RASTROS DE VIOLÊNCIA, LAMPEJOS DE MEMÓRIA: O TEOR TESTEMUNHAL NO CONTO DE CÉSAR FIGUEIREDO “NUM OLHAR, UM TALVEZ...”

Abstract

This article proposes a theoretical-analytical reflection on the concept of testimonial tenor as a hermeneutic category applied to the reading of literary narratives that rework experiences of violence, trauma, and political repression in the context of the Brazilian civil-military dictatorship. It departs from a restrictive conception of testimony as a biographical or documentary account, understanding it instead as a textual and cultural operation inscribed in strategies of enunciation, aesthetic procedures, and the ethical-political choices of the literary work. The study draws on the contributions of Walter Benjamin (1987), particularly his notion of reading history “against the grain,” as well as Pollak’s (1989) studies on memory, trauma as discussed by Seligmann-Silva (2022), and representational insufficiency from Goldmann’s (1970) perspective. Methodologically, the article adopts a qualitative and interpretive approach based on textual and discursive analysis. It concludes that testimonial tenor constitutes a critical instrument for reading literature as a space of memory, resistance, and symbolic dispute in the face of official narratives.