Is this a novel?

Abstract

We propose, in this work, an analysis of Eles Eram Muitos Cavalos (2001/2006), by the contemporary Brazilian writer Luiz Ruffato. We try to problematize the possible configuration of the work as a “literary installation”, a term used by the author himself. By presenting this way of doing literary work, Ruffato proposes a reflection on Brazilian social ills from a decentered critical perspective, far from any nationalistic bias. Heir to modern poetics, such as Mallarmean and European avant-gardes, the author configures a poetics, structured in a mosaic of textual genres, capable of apprehending and refracting the dynamic atmosphere of the contemporary world. To develop this analysis, focused mainly on the work’s aesthetic propositions, we recovered the concept of installation, used in Visual Arts, as well as theoretical studies aimed at analyzing the relationship between literature and other arts, developed by authors such as Marjorie Perloff, Márcia Arbex, and Maria Adélia Menegazzo.