Cartas de família: um estudo sobre as narrativas autobiográficas de Emil e Bertha Odebrecht

Abstract

This work consists of analyzing a set of letters by Emil and Bertha Odebrecht, written between 1862 and 1892. Both were German immigrants who settled in Colônia Blumenau, in Santa Catarina, at the beginning of the second half of the 19th century, where they met and formed a large family. The letters were published in 2006, attached to the book written by Rolf Odebrecht and Renate Sybille Odebrecht, entitled “Cartas de família: ensaio biográfico de Emil Odebrecht e ensaio biográfico de seu filho Oswaldo Odebrecht Sênior”. The book contains 32 letters from Emil's family and 23 letters from Bertha, translated and edited. Emil writes for his sister and mother, who lived in Germany, as well as for his wife Bertha, in Blumenau, as he always traveled to fulfill his duties as an engineer and surveyor. Bertha writes for his mother-in-law and sisters-in-law in Germany. In this work, we intend to analyze the construction of the subjects (man / husband / son / brother, woman / sister-inlaw / daughter-in-law) Emil and Bertha, the social relationships involved in correspondence, the association between self-writing and (inter) subjectivity. We also tried to understand how the authors wrote while e / immigrants and how the identifications remain and / or are reconfigured over time. In this process, we realized a several meaning of the letters. They were the main means of communication between the family in Blumenau and their homeland, but also communication between family members in the interior of Brazil. We assume that, when writing about himself in his letters, the emissary conceives subjectivities in the relationships he establishes with his recipients. The content, language and form of the letters are mediated by these relationships, which include, in particular, issues of gender and kinship. For this, we consider the conditions of writing and sending, the narrative sequence and the language used in those letters.