Language and Labour Centrality in Quarto de Despejo

Language is essential to mankind and it is a means to interact with nature. Another important element in the discursive constitution of the subject is labour; through it men transform themselves and the surrounding society and this is one of the most ontologically salient features of it. In this sense, this article analysis the literary representation of language and labor world in Quarto de despejo, by Carolina Maria de Jesus. As a theoretical framework to discuss concepts of labour it is adopted Marx (1996); Engels (1990) and Lukács (2004) whose works investigate that universe.  Bakhtin/Volochínov (1986), to reflect on language; Bosi (2002), to analyze literature as a field of resistance and Candido (1976), to consider the interactions between text and context. As a result of this investigation, it was concluded that language, represented by the work of a writer, has a central role in the life of Carolina, because it is through language that the author develops a social critique of the oppressive scenario in which she lives, transcending it in a certain measure. Carolina's work, garbage collector, is not an element of satisfaction in her life, but a meaningless activity and worthless human. However it is through the precarious work universe that language constitutes itself, unfolding as a hybrid between the material world and literary expedients.