This article discusses two great conceptions about literature of testimony. One of them grows up from the Latin American literature; the other, from the thought on shoah, a largely employed word for holocaust. Both see mimesis as the essence of literature, but have different understandings about whether literature can represent reality - they even elaborate antagonic interpretative hypothesis about the literary production related to the concept of testimony. Despite that antagonism, at late the concept has always addressed to the relation between literature and violence.
Literature of Testimony; State; Violence