The grafts of Silviano Santiago and Jacques Derrida

Abstract

This essay discusses the notion of grafting, which permeates, in different ways, both the critical and fictional work of Silviano Santiago, primarily anchored in his reading of Jacques Derrida. Following the trace left by this concept since Menino sem passado (2021), we encounter grafting as an operator to understand the Santiago family composition and also as an operative metaphor corresponding to the father's gardening technique, used to characterize the alliances that emerge in the formation of the traditional Minas Gerais family. In the end, the essay establishes a cross-analysis of the memoir productions of Drummond and Silviano, mediated by the gesture of grafting, the appropriation of fragments from other texts, and writing as a consequence of reading.