A Cataguases de Luiz Ruffato: a experiência urbana no interior mineiro

Abstract

In this article, we reflect on what we understand by urban in Luiz Ruffato’s literature. Ever since the representation of São Paulo in Eles eram muitos cavalos, the author has been considered a relevant name by literary critics to think about cities in contemporary works. However, after the release of the novel, Ruffato began to focus on the countryside of Minas Gerais, specifically the city of Cataguases, in his writing. As such, the author's literature expands a common notion of urbanity that limits itself to considering modernization only in relation to large metropolitan areas. In our reading, we defend that certain characteristics of urban literature, such as social inequality, the marginalization of poor individuals’ spaces, the rigid borders that separate the different social classes, are present in the ruffatian narratives about Cataguases. Thus, we conclude that, when dealing with the literature of Luiz Ruffato, São Paulo and Cataguases compose two points of the same thematic thread that explores the hardships of implementing an ill-fated modernization project in Brazil.