The literary work of Cornélio Pena (1896-1958) represented a deviation from the large realist and social trend of the Brazilian novel of his time, not so much from the point of view of subject or characters but due to his unique style. In fact, the characters are dissolved throughout a story which is bound to extinguish because of the impossibility to put together a consistent plot. Alterity and strangeness for the other and the world develop in the interior of the struggle fought by dark forces against a background of decay which destroys the elite of the regions of a country affected by the wounds of slavery.
