The perception of public power in Quarto de despejo by Carolina Maria de Jesus

Abstract

This article aims to present the perception of Brazilian public power in Quarto de despejo (1960), the first book published by Carolina Maria de Jesus. The book achieved enormous success upon publication, largely due to the uniqueness of the author herself: a black and marginalized woman, waste collector and writer. However, a few years after its release, the author and her work fell into a long oblivion. In the diary, Carolina makes several observations about state bodies and the actions of their representatives. She denou ces the development project in force at the time, which ignored the lower classes, and the inability of political representatives and state institutions to understand the problems arising from the country’s social inequality. In this way, the invisibility of the marginalized po- pulation in public policies comes to light. The article analizes a list of excerpts from Quarto de despejo that illustrate this perception of Brazilian public power and, at the same time, highlight the timeliness of Carolina Maria de Jesus’ book.