ABSTRACT

The purpose of this paper is to reflect on João Anzanello Carrascoza’s writing process, based on the concept of creation as network and expanded with Bakthin’s discussions on polyphony. The writer’s files are studied from the perspective of communicative practices, with emphasis on the dialogism of subjects in community, who engage in dialogues of different natures. We present questions that move the author’s literary project, the materialities of the construction of his work and the dilution of boundaries between process and work.

KEYWORDS:
Dialogism; Writing process; Network; Bakhtin; João Anzanello Carrascoza

RESUMO

Este trabalho tem o propósito de refletir sobre o processo de escritura de João Anzanello Carrascoza, a partir do conceito de criação como rede, ampliado pelo pensamento bakhtiniano sobre a multiplicidade de vozes. São estudados os arquivos do escritor, sob a perspectiva das práticas comunicativas, com ênfase no dialogismo dos sujeitos em comunidade, travando diálogos de naturezas diversas. São apresentadas algumas questões que movem seu projeto literário, as materialidades da construção de suas obras e a diluição de fronteiras entre processo e obra.

PALAVRAS-CHAVE:
Dialogismo; Processo de criação; Rede; Bakhtin; João Anzanello Carrascoza

The purpose of this paper is to present a study on the writer João Anzanello Carrascoza (1962-), whose work has been investigated by many scholars, from different perspectives. However, his writing process has been little discussed, as we demonstrate here.

It is important to remember that we are lured by the writing processes of works which instigate us as readers. After looking into their production modes, we turn to books and come across re-signified authorships. New layers are revealed, and the knowledge of works is augmented. Therefore, it is a relation of interaction and complementarity with literary criticism.

Our experience in studying files on contemporary writing processes has given us some certainties, one of which is the total impossibility to know, a priori, what researchers will find when they begin communicating with artists/writers intended to study. When it comes to literature, much of this research is about letters, drafts and diaries, and each type of register offers different information on the process. Among some examples are: the importance of communication with the author’s contemporaries during the development of their literary projects, the principles that govern the changes in different versions of texts under construction, questions about the contextualization of the process in a great variety of aspects, or notes related to works in progress. In the last years, during contemporary experimentations, the question posed to authors is: what do you consider important for studying your writing process?

In our first interview with Carrascoza, it became clear that no research had been conducted on his writing process. Hence, we were sure it would be unprecedented. We had read some articles about the textual marks of metafiction, but none had elaborations on the files on his writing process.

After a few remote meetings during the pandemics, the writer sent us digital files on interviews, reviews and manuscripts of eight books that had been sent to editors.

The objects of this research, from the perspective of the concept of writing process as network,¹ 1 See SALLES, Cecilia A. Processo de criação como práticas geradas por complexas redes em construção [Creation Process as Practices Generated by Complex Networks under Construction]. Scriptorium, v. 7, n. 1, pp. 1-12, 2021. Available on: https://revistaseletronicas.pucrs.br/ojs/index.php/scriptorium/article/view/42169. Access on: 3 Feb. 2023. are the different versions of the book Tramas de Meninos [Boys’ Plots] (2021CARRASCOZA, João Anzanello. Tramas de meninos. Rio de Janeiro: Alfaguara, 2021.), published by Alfaguara. The versions have been generated through dialogues with the editors, as they provided the documentations with the most data about the writing process. Such discussions will have some ramifications, in connection with the book Inventário do Azul [Inventory of Blue] (2022aCARRASCOZA, João Anzanello. Inventário do azul. Rio de Janeiro: Alfaguara, 2022a.).

Still in the initial contextualization about the writer, we should call attention to his practices in literary workshops and in publicity, as editor and professor, besides his publications on the theme. A recent example is the edition of the book O Mimetismo Publicitário: Product Placement, Arte e Consumo [Advertising Mimicry:Pproduct Placement, art and consumption] (2022bCARRASCOZA, João A Anzanello (org.). O mimetismo publicitário: product placement, arte e consumo. São Paulo: Pimenta Cultural, 2022b.). The writer’s post-doctoral research, conducted at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro between the years 2012 and 2014, addressed the interface Publicity-Literature, which also interests us as object of investigation.

Still from a general perspective, we can notice that Carrascoza’s files on the writing process significantly address one of the questions that move creation processes, i.e., tendencies of artistic search from the viewpoint of communicative practices. In such case, we mean the relation with editors, as well as book reviews, criticisms, and interviews. Some Facebook posts bring about another aspect that involves the continuity of the process - readings of the writer’s books by different people.

In such context, we remember Mário de Andrade, more specifically composer Janjão, in Banquete [Banquet]: “All art is social because all art is a phenomenon of relation among humans.” (1989ANDRADE, Mário. O banquete. São Paulo: Livraria Duas Cidades, 1989., p. 61).² 2 In Portuguese: “Toda arte é social porque toda arte é um fenômeno de relação entre seres humanos.”

We will approach such issues more deeply further in this paper. Now it is important to point out that the documents granted by the writer bring out the communicative relation involved in all processes. However, such relation is not always the focus in the scope of literature. In the 1990s, when we started our research, this practice was many times denied, maybe because it confronts a romantic view of the writing process. Such posture does not accept the presence of potential readers, as it assumes writers would make some kind of concession for their books to be bought and read. This assumption is supported by the belief that writing process takes place through isolated subjects and, therefore, the production contexts - of writers and their singularities - are not discussed.

In Carrascoza’s case, it is clear that this is not an issue to be avoided. On the contrary, he positions himself publicly like this, as one who knows that literature is made possible by means of a network of interactions. From the files studied, we will discuss the author’s literary project, the materiality of communicative practices and the dilution of boundaries between process and work.

From the perspective of the theoretical approach, this paper proposes establishing relations among Charles Sanders Peirce, Pierre Musso, Vincent Colapietro, and Italo Calvino, already developed in other publications. This article brings a new dialogue for the studies of the writing process, starting from the writers’ files,³ 3 Studies that started at ITEM/CNRS (Institut des Textes et Manuscrits Modernes) in the 1960s, by the name of Crítica Genética (Genetic Crititque). and supported by Mikhail Bakhtin.

1 What Moves Carrascoza’s Literary Project?

When we speak of a writer’s project, we refer to the governing principles of political, ethical and aesthetic nature in the writing process. This is supported by Charles S. Peirce’s semiotics (1955) and by Pierre Musso’s notion of creation as network (2004). These principles are related to the production of specific works and connect the works of their creator as a whole. They are the implicit theories of the writing process, related to each author’s singularity. They are plans concerning value, forms to represent the world, tastes and beliefs that govern their way of acting. Such project is inserted in the time and space of the writing process, which inevitably affect it. Searching, as continuous process, is always incomplete. The project itself, which directs the production of works, changes over time. The process tends towards the construction of the poetic project.

From such perspective, the writing process, as an updating of the concept of semiosis, is continuous. The sign-related action is a continuous process with tendencies, i.e., a process of final causation (Peirce, v. 1, §211 [1931-1935PEIRCE, Charles Sanders. Collected Papers. Editado por Charles Hartshorne e Paul Weiss. USA: Harvard Press [1931-1935], v. 1-6.]). Tendencies are vague courses that orient the process of constructing objects in an environment of uncertainties and imprecisions. Such courses generate work, in the search for something to discover. Tendencies, in the context of a semiotic reading of creation processes, may be observed from two perspectives: the constitution of poetic projects and the communicative practices.

Let us first approach Carrascoza’s poetic project. In interviews and conversations with the researcher, a novelist-poet emerges, talking about themes that are “colossal reserves of everyday life poetry,”⁴ 4 In Portuguese: “reservas colossais de poesia do cotidiano.” in reference to Carlos Drummond de Andrade. He seems to be moved by literature as a “network of affections,” an “inventory of feelings.” “I wanted a degree of intense feeling,”⁵ 5 In Portuguese: “rede de afetos;” “inventário de sentimento;” “Eu queria um grau de sentimento intenso.” as shown in the interviews. That is how he explores all kinds of affections, and, at the same time, there will be new ones to be narrated.

Speaking of all affections is not pretentious. Instead, it seems to make his literary project vital, a way of survival, because there will always be some unexplored aspect of human condition, always some relation among family members not yet scrutinized, or a lifespan of a character, not yet told.

About the need to narrate feelings, in an interview for the Portal Vida Simples [Simple Life Portal], he reports that he started to write poetry at 12 years of age: “I went to the city library to read poems because writing about feelings interested me. It was not only the factual” (Coneglian, 2020CONEGLIAN, Matheus. Onde a escrita nasce. In: Vida simples. 2020. Disponível em: https://vidasimples.co/vida-emocional/onde-a-escrita-nasce/ . Acesso em: 4 fev. 2023.
https://vidasimples.co/vida-emocional/on... , n.p.).⁶ 6 In Portuguese: “Frequentava a biblioteca da cidade para ler poemas porque a escrita do sentimento me interessava. Não era só o factual.”

Further on, in the same interview, he says it is necessary to be restless in order to be a writer. It is necessary to work with words, with some element of the sensitive universe, in order to be able to continue. According to him, everyday life is so harsh that one needs to find some form of union in this other universe.

In another journalistic conversation, he was interviewed by Helder Moraes Miranda, editor of Portal Resenhando.com [Portal Reviewing.com], who asked “What is the motto that makes you more comfortable to write? He answered that it was” everyday life. The nothing and the everything of each day” (Miranda, 2023MIRANDA, Helder Moraes. Entrevista João Anzanello Carrascoza: “escrever é alternar luzes e sombras”. In: Resenhando: Portal de Cultura e Entretenimento. 8 jan. 2023. Disponível em: https://www.resenhando.com/2023/01/entrevista-joao-anzanello-carrascoza.html?fbclid=IwAR0B06WkhNypf2WyD6lY2lwsucCHzB_d8__-4nJK-dxOnUwc35OHppe6RAg Acesso em: 4 fev. 2023.
https://www.resenhando.com/2023/01/entre... , n.p.).⁷ 7 In Portuguese: “Qual o mote que faz você ficar mais confortável para escrever?, responde que é “A vida cotidiana. O nada e o tudo de cada dia.”

He said to the Revista da Livraria da Vila [Village’s Bookstore Magazine] that he has “[...] worked with relationships of affection with people who are, in general, very close and, at the same time, so distant, as sometimes there seems to be an ocean between them” (Livraria da Vila, 2019LIVRARIA DA VILA. Um amor eterno. In: Blog Livraria da Vila. 2019. Disponível em: https://blog.livrariadavila.com.br/um-amor-eterno/. Acesso em: 3 out. 2023.
https://blog.livrariadavila.com.br/um-am... , n.p).⁸ 8 In Portuguese: “[...] trabalhado com relações afetivas de pessoas em geral muito próximas e ao mesmo tempo tão distantes, já que às vezes parece haver um mar entre elas.”

This search for relationships of affection causes challenges in the ways of narrating and the author gives some clues as to how he chooses writing processes. It has to do with the relation of the governing principles of his literary project with how the work is constructed.

In such context, we emphasize one of Carrascoza’s procedures, which is to impose rules on himself or ways with the potential to multiply. It is interesting to associate this way of action to the famous movement OULIPO - Ouvroir de Littérature Potencielle [Workshop of Potential Literature]).⁹ 9 See https://www.oulipo.net/.

Let us look at an e-mail sent by the writer to the researcher in January 2023, in which the multiplication is explained:

In another moment, he mentions books generated by rules:

He finishes the message by trying to explain the way in which his writing develops, in dialogue with Drummond:

It seems to be a procedure with permanent potential for unfolding. Along the research, when he talked about a file he was sending, he said there were many others in the process of writing and/or editing, and also mentioned books published recently. That is his literary mode of action.

We believe such question moves storytelling in its process. The concept of network relates to an intense propagation of new relations, associated by the writer with Deleuze’s concept of rhizome.¹³ 13 According to Deleuze and Guattari, rhizome refers to a map that is “open and connectable in all of its dimensions it is detachable, reversible, susceptible to constant modification. It can be torn, reversed, adapted to any kind of mounting, reworked by an individual, group [...], it has always multiple entryways [...].In contrast to centered (even polycentric) systems with hierarchical modes of communication and reestablished paths, the rhizome is an acentered, nonhierarchical, nonsignifying system without a General and without no organizing memory or central automation, defined solely by a circulation of states (p. 21)” (In:) DELEUZE, Gilles; GUATTARI, Felix. A Thousand Plateaus. Translated by Brian Massumi. Minnepaolis University of Minnestota Press, 1987. This infinite range of new possibilities seems to be his way of surviving, as a writer. It is interesting to connect such assertion to how he defines himself as “a writer in action,” in the portal Resenhando interview, already mentioned in this paper.

The tendencies or purposes of the process lead to poetic action. Hence, Peirce defines purpose as “an operative desire” (Peirce, v. 1, §205 [1931-1935PEIRCE, Charles Sanders. Collected Papers. Editado por Charles Hartshorne e Paul Weiss. USA: Harvard Press [1931-1935], v. 1-6.]).¹⁴ 14 For reference, see footnote 7. The writer seeks “material reward,” to use words by Kandinsky (1990)KANDINSKY, Wassily. Do espiritual na arte. Tradução Álvaro Cabral. São Paulo, Martins Fontes, 1990.,¹⁵ 15 KANDINSKY, Wassily. Concerning the Spiritual in Art. Translated by M. T. H. Sadler. New Youk: Dover Publications, 1977. who describes the writing process as the search for material reward for the artist’s inventive power and sensibility.

Next, we will discuss the materiality of Carrascoza’s trajectory, which leads us to the communicative aspects in his quest.

2 Materiality of Communicative Practices

In order to discuss the digital files granted by the writer (interviews, reviews, manuscripts of books sent to publishers), we need to look further into the writing process in the scope of communicative practices. Let us address another aspect of vague and imprecise tendencies, mentioned above. This question is addressed from the concept of writing process as network, which we have been elaborating, over time, in connection with Colapietro (2014)COLAPIETRO, Vincent Michael. Peirce e a abordagem do self: uma perspectiva semiótica sobre a subjetividade humana. Tradução Newton Milanez. São Paulo: Intermeios, 2014. and Calvino (1988).¹⁶ 16 CALVINO, Italo. Six Memos for the Next Millennium. Cambridge Harvard University Press, 1988. We quote Bakhtin (1984,¹⁷ 17 BAKHTIN, Mikhail. Problems of Dostoevsky’s Poetics. 8th printing. Translated by Caryl Emerson. Minneapolis, MN, University of Minnesota Press, 1984. 1990),¹⁸ 18 BAKHTIN, Mikhail. Author and Hero in Aesthetic Activity (ca. 1920-1923). In: BAKHTIN, Mikhail. Art and Answerability. Early Philosophical Essays by M. M. Bakhtin. Translated by Vadim Liapunov. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1990. pp. 4-256. who makes such concept more substantial.

The writing process also manifests itself as a tendency for others, as it is inserted in a complex cultural network: each artist’s project is included in a timeline of art, of science and of society in general. The communicative aspect of the process involves subjects as community (Colapietro, 2014COLAPIETRO, Vincent Michael. Peirce e a abordagem do self: uma perspectiva semiótica sobre a subjetividade humana. Tradução Newton Milanez. São Paulo: Intermeios, 2014.), engaging in a great variety of dialogues - which are inter-intrapersonal like the work in progress - with future recipients, with criticism and, in the case analyzed herein, with members of the editorial team.

The approach of the subject, proposed by Colapietro (2014)COLAPIETRO, Vincent Michael. Peirce e a abordagem do self: uma perspectiva semiótica sobre a subjetividade humana. Tradução Newton Milanez. São Paulo: Intermeios, 2014., seems relevant as it brings into question the opposition between team/collective processes and individual ones: the subject is not a private sphere, but a communicative agent. He is distinguishable but not separable from others, as his identity is constituted by relations with others; one is not only a possible member of a community, as the person qua subject possesses the actual form of a community. In such context, there is no such thing as an entirely individual process, as literary writing process is normally seen. At the same time, this concept of subject makes complex the process networks that are materialized in relation to one another, formed by subjects in community, with the purpose to construct a common project. An example is the relation between writer and editor, as we have discussed here. In this theoretical context, there are no isolated subjects.

Calvino also places us in interaction, by explaining that “(...) every life is an encyclopedia, a library, an inventory of objects, a pattern book of styles” (Calvino, 1988, p. 105).¹⁹ 19 For reference, see footnote 17. The author focuses on what can be considered spaces for manifestation of subjectivity: “(...) in which everything can be constantly remixed and rearranged in every possible fashion” (Calvino, 1988, p. 105).²⁰ 20 For reference, see footnote 17.

Carrascoza clarifies such personal filters in a portal Vida Simples interview

Further on, Calvino states that the more the work tends to multiplicity, instead of distancing from that “(...) unicum that is the writer’s self, from sincerity, from the discovery of personal truth (…).” “I would reply: On the contrary, for who are we, who is each of us, if not a combinatorics of experiences, of information, of things we have read and imagined?” (Calvino, 1988, p. 105).²² 22 For reference, see footnote 17.

Similarly, Bakhtin (1990)²³ 23 For reference, see footnote 19. affirms that the aesthetic activity has the power to unite the disperse world.

Calvino raises two very important issues for our discussion. On the one hand, the multiplicity of interactions does not involve absolute erasure of the subject; at the same time, the subject himself is multiple. The multiplicity of interactions and of the subject himself is also emphasized by Colapietro (2014)COLAPIETRO, Vincent Michael. Peirce e a abordagem do self: uma perspectiva semiótica sobre a subjetividade humana. Tradução Newton Milanez. São Paulo: Intermeios, 2014., who asserts that the subject is not a private sphere, but a communicative agent. As we have seen, he is distinguishable but not separable from others, as his identity is constituted by relations with others; he is not only a possible member of a community. Instead, the person qua subject possesses the actual form of a community.

We resume Bakhtin in these theoretical interactions, from his classic quote in the beginning of his book on Dostoevsky. The theorist states that “any acquaintance with the voluminous literature on Dostoevsky leaves the impression that one is dealing not with a single author-artist who wrote novels and stories, but with a number of philosophical statements by several authors thinkers - Raskolnikov, Myshkin, Stavrogin, Ivan Karamazov, the Grand Inquisitor and others” (Bakthin, 1984, pp. 1-2).²⁴ 24 For reference, see footnote 18. This multiplicity of voices - dialogism - leads Bakhtin to consider Dostoevsky as the creator of the polyphonic novel.

It is interesting to observe that Calvino himself established the relation of multiplicity with Bakhtin, by affirming that the multiple text is one

We are aware that such questions have been widely discussed by Bakhtin researchers. However, as already pointed out, the new aspect of our research is to bring studies of the writing process, from the files thereof - a relation that has not yet been explored. In this specific case, we observe that Colapietro’s concept of subject in community becomes more substantial in the dialogue proposed herein.

Marilia Amorim’s article (2009) appealed to us, as it takes forward such reflections from the concept of creation. According to her,

We can notice that Amorin, based on Bakhtin, offers a view of the creator, which is distant from the isolated, inspired genius, as our studies demonstrate. The term “voices,” so important for Bakhtin, is mentioned again in the quotation above. Such voices can be seen as the texture of Colapietro’s subject in community (2014), who constantly creates in dialogue with others.

From such perspective, we shape a semantic field to discuss communicative practices, which are integral parts of all writing processes: dialogues, voices, polyphony, subject in community and dialogism. In light of Bakhtin’s theories, the relation with someone else’s word is brought to the concept of writing process as network, as we find, from following up on several processes, that interaction is an aspect of great relevance. Accordingly, we refer specially to Carrascoza’s dialogues, in order to approach their singularities.

In this context, the processes are always related to communicative interactions of several natures. Let us look at the characteristics of this author’s process, from the files on the writing process he chose for our study. By mentioning interviews, reviews and versions sent to editors, we are already in full dialogue with others, i.e., we are within the scope of communicative/dialogic practices.

3 Interviews

In interviews, the writer talks about his cultural networks, dialogues or references. He presents to us, to use his own words, the interactions of his network of affections. That is how he describes such interactions in the portal Vida Simples interview.

In the interview held by Portal Resenhando, he answers the classic question about which writers have influenced him, by presenting his network of affections, with remarks about the characteristics of some works which are appealing to him.

The relation with specialized readers, the critics, appears in the reviews, about how his literature is read or received. That is how we return to the novelist who writes poetry. On the website Beco das Palavras [Word Alley], there is a review, without authorship, of the book Elegia do Irmão [Elegy for Brother](2019BECO DAS PALAVRAS. Elegia do irmão. In: Beco das palavras. 18 abr. 2019. Disponível em: https://becodaspalavras.com/2019/04/18/elegia-do-irmao/. Acesso em: 4 fev. 2023.
https://becodaspalavras.com/2019/04/18/e... ):

In the magazine Escuta [Listen], Fernando Perlatto conducts a broader reading, emphasizing the lyricism of the writer’s literature. About Caderno de um Ausente (2014), Perlatto points out that

Further ahead, he affirms that “[...] reading Aquela Água Toda [All that Water] allows us to situate Carrascoza in a very specific literary tradition, which I will call lyrical writers. His books, in general, and Aquela água toda, in particular, are all permeated by passages full of poetry” (Perllato, 2018PERLATTO, Fernando. O lirismo da literatura de João Anzanello Carrascoza. Revista Escuta, 12 mar. 2018. Disponível em: https://revistaescuta.wordpress.com/2018/03/12/o-lirismo-da-literatura-de-joao-anzanello-carrascoza/ Acesso em: 4 fev. 2023.
https://revistaescuta.wordpress.com/2018... , n.p.).³¹ 31 In In Portuguese: “[...] a leitura de Aquela Água toda permite situar Carrascoza em uma tradição literária muito específica, que aqui chamarei de escritores líricos. Seus livros, de modo geral, e Aquela Água Toda, em particular, são todos eles atravessados por trechos repletos de poesia.”

4 Relations with Editor

As we have mentioned earlier in this paper, Carrascoza incorporates, to his files, documents which are not very common in the literary environment: dialogues with editors and their suggestions of changes in the texts. We are referring to the documents pertaining to the book Tramas de Meninos (2021CARRASCOZA, João Anzanello. Tramas de meninos. Rio de Janeiro: Alfaguara, 2021.), published by Alfaguara. The literary writing process is shown in the scope of a non-isolated work, and changes may be generated. His posture as a writer - one who naturally incorporates relations with others - is clear. We can raise the hypothesis that it arises from his work as a publicist. Nevertheless, many other writers with similar jobs seem unwilling to make such dialogues public, for several reasons (it is not our place to analyze such reasons).

We have received the first version sent to the editor, the second one with the editor’s suggestions and the third and the fourth ones (the file with the whole text, prepared for diagramming).

Let us look at some of the editor‘s suggestions

We call attention to the change proposed for the final short story called “Últimas” [The Last Ones]. It is a more significant change, as it modified the tone of the book.

This was the end written by the author:

This was the end written by the editor:

All of the editor’s suggestions were accepted by Carrascoza. We can notice that the proposals generated the exploration of a new range of possibilities, in the construction of a common project, as already mentioned. We are speaking of literary hypotheses which are responsible for the insertion of new ideas.³⁴ 34 Abduction is a fragile formulation, that is, an act of inference that adopts a hypothesis in an experimental state (Peirce, v. 6, §525 [1931-1935]) to be tested. It is the method of forming a general prediction without any certainty that it will be successful, and may, during the testing process, prove to be wrong. It is an act of insight rooted in previous hypotheses and extremely fallible (Peirce, v. 5, §181[1931-1935]). The editor, in this case, became part of the writer’s creation network. By discussing such processes, we cannot fail to reflect on the context of production. In such case, we mean the writer-editor relation, which also involves partnerships supported by respect. The reason we write is to be read and, in these circumstances, to be published by certain publishers.

5 Crossing Boundaries: Process Invades Work

In 2022, Carrascoza published the novel Inventário do Azul, also with Alfaguara Publisher. As stated in the book flap, following a writing process of other books, “(...) the character of the book is a nameless man, who at times sees himself in the author and at other times distances himself.”³⁵ 35 In Portuguese: “[...] o personagem do livro é homem sem nome, que por vezes se espelha no autor e por vezes se distancia.” Such device interacts with the narrator, autofictional, contemporary, in the third person in the passage, already explained in the dedication page “He dedicates this inventory to his children, his elderly, lonely parents.”³⁶ 36 In Portuguese: “Ele dedica esse inventário a seus filhos e seus pais velhos e solitários.”

Still in the book flap, there is an explanation of what is narrated: “(...) with tenuous memories, descriptions of short, everyday moments and reflections on what it means to grow and mature, he recreates an arch of life, with his fugacious instants of happiness and the melancholy of what was lost.”³⁷ 37 In Portuguese: “[...] por meio de lembranças tênues, descrições de pequenos momentos rotineiros e ponderações sobre o que significa crescer e amadurecer, ele recria todo um arco de vida, com seus instantes fugazes de felicidade e a melancolia do que se perdeu.”

Let us return to the writer’s literary project, focusing on the search for the narrative of the everyday life sensitivity, full of fugacious moments of happiness and sad losses. We must mention the volume with his book Catálogo de Perdas [Catalogue of Losses] (2017CARRASCOZA, João Anzanello. Catálogo de perdas. Fotografias de Juliana Monteiro Carrascoza. São Paulo: SESI-SP Editora, 2017.), with Juliana Monteiro Carrascoza, who augments the networks, this time with photography.

In the context of writing process in permanent multilication, there will always be a comprehensiveness of life of a nonnarrated character. Inventário do azul includes “the broad arch of life”³⁸ 38 In Portuguese: “o amplo arco da vida.” of the character-narrator, with his wounds, scars, losses, fascinations, shadows and some lights, permeated by imagination, memories and oblivions involved in growth and maturing. New windows of human conditions are explored by this narrator who, at times, needs “(...) unlearning to like the magic and sublime spectacle of life” (Carrascoza, 2022, p. 257).³⁹ 39 In Portuguese: “[...] desaprender a gostar do espetáculo mágico e sublime da vida.”

The writer’s biography is accompanied by a photograph of Carrascoza surrounded in blue shadows “(...) he gazes at that part of the woods inside himself - vanprash! - from where he came and, like all of us, to where he will one day return.”⁴⁰ 40 In Portuguese: “[...] ele mira dentro de si o trecho da floresta - vanprash! - de onde veio e, como todos nós, para onde um dia voltará The explanation for the blue inventory is then suggested.

In the first pages of the novel, we can see that the author will use another literary procedure. It is what we call invasion of the process of the work, under different forms. First, we focus on the literary presence of the editor in the book. He starts with the Dedication page, already discussed. Then, the title Ponto de Partida [Point of Departure] is followed by Contrato [Contract]. “On one side, Life, the contracting party; on the other side, he, the contracted party.”⁴¹ 41 In Portuguese: “De um lado a Vida, a contratante; do outro lado ele, o contratado.” Let us resume the poetic nature of the narrative, to which a typical discourse of writer-publisher professional relation is added. It amounts to bunch of clichés, with paragraphs and contractual clauses. “And, however, they generate works which are undeniably unique” (p. 9).⁴² 42 In Portuguese: “E, no entanto, geram obras inegavelmente ímpares.” It brings to fiction the discussion of filters with marks of each author’s singularity, an aspect mentioned earlier. Still about the inclusion of editorial questions in the novel, segment 978 (p. 157) includes ISBN initial numbers for literary works.

There are other creation processes taken to the novels. Inventário do Azul takes place in conversations of the narrator about writing processes, more specifically, about the process of writing the book being read. This is about metalinguistic procedures related to the literary project, to reviews and to erasing.

As for the governing principles of the process, the segment “Poética” [Poetics] opens with the following command: “(...) do not narrate facts: describe scenarios of feelings” (Carrascoza, 2022, p. 232).⁴³ 43 In Portuguese: “[...] não narrar fatos: descrever quadros de sentimentos.” The title itself reminds us of the inclusion, in the novel, of the report of the construction process of works in general. Then, we resume one of the questions that move his literary project: writing feelings, already approached.

There are also two references to readings by critics, an integrating art of all processes that wish to be read. Under the title “Crítica” [“Critique”], the narrator affirms:

The same question appears in the segment called “Uma página” [A page]:

It finishes by stating that “At this point, he accepts his failure, although not according to their measures” (p. 234).⁴⁶ 46 In Portuguese: “Neste ponto, aceita seu fracasso, embora não pela régua deles.” The relation of the narrator with the criticism is then taken to fiction, and it emphasizes possible aspects from which the work we are reading could be evaluated.

We now look into erasure, which is part of all writing processes. It renders the experimental nature to such processes, as literary hypotheses are tested and the texts generated are adjusted, according to a great number of criteria. At times, literary studies overvalue erasure, which causes, for instance, tireless classifications of erasure types. It can also entail research results with comparisons, also exhaustive, of different drafts, without looking deeply into questions that move the processes being studied. There is the false impression that erasures alone are responsible for literary writing process.

In Inventário Azul, Carrascoza establishes a complex game with erasure, leaving to readers words, paragraphs, or entire segments with lines through what was written, i.e., the crossing out. They are crossed out, but are kept and read, leaving big amounts of traces of the desire to erase. We know the text may have been through a process of rewritings in the decision of what would be kept in the publication version. However, by exploring erasure as a literary device, many new layers of the process are revealed. Let us see some examples.

In the segment “Retrato” [Portrait], after reporting his father’s death - “The mother, after the funeral, sold the old car (they need the money) and donated clothes and shoes to the old folks’ home in the small town” (Carrascoza, 2022, p. 155)⁴⁷ 47 In Portuguese: “A mãe, dias depois do sepultamento, vendeu o velho carro (precisavam do dinheiro) e doou ao asilo da cidadezinha as roupas e os calçados.” -, we can raise the issue about the characters’ financial situation, already known by readers, or about the sense of repeating something already said, as seen in the editor-writer dialogue.

Let us look into the segment “Receita” [Recipe]: “Repeat, repeat, repeat. The same memory. Until the friction of sadness produces a spark of joy” (p. 17).⁴⁸ 48 In Portuguese: “Repetir, repetir, repetir. A mesma lembrança. Até que a fricção das tristezas produza uma centelha de alegria.” It is interesting to observe the almost erased joy in the characternarrator, who is the most strongly affected by pain and scars. The joy is almost erased, as it was crossed out, but kept.

Let us examine now two segments that were completely crossed out. “Real A memory, a memory may be ignited again or turned off. But we cannot unlive the lived. What became real can never again be unnreal. It is forever” (p. 184).⁴⁹ 49 In Portuguese: “Real Uma lembrança, a memória pode reacender ou apagar. Mas não podemos desviver o vivido. O que se tornou real jamais será novamente irreal. É para sempre.” In a possible interpretation, we could say that we cannot definitely erase the real. It insists in the text, as erasure does not prevent reading.

Another crossed out segment has the title of “Cura” [“Cure”]. “From the series Simple Information. So simple that it is not included in the Contract: life is a wound with no treatment. When it becomes the ultimate sore, death befalls with the cure” (p. 311).⁵⁰ 50 In Portuguese: “Da série Informações Simples, Tão simples que não constam no Contrato: a vida é ferida que não tem tratamento. Quando se torna chaga máxima, sobrevém com a morte a cura.” When the cure is crossed-out, we somehow address the absence of cure for death, severely faced along the report of the inventory. These are possible interpretations that may be expanded by many others. By bringing new interactions, we observe that Carrascoza posted such erased segment on his Facebook on May 29th, 2022.

Through a broader examination, it is interesting to notice the incorporation of the erasure, explicitly, as literacy procedure in Carrascoza’s project. When we discussed the relation of research on writing process and literary criticism, we emphasized that, after following up on the trajectories, works are re-signified when they are read. In Inventário Azul, the incorporation of overlapping different readings with such almost erasures, we once more come to the multiplication, characteristic of this writer’s project. The novel itself incorporates, in its materiality, the multiplication of works and re-significations. The literary project gains other layers of complexity, and such multiplication is taken to readers.

We have reached the end of the reflections on crossing boundaries between process and work, like the materiality of the history told in Inventário do Azul. It is worth pointing out that such characteristic interacts with some procedures of contemporary experimentation, observed beyond the limits of literature.

Final Considerations

This article has proposed a pioneering approach to Carrascoza’s works, based on his files on the writing process. From the theoretical perspective, the concept of creation as network has been expanded, in the dialogue with Colapietro’s notion of subject in community and Bakhtin’s polyphony. Bakhtinian voices makes Colapietro’s subject in community more complex and enhance theoretical reflections on writing processes. In this context, it is interesting to observe the absence of research that establishes relations with Bakhtin’s theories in the scope of files on the writing process. The issue raised herein deserves to be expanded.

This view of the writing process is closely related to the way Carrascoza positions himself publicly, i.e., to his posture as an author. In our reflections on his files, we emphasized the immersions into communicative practices in a broad manner, i. e., the relation with others beyond literary dialogues or references. Communicating with editors has provided the discussions on the writing process with another filed of creative possibilities.

Studying the files has also brought about a literary project which “(...) was able to harbor the immensity of existence” (Carrascoza, 2022, p. 188),⁵¹ 51 In Portuguese: “[...] que fosse capaz de abrigar a imensidão da existência.” according to narrator of Inventário do Azul, when he mentions the possible posture of critics regarding the work we are reading. This quotation clarifies how the writer crosses the boundaries between process and work in this book, in the context of contemporary experimentation.

About the writing procedures, we draw attention to what we call multiplication of his network by means of devices that trigger such multiplicity, and are fictionalized in Inventário do Azul, in the incorporation of erasure in the version given to the public. We again feel that such procedure seems to be his way of survival as a writer.

Research Data and Other Materials Availability

The contents underlying the research text are included in the manuscript.

REFERÊNCIAS

History

History

Publication Dates

History