Child of the dark

revisiting the critique of Carlos Vogt

Abstract

Carolina Maria de Jesus is conquering her place in the Brazilian literary scene. The author, who lived fame and oblivion abruptly with the publication of Quarto de despejo 1960 [Child of the dark 1962], finds today, especially with the advent of the rescue and recovery of marginal literature, a space within literary studies. Thus, this paper aims to do a reading of Carlos Vogt's work in critical essay entitled Trabalho, pobreza e trabalho intellectual presented in the book Os pobres na literatura brasileira, edited by Robert Schwarz. Vogt’s critics focus into an analysis on poverty representation in the work of Carolina Maria de Jesus. In fact, more than representing poverty, the author experiences it daily and portrayed in her diary. Besides poverty, another important aspect of Vogt’s critics concerns about the esthetics in the book.