1O May — Brazilian Literature Day was the day chosen to celebrate national literature because, on this date, commemorate-ifalso the birthday of writer José de Alencar. It is a day, therefore, to praise the work of this author, and also to undertake actions that can encourage the reading of national works, as Brazil has great titles and authors, such as Lady, by José de Alencar; stubborn gift, by Machado de Assis; storage room, by Carolina Maria de Jesus; star hour, by Clarice Lispector; among so many others.
Read too: March 21 — World Poetry Day
Origin of the Day of Brazilian Literature
The Day of Brazilian Literature was created in honor of the writer José de Alencar, what born in 1O of May 1829, in Messejana, in the state of Ceará. In addition to being a writer, he was a lawyer, journalist and politician. He was affiliated with the Conservative Party and was deputy general for Ceará, as well as minister of justice, from 1868 to 1870.
Your first novel,
Five minutes, was published in 1856. However, his best known and most popular works are: the guaraní (1857), luciola (1862), iracema (1865) and Lady (1875). It's the main and most versatile novelist of the romanticism Brazilian, with Indianist, urban, regionalist and historical novels. He also wrote for the theater, with relevant pieces such as the familiar devil (1857) and the wings of an angel (1860).In his works, in addition to following the characteristics of the romantic aesthetic, he dared to create strong and independent female characters, as Aurelia Camargo, from Lady, and Iracema, from the homonymous novel. We must also mention another character in social inferiority situation, Peter, of the play the familiar devil, a young slave who leaves his place of being oppressed to exercise power of manipulation in the family of his owners.
José de Alencar, writer who inspired the young man Machado de Assis (which today is considered the greatest or one of the greatest Brazilian writers), Died inDecember 12, 1877, in Rio de Janeiro, victim of tuberculosis, a disease that took the lives of some romantic authors. To learn more about the life and work of this honored author, read: José de Alencar.
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What is celebrated on the Day of Brazilian Literature?
On the Day of Brazilian Literature, writer José de Alencar's birthday is celebrated. Thus, it is a date for libraries, schools, publishers, public agencies and other institutions that disseminate national literature to hold events that discuss or focus on the works of José de Alencar. It is, therefore, a day to encourage reading the works of this author.
However, although it is a date that pays homage to José Alencar, it is also, and mainly, a date that pays tribute toBrazilian literature as a whole. It is time to reflect on the history of Brazilian literature, its evolution, and publicize your classic authors, in addition to encouraging the reading of works by contemporary writers.
Also access: April 18 - National Children's Book Day
Brazilian Literary Movements
Brazilian literature has been built since the Portuguese discovery of Brazil in 1500. Actually, indigenous oral literature already existed, before the arrival of European settlers. However, due to political issues of colonization, this literature was disregarded and, for centuries, received no encouragement. Currently, however, some indigenous authors, such as Daniel Munduruku, begin to have visibility.
Official Brazilian literature, then, began with works written in Brazil by Portuguese colonizers. So, the Letter from Pero Vaz de Caminha (1450-1500) is the first work of Brazilian literature. Then, our literature was built through the assimilation of European literary movements, copied or adapted to national elements. Reality that started to change at the end of brazilian modernism.
Thus, we can point out the following movements that are part of the history of Brazilian literature:
16th century (1500-1601).
Baroque (1601-1768).
Arcadianism (1768-1836).
Romanticism (1836-1881).
Realism (1881-1902).
Naturalism (1881-1902).
Parnassianism (1881-1902).
Symbolism (1893-1902).
pre-modernism (1902-1922).
Modernism (1922-1945).
Postmodernism or third generation modernist (1945-1978).|1|
Contemporary literature (from the 1970s onwards).|2|
See too: April 2 — International Children's Book Day
Big names in Brazilian literature
It is possible to say that Brazilian literature is, in fact, beginning to have a national brandfrom the poetry of the baroque poet Gregory of Matos(1636-1696), although some critics point to romanticism as the starting point of true Brazilian literature. Anyway, Boca do Inferno, as it was called, is the first big name in our literature. O Fr. António Vieira (1608-1697) must also be considered, however, he is an author belonging to both Brazilian and Portuguese literature.
Besides them, Brazilian literature is full of great authors and authors of classic and contemporary works. However, we will cite just a few:
Arcadianism: Tomás António Gonzaga (1744-1810) and Cláudio Manuel da Costa (1729-1789).
Romanticism: Gonçalves Dias (1823-1864), Álvares de Azevedo (1831-1852), Castro Alves (1847-1871) and José de Alencar (1829-1877).
Realism: Machado de Assis (1839-1908).
Naturalism: Aluísio Azevedo (1857-1913).
Parnassianism: Olavo Bilac (1865-1918).
Symbolism: Cruz e Sousa (1861-1898).
pre-modernism: Lima Barreto (1881-1922) and Augusto dos Anjos (1884-1914).
Modernism: Oswald de Andrade (1890-1954), Mário de Andrade (1893-1945), Manuel Bandeira (1886-1968), Carlos Drummond de Andrade (1902-1987), Cecília Meireles (1901-1964), Jorge Amado (1912-2001), Graciliano Ramos (1892-1953), Erico Verissimo (1905-1975), Cora Coralina (1889-1985), Mario Quintana (1906-1994) and Raquel de Queiroz (1910-2003).
Postmodernism or third generation modernist: Clarice Lispector (1920-1977), João Guimarães Rosa (1908-1967), Ferreira Gullar (1930-2016) and João Cabral de Melo Neto (1920-1999).
contemporary literature: Paulo Leminski (1944-1989), Caio Fernando Abreu (1948-1996), Arnaldo Antunes (1960-), Conceição Evaristo (1946-), Ana Cristina Cesar (1952-1983) and Carolina Maria de Jesus (1914-1977)|3|.
Read too: April 23 - World Book Day
Works from Brazilian literature that you cannot miss
We will comment here on eight books that you cannot miss, among the countless great Brazilian literary works.
1. Lady, by José de Alencar
Urban romance of Brazilian romanticism, Lady (1875), by José de Alencar, is another of the author's works in which a strong female character is The protagonist. In this story, Aurelia Camargo, rich and independent, “buys” a husband, Fernando Seixas, to get revenge.
Despite the character's vindictive character, she also carries elements of romantic idealization, such as kindness in helping a friend in a financially unfavorable situation; purity, by keeping her virginity even after her marriage to Seixas; and intelligence, even though this was not a feminine characteristic valued by romantic authors in the 19th century.
2. Dom Casmurro, by Machado de Assis
The work Dom Casmurro (1899), by Machado de Assis, is ironic in its own construction, for it deceives the naive and romantic reader and reader, to surprise or mock them in the end. That's because the book starts with the love story between teenagers Bentinho and Capitu. As in romantic works, their love faces a difficulty, an obstacle: Bentinho must be a priest to fulfill a promise from his mother.
The book, therefore, seems to be romantic. Until the narrator breaks the readers' expectations and shows a realistic work, in which the Jealous Bentinho suspects that his wife has betrayed-O with his best friend, even having a child in this extramarital adventure. It will be up to the reader and the reader to trust the judgment of this jealous man or to question his certainties.
3. Macunaíma, by Mario de Andrade
The importance of Macunaíma (1928), of Mario de Andrade, is in your successful attempt to show the Brazilian identity. Thus, the hero without any character also represents a negative facet of the Brazilian people, without romantic idealization with which the work dialogues, since the romantic Indian was idealized, while the Macunaíma Indian is not.
The work is also important for rescue the origin of Brazilian culture, that is, the indigenous culture, without, however, leaving aside the foreign influences that forged our mixed identity.
4. The time and the wind, by Erico Verissimo
the trilogy The time and the wind, in Erico Verissimo, is composed of the books “O Continente” (1949), in two volumes, “The Portrait” (1951), in two volumes, and “O Archipelago” (1961), in three volumes. These novels narrate 200 years of the history of Rio Grande do Sul through the members of the Earth and Cambará families.
This is a saga full of emotion and adventure, without losing the political perspective inherent to the 1930s generation of brazilian modernism.
5. Grande sertão: paths, by João Guimarães Rosa
The book Grande sertão: paths (1956), of João Guimaraes Rosa, is narrated by ex-jagunço Riobaldo. A work no division into chapters, with streams of consciousness and many neologisms, which tells the story of Riobaldo and Diadorim, against the backdrop of the war between jagunços in the Old Republic.
Riobaldo carries two anguish: the pact he made with the devil and the love he feels for a man, that is, Reinaldo (or Diadorim).
6. storage room, by Carolina Maria de Jesus
The work storage room (1960), of Carolina Mary of Jesus, has the subtitle: “diary of a favelada”. In this work, with a stripped language, the author reports her daily life in the Canindé favela, in São Paulo, from 1955 to 1960. This black and slum dweller manages, with her diary, to project her voice throughout Brazil and also to foreign lands, as her book has been published in several countries. In this diary, Carolina Maria de Jesus talks about misery, of preconception, discrimination, hunger and his love for literature.
7. star hour, by Clarice Lispector
Last novel (or novel) of Clarice Lispector, star hour (1977) tells the story of Macabéa, a poor northeastern typist in Rio de Janeiro. The character is the portrait ofexistential emptiness very typical of postmodernity. As expressed by the narrator Rodrigo S. M.: “She just lives, breathing in and out, breathing in and out. [...] Her life is thin”.
In fact, what draws most attention in the work is its character metalinguistic. The narrator, created by Clarice Lispector (the author), is a character who will discuss with the reader the process of creating a book and its characters.
8. at your feet, by Ana Cristina Cesar
the book of poetry of Ana Cristina Cesar, at your feet (1982), has its poetic character centered on the fragmentary strangeness of everyday life and in multi-meaning, a poetry that is, without needing to be labeled:
summary
Polly Kellog and driver Osmar.
Fast but intense dramas.
Frames of my conceptual heart.
I hope it falls navy blue.
I swallow insults but with sincerity.
Sonsa with common sense.
Aerial of the square.
Savings artist.
Absolutely blind.
Horny maybe.
Puddle jumpers.
Mouth watering.
Angel that registers.
Grades
|1| There is still no consensus on the existence of a postmodernist literature or style. If, on the one hand, some scholars consider authors such as Clarice Lispector and João Guimarães Rosa as producers of prose postmodernist, therefore, postmodernist, on the other hand, there are those who consider these authors as belonging to a third phase. modernist. Thus, if there is a Brazilian postmodernism, it begins in 1945, with the end of modernism, and ends in 1978, after the death of Clarice Lispector. In any case, everything is still just speculation.
|2| Some scholars consider that contemporary Brazilian literature began in the 1970s. For others, contemporary literature is still (or also) postmodernist.
|3| Carolina Maria de Jesus is difficult to classify when it comes to period style, as the writer lived outside not only society but also official literature. The marginal character and representation of minorities, marked in his works, is much more consistent with what is currently being produced, when there is an appreciation of the so-called literature peripheral. Thus, Carolina Maria de Jesus can be considered one of his forerunners. Therefore, she was ahead of her time.
by Warley Souza
Literature teacher
