Childhood grief and the process of resignifing life: maria’s path in Corda bamba, by Lygia Bojunga

Abstract

Often taken as taboo by parents, educators, and reading mediators, themes of death and grief are not avoided by recent literary production. Veiling conversations and artistic productions dealing with finite life can harm the process of symbolization necessary to shape children’s identity, their understanding of finite life, and thus its appreciation. We analyzed Lygia Bojunga’s novel Corda Bamba, especially the aspects concerning the main character’s mourning, maturation, and self-discovery processes. After losing her parents in a tragic circus accident, the 10-year-old girl lost all her memories as well. During her metaphorical journey through colored doors in a long corridor, she relives stories she heard about her parents, and the moments she spent with them. Along this path, she is able to elaborate her loss, and find new meanings for her existence, creating new relations with her memories, her lost ones, and starting to cope with her new situation. The analysis was based on death and grief studies, theory and criticism of children’s and juvenile literature, and literary analyses of Bojunga’s work.