Tale of a certain contemporary: the case of milton hatoum

Abstract

Milton Hatoum has stood out as one of the great names in Brazilian literature. In his books, there are compositional strategies that problematize time and narration, while also thematically exploring writing as an effort to understand a world irremediably marked by ruins. With this essay, I investigate how his first novel, Relato de um certo Oriente (1989), sheds light on the different ways of mobilizing time
and history, destabilizing the most traditional conceptions of chronological time through a dialogue with Literary Theory, the Human Sciences and Contemporary Philosophy. I argue that this challenging character is a hallmark of contemporary literature, a multifaceted expression which, through the artist’s montage, brings out a conglomeration of times and spaces in the present.