordinate to scientific legitimacy and representational paradigm. Porto Alegre, as locus, becomes significant because the spatial studies historically have ignored racialized aspects of its socio-spatial segregation. Also it analyzes the direct relationship between violence and socio-spatial segregation. The article presents three levels: 1) epistemological,  when establishing literary works as a reference to socio-spatial research; 2) demonstrative, to describe racialized aspects to socio-spatial research; 3) relational, to setting the relationship between racialized spatial segregation and violence.