Abstract

ESCOBAR GOMEZ, Armando. A detective in the search for history: Rubem Fonseca's August. Latinoamérica [online]. 2016, n.63, pp.205-232. ISSN 2448-6914.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.larev.2016.11.010.

In this article we propose to study August (1990), a novel of the Brazilian writer Rubem Fonseca, as a model for the analysis of a kind of fiction that, according to our hypothesis, is established as an alternative version that opposes and contradicts the history recognized as official. August has an overwhelming account of the facts, bribes, names, dates and locations that took place in a key month for the contemporary Brazilian history: August of 1954, month of the fall and death of Getúlio Vargas. Through a careful account of real situations (historical story), this novel hides in between lines the true extent of his fiction (detective story), which acquires a veracity that does not completely fit within the pure concept of "fiction" by questioning the official version to which it opposes and contradicts.

Keywords : Detective novel; Historical novel; Fiction; History; Brazil; Rubem Fonseca; Getúlio Vargas.

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