Sanitized death: the transformations in the rodriguian’s wake

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to articulate a dialogue between Nelson Rodrigues' writings on death and funeral rites with the discussions undertaken by Edgar Morin, Philippe Ariès and Norbert Elias about the concealment of death in Western societies of the 20th century. Based on his memoirs and confessions published in the newspapers Correio da Manhã and O Globo in the 1960s, later compiled in books such as A menina sem estrela (1993a), O óbvio ululante (1993b) and A cabra vadia (2007), the work seeks to understand rodriguian's perception of changes in social practices and behaviors in the face of death in Rio de Janeiro in which he lived for decades.