The fictionalization of divorce in Dona Anja

Abstract

This article examines how the fictional record of the approval of the Constitutional Amendment of Divorce, introduced into the Brazilian legal system in 1977, occurs. In order to verify how this record occurs, the novel Dona Anja (1978), by Josué Guimarães (1921-1986), was chosen. The literary narrative develops in the house (brothel), of the character Dona Anja, where the city authorities gather to listen on the radio to the vote on the divorce amendment. In the context of the novel, an analysis of the society of the time divided between divorces and anti-divorcists is produced. It starts, for this, from the understanding that the work is a representation and as such elaborates a rereading of the object, produced from the interpretation, of the author’s worldview, fictionalized in the narrative. The research has a bibliographic nature, in the dialogue of the Literature with/in History, and with Law, since the subject addressed is a legal issue. Finally, it is observed Josué Guimarães, in the writing of this literary text, and in a critical way, presents a vision of an event of his time (of experience and witness of his time and of the writing of the novel), thus fulfilling one of the literary functions, that oh being a social product that, in this scenario, was that of criticism of the current regime in his corrupted society.