Dos esquadrões da morte ao PCC: a criminalidade paulistana e suas representações nos livros-reportagem de Percival de Souza (1973 – 2006)

Abstract

The narratives in São Paulo’s urban landscape intersect with Percival’s written works, as a famous crime journalist who was also a practitioner of literary journalism, which came about circa 1970, in the United States. During his journey, he portrayed the city of São Paulo in report books about criminal activity, as well as the conditions inside “Carandiru” prison, the Death Squads, legal age, the judiciary madhouse and the criminal group “Primeiro Comando da Capital” ( Capital’s First Command, PCC for short). Still within this literary genre, he published the biographies of deputy officer Sérgio Paranhos Fleury, and infiltrated agent José Anselmo dos Santos. Analysing all 14 literary works that deal with these topics is the objective of this research, which delves into this urban literature written by a crime journalist. Percival Souza’s work provides an opportunity to understand the path through representations of São Paulo’s criminality within the contexts of political transition, whose narratives about criminality have been employed in legitimizing or invalidating several areas of public administration. The intent is to shed some light over public safety’s problematic state, as referred to by Percival de Souza between 1973 and 2006 in his works, seeking to comprehend the city’s representations, its characters and territories