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Narrating Torture in the Military Dictatorship: An Electrical History

Since the military dictatorship that ruled Brazil from 1964 to 1985 began systematically using torture against political dissidents, depictions of torture in films and literature have highlighted one of the most common forms of torture used during this period: electroshock. I contend that, despite the relatively low energy requirements of torture by electroshock, whether through electrical appliances or manually generated by cranks, the representation of electricity as always and necessarily excessive constitutes one of the most paradigmatic forms through which its presence becomes symbolically visible in the cultural production of the late twentieth century. This chapter reads scenes of torture by electroshock, which rely on the steady supply of electrical energy that underpins everyday life in the Great Acceleration, in order to investigate how narratives of torture by electroshock have changed over time. In particular, I demonstrate how the implementation of electroshock typically disrupts the capacity for verbal articulation in prisoners, leading to the emergence of a highly specific narrative grammar. I concentrate on two pivotal moments: the first is the intensification of repression in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when torture suddenly appears in narratives, as seen in Lygia Fagundes Telles’s novel Girl in the Photograph (1973) and Júlio Bressane’s marginal cinema work, Killed his Family and Went to the Movies (1969). The second period begins with the 1979 Amnesty Law, which paved the way for a significant number of testimonial writings and fictional works that addressed the issue of torture in a more comprehensive and systematic manner. I discuss the testimonial narrative Baptism by Blood (1982), authored by Carlos Alberto Libânio Christo, also known as Frei Betto, and the fictional film Go Forward, Brazil (1982), directed by Roberto Farias. By exploring the discrepancy between the small amount of energy required for torture and the intensity of electroshocks, This chapter presents a theoretical framework for understanding the gap between large-scale energy production and individual experience.

The talk will be followed by a response from the materia team. 

materia's theme this year is Energies of Energy, a meta-critical reflection on the emerging field of Energy Humanities in conversation with the traditional toolkit of literary and cultural criticism. The group is supported by the Research Unit of the Division of Literatures, Cultures, and Languages (DLCL). Saramago's visit is part of a multi-year series that examines various currents of anthropodecentric thought from a Latin Americanist and a comparative perspective.

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