(Sub)versions of Banditry: Ferréz’s Re-appropriation and Redefinition of the Marginal Identity

This study examines how Ferréz’s work is related to the 19th and early 20th century banditry narrative. The current study examines the evolution of the work of Ferréz and discusses his relevance in Brazilian and Latin America literature. However, this dissertation examines in what extent Ferréz’s work transgresses the genre in that he breaks its rules and departs from its traditions. Rather than being the voice of the elite put into the mouth of a lower-class bandit character, Ferréz’s bandits speak with the voice of the oppressed and subversively criticize the elite. His work is not viewed through the lens of a single theoretical framework but rather through a dialogue of theories that can help to analyze its different cultural and literary dimensions. This study draws on the ideas presented by two manifestos: the manifesto, “Terrorismo Literário” by Ferréz, defines the principal features of Literatura Marginal and the “Manifesto de Antropofagia Periférica” by Sérgio Vaz, a poet from the group Cooperifa. Along with the two manifestos, theories of banditry provide another framework for this study. Two studies on banditry are essential to this research: Bandit by Eric Hobsbawm (2000), and Nightmare of the Lettered City: Banditry and Literature in Latin America, 1816-1929 (2007) by Juan Pablo Dabove. This study also seeks to go beyond parallels with banditry and a genealogy of Brazilian bandits in that it addresses issues of representation and adaptation within the Literatura Marginal movement and how the lettered city’s perspective of banditry differs from the view from the margins. Ferréz’s work presents a new peripheral aesthetic that reasserts the voice of the bandits themselves, and contradicts the traditional view in Latin American literature of the bandit as “demonic force”. Furthermore, this dissertation examines the representations of marginality, the discourses enunciated by both the marginal and by the critics and institutions that refer to them. Special attention is given to the issue of visibility of the marginal in Brazilian imaginary. Ferréz’s work allows for a questioning of an imposed performance and, thus, constitutes an effective mechanism of empowerment against the institutionalized power that forbids a thoughtful formation of selfhood