«Antes do passado»: An Apprenticeship

Abstract

This work analyzes Antes do passado. O silêncio que vem do Araguaia (2012) by Liniane Haag Brum, an account of the author’s search for traces of the life of Cilon Cunha Brum, her uncle and godfather, PC do B’s militant from the 60’s until his disappearance in the jungle in the 70’s. Liniane and Cilon, for different reasons, are victims of State violence, which justifies the reading of Antes do passado in the light of reflections on testimonial literature. Like many texts of this type, the report is made up of fragments and silences, but also, until almost the end, it is strongly marked by fears and mistrust among those who lived with Cilon and the narrator-protagonist; she doesn’t even seem interested in their stories of suffering. The work’s hypothesis is that Haag Brum’s text can be read as a «training novel»: a protagonist narrator who looks for a family member, who is not interested in listening to witnesses when the focus of the speech deviates from its objective and which, in the end, is transformed; not only her but also, to some extent, her writing.