Power relations in “Melhor não contar” by Tatiana Salem Levy

Abstract

The labyrinthine narrative of Tatiana Salem Levy’s “Melhor não contar” (2024) interweaves elements of the author’s personal experience with reflections on female writing as an act of resistance against various patriarchal structures, against the perpetuation of sexual violence within and outside the family environment, and against the silencing of women. The novel’s aesthetic and compositional choices, which place it in the interstices between the public and the private, the literary and the real, challenging traditional conventions of literary legitimation, initially necessitate a literary analysis clarifying the implications of autofiction. Subsequently, this exercise moves towards its primary objective: an analysis of the complex power relations that permeate the novel, especially in the context of the silence imposed on victims of sexual harassment and domestic violence. To this end, specially constructed analytical models will be employed. It is believed that this exercise will contribute to the literary analysis of autofictional works by female authors, which nonetheless possess universal value.