Abstract
Since the 20th century, spatial displacement and migrations have occupied an important place among Brazilian letters. The characters of such narratives deal with difficult situations, challenging them to self-discovery in order to bear with experiences of estrangement, coldness and indifference from the Other and the separation from national land and culture. Beyond the geographical transits, these characters deal with subjective displacement in which they are exiled even from themselves. This article analyzes these aspects in the short story “Requiem for a loner” by Samuel Rawet, in which the main character, a European Jew living in Brazil, experiences not only the isolation of the immigrant, but more poignantly, the loneliness of the melancholic experience.
Keywords:
Jewish migration; melancholy; Samuel Rawet; Requiem for a loner