Representations of violence in literature: notes towards a possible presentation

Abstract

Violence has been presented as a recurring theme in research by literary scholars, as works of imagination have always shown themselves to be a privileged locus for the study of different themes related to humans and their societies. As a result, the dossier “Representations of violence in literature” gathers and disseminates academic research on different modalities of violence reflected in literary works of different times and nationalities, from different theoretical and methodological approaches. Therefore, works as Édipo Rei and Antígona, by Sophocles, dialogue with the Brazilian novel Vidas secas, by Graciliano Ramos, and Infância dos mortos, by José Louzeiro, among many others. Others writers from different areas like Walter Benjamin (2011), Jacques Derrida (1997), Michel Foucault (1987, 2013), Freud (2010) and Friedrich Nietzsche (1998) serve as an anchor for the studies here published.