The literature with scissors in hands: about Brandão, Burroughs and Gysin

Zero, by Ignácio de Loyola Brandão, is a novel that generates discomfort and estrangement in its readers. Violence and chaos, both thematic and aesthetic, and its manner of composition: a collage of fragments and scraps, are elements that cause this estrangement. In this article, we propose that the experimental narrative voice that prevails in Zero text not only struggles against the Brazilian Military Dictatorship (the text’s historical context), but is also part of a lineage of works that, historically and in principle, are positioned against an oppressive discourse. Our critical dialogue focuses on the aesthetic and structural composition of Zero and its critical-political consequences. Therefore, we establish a correlation between this work and the experimental and libertarian literary technique developed by Burroughs and Gysin, proposing to read Zero as a type of cut-up novel.

Keywords:
Zero; Ignácio de Loyola Brandão; William Burroughs; Brion Gysin; cut-up