This article studies the treatment Lima Barreto gives to the literary space in his work. Our central issue consists in sustaining that the presence of the suburbs in Barreto's work is the practice of a literature that the author called "activist literature". Therefore, we especially analyse the fictional work that takes the suburbs more closely as a theme. This is the case of the novels Clara dos Anjos and The Tragic Fate of Policarpo Quaresma.