Literature and history in Industrial Park, by Patrícia Rehder Galvão

Abstract

The central objective of this article is to perform a detailed analysis of the literary work Industrial Park, published in 1933 by Patrícia Rehder Galvão (1910–1962), popularly known as Pagu. Initially, the text discusses elements related to aesthetic questions, aiming to illustrate the specific modernist traits and stylistic innovations that compose the organizational method of the aforementioned novel. Subsequently, the research considers the historical aspects represented in Patrícia Rehder Galvão’s narrative, which provide an essential reading and understanding of the history of the early 20th century, especially regarding the urban proletariat in Brazil during the early 1930s, under Getúlio Vargas’s federal government. Regarding the theoretical-critical framework used in the elaboration of this study, the contributions of Eduardo de Assis Duarte (2005), Antonio Candido (2000), Anselmo Peres Alós (2010), Florentina da Silva Souza (2015), Margareth Rago (2001), Hayden White (1994), Walter Benjamin (1994), and Walkiria Savira Belapetravicius (2001) are highlighted. Finally, it concludes that in Industrial Park, Pagu utilizes a modernist aesthetic conception of textual composition to historically represent the socioeconomic transformations of the early 1930s, as well as the difficulties and injustices faced by the urban proletariat, highlighting gender issues and the various forms of workers' resistance against exploitation.