Abstract
This paper intends to analyze the novel Pedro Maneta, that won the first national contest of novels and plays promoted by the Ministry of Labor, Industry and Commerce in 1942. Reflecting on the relation between history, literature and society, it takes the novel both as a product and a producer of its time and its context. Thus, the paper focuses on the Estado Novo and the central role played by the world of labor at the apex of this political regime, at the same time it foreshadowed its end.
Keywords:
labor; literature; Estado Novo; World War II