Entre a mudança e a fuga: reificação e desreificação em Vidas Secas, de Graciliano Ramos

Abstract

In Barren Lives, a novel by Graciliano Ramos, a family of migrants from Northeast Brazil experiences the consequences of poverty, labor exploitation, and drought in a process that reduces them to the condition of things. This dissertation argues that while reification (objectification) dehumanizes the lives of these backwoodsmen by rendering human labor invisible, the novel de-reifies them by making labor visible and restoring the humanity of the characters. The aim is to investigate the author's aesthetics in light of the Brazilian socioeconomic reality, as well as to analyze individually the reifying dilemmas experienced by each character. Karl Marx and György Lukács — who expanded on Marx’s reflections on reification — provide the theoretical foundation for this research