The novel is a genre that is difficult to understand.

Unlike the classic genres, it does not have

a defined canon, other than as a character, an immutable hero. The character in the novel
represents the mutability of the human being, its differences over time and its psychological
complexity. It is a genre that takes into account the unique subjectivity of the reader and the
subjectivity of the work itself, based on the social and historical context in which they are
located. The individual is not just a reality, but a pattern of vision. In this context a work The
Flamethrowers by Rachel Kushner,is included, which presents what was theorized by
Mikhail Bakhtin: the discursive plurality.
The work is elaborated from multiple discursive layers. Polyphony is one of the main
elements, which allows the reader to enter different stories and different possibilities, passing
through a Reno individuality, obtaining a chance to get to know each character up close.
Bakhtin introduces the question of the characters' interior monologue and its hybridization,
highlighting other forms of the speech: direct speech and indirect speech. With this, it
reinforces the idea of ​the character's role in the novel: stratifying the language and allowing
for plurivocality. Therefore, plurilingualism is consolidated as responsible for introducing the
discourse and vision of the other. Having as an analysis the voice of the character Reno, it is a
silent voice, which does not refute, reflect or infer about matters of extreme political
importance, but waits for the voice of the other to speak for it. At various times in the book,
the narrator, or a character with a Reno consciousness, now omniscient to narrate the
consciousness of other characters, tells the events in which a female figure from Reno proves
to be static and submissive. It starts with small events, machismos such as the passage in
which, in order to get a place to sleep, the owner of the establishment offers a drink:
‘’Respond I said no and left. Outside the motel reception, another man approached me.’Hey’
he said. - ‘This guy is an asshole. This was all bullshit.’’ (Kushner, Rachel: 2013.22). In this
passage in question, a character does not speak or reflect on the absurdity of the machismo he
lived, but there is an insertion of another character, who will be the salvation of his night's
sleep and, moreover, it is the voice that demonstrates irritability and non-submission to
machismo.The character himself experiences the situation of oppression, but he is a man who
speaks for it. In this context, the historicity of the narrative is inserted. As much as the
feminist movement gained strength at the time, it was men who continued to speak for
women. It then intensifies with reflections on social status and how Reno should live his life.
A character is objectified for being young, at various times, mainly by Sandro, as
characterized in the excerpt: "You don't need to become an artist right away," Sandro said. -
You have the luxury of time. It's young. Young people are always doing something
thing even when they're not doing anything. A young woman is a conduit.
It just needs to exist. You have time. I mean, I don't use it, go through it patiently,
waiting for something to happen. (Kushner, Rachel. 2013.36) ’’ And right after, his personal
voice and vision: ‘’ Prepare for his arrival. No need to run to find it. Be a conduit. I believed
him. I felt that was true. Some people might consider this passivity, but I don't ’’(Kushner,
Rachel. 2013.37). Reno's individuality demonstrates a pattern of submissive view of women
at the time.
Reno is considered different from others for getting involved with the speed of motorcycles
and the possibility of political protocol through his art. Since she was a little girl, she shows
different interests and admits this: ’As a girl, I loved Flip Farmer like other girls loved ponies,
ice skating or Paul McCartney. Above my bed, there was a poster with Flip next to his car,
the Victory of Samothrace. flip with your breakfast cereal smile, zippered running suit made
of a tough metallic blue fabric that exhibited a lilac hue at the folds in some.
angles, and vanilla ice cream-colored tying running boots. ’’(Kushner, Rachel. 2013.33).
However, her voice is based on that of the other characters, there is always someone who
speaks for her.
The dialogism between author and reader is done through the narrator. The novel, by
receiving the language already stratified, subdivided into different languages, is full of
speakers who introduce their ideological discourse and their own language. Your originality
resides in the person who speaks your word. This can be seen at two different times:
1st – fictionality is based on the artistic representation of the speaker's speech by the author's
speech; 2nd - the speaker, without romance, discovers himself by his social individuality,
historically concrete and defined. Thus, his discourse is a social language, albeit virtual, that
allows for plurilingualism. The fictionality of the book is based on the historical context of
the USA in 1970:‘’A realidade econômica interna dos Estados Unidos apresentava os
seguintes dados: 1) Em 1964, o orçamento da União destinado ao Departamento de Defesa
era de 41,8%; 2) Já em 1968, o gasto com defesa aumentou para 43,3% representando 9,9%
do PIB;’’ 4) Em 1967, além do acréscimo de US$ 9 bilhões, as despesas militares no exterior
também aumentaram em US$ 800 milhões; 5) O déficit dos Estados Unidos em 1970 era de
US$ 9,8 bilhões e 6) A inflação que em 1961 era de 1,5% subiu para 4,7% em 1968/69. Após
a Segunda Guerra o PIB americano que representava 34% da produção mundial caiu para
abaixo de 30% em 1971. Além desse complexo cenário, o enfraquecimento do dólar diante da
ruptura do padrão dólar-ouro, também desencadeou uma série de consequências negativas’’
(BANDEIRA, 2006: 298). It is a book about the emerging neoliberalism of the time,
represented in the speech of the character-announcer Sandro so that the author's speech is
expressed. Sandro is the son of T.P Valera, a playboy who studies Art in Rome and then
voluntarily enlists in the Arditi. This is the Italian motorized shock battalion that operates in
the First World War, to which Gabriele d'Annunzio belonged and was a great inspiration for
Mussolini. Valera's story is told according to the futuristic aesthetic of valuing machines and
speed. The character Reno is the announcer who demonstrates the social reality of the time.
For Laura Muller, a character's voice is erased as well as a criticism erased in Rachel's voice.
The book is, at its foundation, feminist. It demonstrates the erasure of the voice of a female
character and the plurality of voices that speak for her. There are few passages in which
Reno's vision is demonstrated without having the other's vision as a guide, or in which the
other characters do not speak for her. According to the above, a narrative of The
Flamethrowers, as a result of a reflexive and critical attitude, questions the absolutism of a
single language and of postulating itself as the voice of living reality, of humanity, of the
multiplicity of styles and voices, not which simultaneously the self and the other appear. In
this context, dialogue is served, as the speech of the other is the voice that must be thought of
as another.
This discourse, however, comes from a view of male superiority in relation to the erasure of
the female voice, through the character Reno. There is the treatment of emerging political
currents and the criticism of capitalism, but above all the demonstration of the consequences
of machismo in practice, through the voice of the characters.
REFERENCES
Kushner, Rachel. The Flamethrowers. Scribner, 2013.
BAKHTIN, Mikhail.Questões de literatura e de estética: a teoria do romance. São Paulo :
HUCITEC , 1990.
MONIZ BANDEIRA, Luiz Alberto.Formação do Império Americano . 2ª ed. Rio de
Janeiro: Civilização Brasileira, 2006.
Laura Miller, “Rachel Kushner’s Ambitious New Novel Scares Male Critics,” Salon
(May 5, 2013), http://www.salon.com/2013/06/05/rachel_kushners_ambitious_new_novel
_scares_male_critics/.