Name: JÚLIA SILVEIRA SOARES
Publication date: 27/02/2026
Examining board:
Name |
Role |
|---|---|
| ANDRÉIA PENHA DELMASCHIO | Examinador Externo |
| FABIOLA SIMAO PADILHA TREFZGER | Examinador Interno |
| GASPAR LEAL PAZ | Examinador Interno |
| NELSON MARTINELLI FILHO | Presidente |
| VALCI VIEIRA DOS SANTOS | Examinador Externo |
Summary: The novel Menino sem passado (2021), by Silviano Santiago, combines the author’s
personal memories—particularly those of his childhood and adolescence spent in
Formiga, Minas Gerais—with oneiric narratives of the “sleepwalking boy,” which
evoke comic books, as well as references to the cinematic world, whose influences
shaped the character’s life from an early age. Themes such as the premature death
of the mother, the affectionate care provided by the nanny Sofia, and memories of
family life with the father, siblings, and other relatives are revisited. The autodiegetic
narrator incorporates multiple intertextualities, especially literary ones, and the
narratives are situated in contexts related to historical events in Brazil, such as the
Vargas Era (1937–1945). Although the novel formally corresponds to the years 1936
to 1948, which constitute its subtitle, it presents temporal shifts that exceed this
period, including passages that recall the time when the author was a doctoral
student in Paris and his experience as a professor in the United States. The thesis
proposes a theoretical and critical discussion of the autobiographical genre, from its
traditional foundations to contemporary conceptions, as well as of the practice of
autofiction, in order to support the analysis of Santiago’s novel. To this end, the
research draws on authors such as Philippe Lejeune (1975, 2014), Serge
Doubrovsky (2014), Anna Faedrich (2022), Flora Amaral (2020), Evando Nascimento
(2010, 2022), Leonor Arfuch (2023), and Eurídice Figueiredo (2022). In addition, it
employs the conceptions of Michel Foucault (2004, 2010) and Wander Miranda
(1992) regarding the fictionalization of the subject in hybrid discourse, as well as the
concept of “poetic truth,” developed by Santiago (2008), understood as truth
thematized within fiction and used as a textual strategy.
