RIGHT TO MEMORY, GEOGRAPHY OF CONFLICT: THE DECOLONIAL NARRATIVE OF THE AMAZON IN “LOYALTY” BY MÁRCIO SOUZA

Abstract

Between fallible memory and the river as witness, the Amazonian identity reinvents itself at the colonial crossroads. This study aimed to analyze the construction of post-colonial identity in Márcio Souza's work "Lealdade" through a dialectical discussion (thesis-antithesis-synthesis) that highlights the conflict between the internalization of the Eurocentric ideal and the emergence of an Amazonian regional consciousness, taking the trajectory and crises of the protagonist Fernando as its central axis. The methodology is based on qualitative content analysis, viewed through a dialectical lens. The analysis of the post-colonial identity construction in "Lealdade" reveals a dialectical process embodied in Fernando's trajectory. Initially, the protagonist incorporates the colonial thesis by idealizing Portugal and disparaging Amazonian customs. The antithesis emerges from his concrete experiences in the region and his contact with libertarian ideas, triggering a crisis that strains his loyalties. The synthesis is configured not as a resolution, but as a hybrid identity-in-the-making: Fernando embraces the Caban cause but remains marked by contradiction. This trajectory demonstrates that post-colonial identity in the Amazon is constituted through four key pillars: fallible memory as a political instrument, territory as an agent of conflict, cultural polyphony as resistance, and the right to memory as reparation. Thus, the work reveals that decolonization is a permanent process of negotiation between European heritage and regional emergence, where the individual crisis mirrors the collective conflict for self-determination.