Name: THIARA CRUZ DE OLIVEIRA
Publication date: 27/03/2026
Examining board:
Name |
Role |
|---|---|
| JACQUELINE LARANJA LEAL MARCELINO | Examinador Externo |
| JORGE LUIZ DO NASCIMENTO | Examinador Interno |
| JULIANA CAMPOS ALVERNAZ | Examinador Interno |
| KEILA MARA DE SOUZA ARAÚJO MACIEL | Examinador Externo |
| MICHELE FREIRE SCHIFFLER | Presidente |
Summary: This dissertation proposes to analyze the laughable in Elisa Lucinda's work, identifying laughter
as an aesthetic device for her literary fabulation. Drawing from traditional theories of laughter
(Bergson, 2018; Propp, 1992; Freud; Minois, 2003; Alberti, 2011, etc.), the social and critical
character of the humor presented in her characters and poetic voices is highlighted, which
sketch reflections that traverse the comic but reveal the tragic, especially regarding ethnic-racial
issues, forming a place of crossroads. It is observed that orality and everydayness are central
resources for the elaboration of the laughable in her literary production, intersecting laughter
and race through a "carnivalization" (Bakhtin, 2010), which aims to "dig into" life through the
pedagogy of the crossroads (Rufino, 2019). To this end, the laughable is identified in four works
that are the objects of analysis: in prose, i) Livro do Avesso: o pensamento de Edite and ii)
Quem me leva para passear?; in theatrical text, iii) Parem de falar mal da rotina; and iv) in
poems from the book Vozes Guardadas and O Semelhante. In general terms, poetic freedom is
identified to convey criticism, highlighting racist discourses, but also a colonized society,
without fear that the inversion of the joke will be stripped of humor, automatically establishing
critiques of what is understood as "recreational racism" (Moreira, 2019), thus erasing, finding
spaces in the cracks, and feeding transgression. This movement contributes to promoting the
debate about Brazilian literature and racism in Brazil, since there is an inversion of the
laughable object, making laughter an instrument of a becoming that is drawn at the crossroads.
Keywords: Laughter. The laughable. The comic. Elisa Lucinda. Racism.
