Excessos da falta em Por que sou gorda, mamãe?

Abstract

Literature, as well as other ways of artistic manifestations, almost always involves a questioning about the embodiment of a subject into the process of creation and reception of the work. Be it in regard to that we consider responsible for the creative product: the author, or in regards to the observation of the one for whom the work is intended: the reader. In this way, thinking about Literature involves an exercise of reflection on the various characters involved in this process, such as producers, receivers, or a fictional subject. In the novel, Por que sou gorda, mamãe? (2006), of Cíntia Moscovich, by the discussion on the nature of the protagonist is signed in the title itself, and calls to mind the understanding of characteristics - genetic, cultural and fictional - that comprise the individual who is asking this question. Such considerations lead the reader to believe that Moscovich’s (2006) writing in this work establishes a close relationship between the signs of excess and absence; for, as the protagonist loses a few pounds, she recalls fundamental moments of her existence, and, at the same time, she runs into the possibility of - “fictionalization” of these very events. Our interest is, to perform a reading of this novel with the goal of examining the incorporation of the ideas of excess and absence and their relationship with aspects of memory, and of representation of the body, based on considerations of both Italo Calvino (1990) – with regards to the manifestation of visibility; and Perrone-Moses (2007) – concerning the understanding of literature as a phenomenon marked by the experience of need.