Memory, writing and power in Tropical sol da liberdade, by Ana Maria Machado

Abstract

Tropical sol da liberdade, presents a variety of distinguishing but interrelated times in the composition of Ana Maria Machado’s novelistic plot: the magic time of the protagonist’s childhood; the time she spent in exile and the present time of the narrative - characterized by her return to the family’s house and by an in depth process of self knowledge. From the interrelation and combination of such uneven temporal horizons, Ana Maria Machado’s narrative develops and invites the reader to question and reflect about a troublesome period in the Brazilian History. The present work sheds a light into some aesthetic aspects which characterize the text, such as the role of individual and collective memory and their relation to History, as well as the correlation between fiction and ethics.