Oswald de Andrade (1890-1954) was a Brazilian writer and playwright. She represents one of the main leaders in the process of implantation and definition of modernist literature in Brazil.
His performance was marked by his irreverent, controversial, ironic and combative spirit. She became a fundamental figure in the main events of Brazilian cultural life in the first half of the 20th century.
His work presents, in general, a nationalism that seeks its origins, without losing a critical view of the Brazilian reality.
Oswald defended critically valuing our origins, our cultural-historical past, parodying, mocking and updating our colonization history.
The novel was the prose genre that most aroused Oswald de Andrade's interest. The author debuted in prose in 1922, with the novel "The condemned". This is the first volume of the entitled exile trilogyo, which also incorporates the works "absinthe star" and "red ladder".
Biography
Oswald de Andrade was born in São Paulo, on January 11, 1890. He graduated in Law and joined a journalistic career.
In 1911 he started his literary life in the weekly newspaper “the brat”, which he founded and directed together with Alcântara Machado and Juó Bananère.
Son of a wealthy family, in 1912 he traveled to Europe. His stay in Paris, in addition to futuristic ideas, gave him a partner, Kamiá, mother of his first child born in 1914.
In 1917 he returned to São Paulo and in that same year, in his column in Jornal do Comércio, he defended Anita Malfatti against Monteiro Lobato's criticisms. He has an active participation in the 1922 Modern Art Week.
He travels again to Europe and in Paris, at the Sorbonne, gives the Conference "The Intellectual Effort of Contemporary Brazil".
He makes several friendships in the artistic world, which allows him to be in contact with the avant-garde currents. In Brazil, Oswald assumes the leadership role of the modernist movement.
Controversial, ironic, mocking man, he had a troubled life, he was the idealizer of the main modernist manifestos, among them, the Pau-Brasil Manifesto.
In 1926, he married Tarsila do Amaral, who illustrated his first book of poems, “Pau-Brasil”.
Together they found the anthropophagous movement, where he proposes, in literature and painting, that Brazil devour foreign culture and create its own revolutionary culture.
In 1929, he separated from Tarsila and broke up with his friend Mario de Andrade. In 1930, he married the writer and communist militant Patrícia Galvão (Pagu), with whom he had his second child. He militates in the working class and, in 1931, joins the Communist Party, in which he remains until 1945.
From this period are the most ideologically marked works, such as the "Manifesto Antropófago", the novel "Serafim Ponte Grande" and the theater play "O Rei da Vela".
In the field of theatre, Oswald debuted in 1916 with the plays Leur Âme and Mon Coeur Balance. Both were written in French in collaboration with the modernist poet Guilherme de Almeida.
The great contribution to national theater only took place in the 1930s, with the release of three important dramatic texts:
- “The Man and the Horse” (1934)
- “The King of the Sail” (1937)
- "The Dead" (1937)
In the play "O Rei da Vela", Oswald presents technical innovations and criticizes Brazilian society in the 60s. The play was only performed on stage in 1967-68, caused great repercussion at the time, contributing to the cultural effervescence that characterized the 60's.
Other marriages took place in the life of Oswald de Andrade. In 1936, he marries the poet Julieta Bárbara and, in 1944, with Maria Antonieta d’Aikmin, with whom he had two daughters.
After a long illness, Oswald died in São Paulo, on October 22, 1954.
Construction
- The Condemned, novel, 1922
- Sentimental Memories of João Miramar, novel, 1924
- Pau-Brasil Manifesto, 1925
- Pau-Brasil, poetry, 1925
- Absinthe Star, Novel, 1927
- First Poetry Notebook of the Student Oswald de Andrade, 1927
- Anthropophagous Manifesto, 1928
- Serafim Pontes Grande, novel, 1933
- The Man and the Horse, theater, 1934
- The Sailing King, theatre, 1937
- The Dead, theater, 1937
- Ground Zero I - The Melancholic Revolution, novel, 1943
- Arcadia ea Inconfidência, essay, 1945
- Spearhead, essay, 1945
- Marco Zero II - Floor, novel, 1946
- The Crisis of Messianic Philosophy, 1946
- King Floquinhos, theater, 1953
- A Man Without a Profession, memoirs, 1954
- The March of Utopias, manifesto
- Collected Poetry, (posthumous edition)
- Phone calls, chronicles, (posthumous edition)
poems
Check out three poems by Oswald de Andrade below:
Pronominals
give me a cigarette
says the grammar
from the teacher and the student
And from the known mulatto
But the good black and the good white
of the Brazilian nation
they say every day
leave it comrade
Give me a cigarette
Portuguese error
when the portuguese arrived
under a brutal rain
dressed the indian
What a pity!
it was a sunny morning
The Indian had undressed
The Portuguese.
Homeland corner
My land has palms
where the sea chirps
the birds here
They don't sing like the ones over there
My land has more roses
And almost more loves
My land has more gold
my land has more land
gold earth love and roses
I want everything from there
don't let god let me die
without going back there
don't let god let me die
Without going back to São Paulo
Without seeing 15th Street
And the progress of São Paulo.
Read too:
- First Generation Modernist - 1st Phase of Modernism
- Authors of the First Phase of Modernism in Brazil
