Invisibility, human rights, and capabilities approach in the novel "Vidas secas", by Graciliano Ramos

Abstract

In contemporary moral philosophy, a common topic of discussion is the accentuation of plurality and difference. This is the opposite of what happened during the Enlightened Modernity, when equality and universality were ensured. The confrontation of these two views generates a frequent and challenging issue: the suffering caused by the invisibility of moral beings when their idea of happiness socially fails. To be invisible is to feel the way the character Fabiano felt when facing the yellow soldier, in the metaphor and with the characters created by Graciliano Ramos to criticize the absence of inclusive politics and of dignity promotion for the people living in the Sertão hinterlands in Northeastern Brazil. It means to be denied of the recognition, as a person, of what one believes to be an excellent life. This paper challenges us to reflect on that, with the main objective of finding, in such multicultural times, new perspectives to understand Human Rights. We develop a bibliographic review, firstly based on Sen and Nussbaum (two authors that criticize the modern contractualism and its conception of justice), in dialogue with the capabilities approach. Then, we seek in the Brazilian novel Vidas Secas (published in English as Barren Lives) for the most privileged inspiration for this reflection. The methodology used highlights a bibliographic, interdisciplinary analysis of Law, Literature, and Philosophy, with the suggestion of a new perspective of legal learning.