Estamira em Biografemas: narrativas de vida e post vida

Abstract

This is a research paper on the narratives of the life and post-life of Estamira Gomes de Souza (1941-2011), an informal garbage collector, who gathered recyclable materials for over twenty years at the garbage dump Lixão Jardim Gramacho. Her life story was publicized in a documentary by Marcos Prado (2006), named after the garbage dump. With the objective of creating a new memory of Estamira I applied cartography (ROLNIK 2010) as the method for reading moving materials such as in life stories. The theoretical support for analyzing the elements that permeate Estamira’s life narrative are found on the notions of Biographemes (BARTHES, 1971), Rizoma (DELEUZE-GUATTARI, 2004) and Affection (SPINOZA, 2014) . They also allow for additional visions and readings on her experiences. In order to do this exercise, in the first chapter, I use the concept of biographeme, so as to frame the biographeme’s network promoted by the aesthetic products, DocumentaryEstamira (2006). Theatrical Monologue Estamira Beira do Mundo (2011), photograme-book Estamira, um mundo em abismo (2014) and the dance show Tauberbach (2011) as Estamira’s memories productions. Chapter two applies the concept of Rizoma in order to think how Estamira’s life narrative goes beyond one life’s time-space and constitutes a post-life narrative. In order to undertake such reflection of Estamira’s memory I choose Estamira’s house as the biographeme of the present moment. Finally, on the third chapter I use the spinozian concept of affection so as to conceive Estamira’s biographeme. For that purpose I read between lines on the film’s narrative searching for the segments of life that would lead me for the production of a new memory of Estamira.