This dissertation analyzes the dysfunctional relationships of the protagonist families in three works by Brazilian writer Lúcio Cardoso (1912-1968). His fiction focuses on the extremes of domestic dysfunction and violent acts of transgression, challenging the conventional image of the Brazilian family as the site of comfort and support - particularly the conservative family in the state of Minas Gerais. My analysis views such relationships as an allegory of Brazilian society near the midpoint of the 20^th century and less than 50 years after Brazil's proclamation of the First Republic. Economically and politically, the country was attempting to modernize and industrialize, and yet because of rural strife and traditional if not archaic values, it experienced difficulties and obstacles in its path to "Order and Progress" - the 19^th-century positivist motto that Brazil adopted for its flag. It is in the midst of this struggle toward modernity that Cardoso wrote his books about tangled family ties and discontents.

Using the Family Systems Theory developed by psychologists Murray Bowen and Salvador Minuchin, I analyze the family structure in three works by Cardoso from three different decades: Salgueiro Hill, 1935; Inácio, 1944; and Chronicle of the Murdered House, 1959.