Love in uppercase, brazil in lowercase: the love letters written by Ana Cristina Cesar during the dictatorship in Brazil (1964–1985)

Abstract

Amor mais que maiúsculo (2022) brings together letters from young Ana Cristina Cesar, written from 1969 to 1971, to her boyfriend Luiz Augusto Ramalho. Through these letters it is possible to infer certain perspectives of Ana C. Cesar's biography, at the same time as one can observe the artificial elements present in her correspondence, making life and work inseparable. Thus, the themes of the letters, in addition to the love between young people that drives all of the author's epistolary writing, are subjects such as, for example: art, music, her artistic process and literary/academic research, her friendships and processes of readings, both about literature and history and politics. The interest of this work is based on addressing the romantic relationship between Ana and Augusto, taking a look at how this relationship is fused with the political problems in Brazil at that time. It is therefore proposed, through the multiple forms of Ana Cristina Cesar's epistolary writing, to analyze how these two themes are opposed, and at the same time, homologous.