Theological Reflection from Quarto de Despejo by Carolina Maria de Jesus

Abstract

This essay presents a proposal for a theological reading of Quarto de despejo: diário de uma favelada (2014), by writer Carolina Maria de Jesus (1914-1977). In this work, from her perspective as someone who lives in the favela, the author writes about the misery and unfortunate lives of this social group, recounting the bitter reality of favela dwellers in the 1950s in São Paulo’s first large favela, Canindé, marked by violence, misery, hunger, and difficulties in obtaining food. To this end, in line with Karl-Josef Kuschel’s purpose of Theopoetics – according to which, initially, the author is allowed to speak in her literary diction, and then the theologian takes a position on what she says – we have selected some fragments from Quarto de despejo. Therefore, we will present a proposal for theological reading, as an interdisciplinary reflection in the fields of Theology and Literature, based on these literary fragments by Carolina de Jesus in dialogue with Christian theologians in Latin America, especially the theologian Gustavo Gutiérrez, who, in Densidad del presente (1996), presents us with a profound theological question: “How can we tell the poor, the oppressed, the insignificant, that God loves them?”.

KEYWORDS: Theology. Literature. Carolina Maria de Jesus.