Concealment, language and public policies: analysis of the “Quarto de despejo”, by Carolina Maria de Jesus

Abstract

The paper will analyze the narrative contained in the book Quarto de despejo: diary of a favelada, by Carolina Maria de Jesus, a resident of the Canindé favela, in the fifties, located on the Tietê River, in São Paulo, Brazil. The author portrays the frame of concealment and invisibility that marks them. Hunger, poor living conditions, basic sanitation, education, health services and few job opportunities are just some of the elements that permeate the narrative of Carolina de Jesus. São Paulo was experiencing the effervescence of modernization and recent industrialization with rapid and intense economic growth. The consequences of this process were felt by people like Carolina Maria de Jesus and her neighbors, who were not absorbed by the labor market and even by the city itself, being forced to live literally on the margins of society . The narrative of the author can give visibility to the phenomenon, which allows a relation with the emancipatory potential that language has, as Jürgen Habermas teaches. Starting from the ideas of social invisibility and its naturalization, worked by Jessé Souza and the teachings on the language, of Habermas, will be made an analysis of the narrative of Carolina Maria de Jesus.