A Court in the Backlands: a nomadic justice in Brazilian literature

Nery Porto, R. 2022. A Court in the Backlands: a nomadic justice in Brazilian literature. Law and Literature. 36 (1), pp. 65-85. https://doi.org/10.1080/1535685X.2022.2143078

TitleA Court in the Backlands: a nomadic justice in Brazilian literature
TypeJournal article
AuthorsNery Porto, R.
Abstract

This paper explores a conception of justice through a reading of the Brazilian novel The Devil to Pay in the Backlands, written by João Guimarães Rosa. In this novel, the character of Zé Bebelo is tried by a group of jagunços, which were nomadic bandits that lived in the northeast of Brazil. What is analyzed in this scene is the spectral dimension of undecidability that involves a decision, and how a decision intervenes in a field of forces and reshapes the relationships and antagonisms of a conflict. To do so, I seek to show how this novel operates a counter-actualization of Brazilian history by updating and making act the memory of violence and war that marks life in the peripheral regions of Brazil. Finally, I question how justice can be possible when war is a tendency internal to the functioning of societies? What concept of justice can be possible when faced with this continuous tendency to disjoint the social body? Thus, I propose a concept of justice thought before the unbalance, conflictive and differential relationships lived by the characters of this novel in the uncertain and contingent space of the Brazilian backlands.

KeywordsJustice; Literature; War; Virtual; History
JournalLaw and Literature
Journal citation36 (1), pp. 65-85
ISSN1541-2601
Year2022
PublisherTaylor & Francis
Publisher's version
License
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
File Access Level
Open (open metadata and files)
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1080/1535685X.2022.2143078
Web address (URL)https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1535685X.2022.2143078
Publication dates
Published online13 Dec 2022
FunderWestminster Law School

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