Self-writing, memory, and testimony in the poetry of Alex Polari

Abstract

This article intends to reflect in what way the concepts of memory, self-writing, and testimonial literature contribute to the construction of a text in which the subjects narrate or poetize the remarkable moments of their history, taking The Prisoner’s Dressing Room, by Alex Polari, as an object of study. He was a political prisoner during the Military Dictatorship in Brazil. This literary composition, made of memorial character and testimonial content, a celebrated expression by Seligmann-Silva (2003), presents first-person narratives and verses about experiences from childhood, through adolescence and youth, to the years of prison, from his testimony. Enlightened by the studies of Gomes (2004), Agamben (2008), and Klingel (2006), the results indicate thatthe return to the memory in that composition is a highly productive manner for the construction of a self-writing, that constitutes a testimony engendered by poetic expression.