Armed narratives: the urban guerrilla in the testimony of Alex Polari and Herbert Daniel

Abstract

This work is the result of some concerns and reflections on the possible relations that History can hold with Literature, once for decades debates have been developed in favor of the delimitation of boundaries between historiographical discourse and literary works, and also of the establishment of Literature as a source for the development of historical researches. We intend to analyse here the Testimonial Literature genre through the works Passagem para o Próximo Sonho (1982), by Herbert Daniel, and Em Busca do Tesouro (1982), by Alex Polari, considering them essential to emphasize the new themes and approaches gaining ground with the growing number of works devoted to study the period in which the urban guerrilla happened, during the Brazilian military dictatorship. Therefore this study analyses historical, social, political and cultural representations built by the witness-narrators about the Brazilian “lefts” and the guerrilla background formed after 1968 during the Brazilian military regime.