Arian Suassuna was a Brazilian writer and playwright, author of Compadecida's Report, considered his masterpiece that was adapted for film and television.
In addition to being a renowned writer and one of the greatest in Brazil, Ariano was a professor and creator of the Armorial Movement that valued popular arts.
In this movement, the artists aimed to create high art from elements of popular culture in the Northeast.
Suassuna was the occupant of chair number 32 at the Academia Brasileira de Letras (elected in 1989). He was also a member of the Academia Pernambucana de Letras (since 1993) and the Academia Paraibana de Letras (elected in 2000).
Biography
Ariano Vilar Suassuna was born on June 16, 1927, in the city of João Pessoa, Paraíba.
He was born into a wealthy family, as his father, João Suassuna, was president of the state, a position that later becomes governor.
With the murder of his father in the midst of the Revolution of 1930, the family moved to Taperoá and later to Campina Grande, both cities in Paraíba.
As a teenager he went to live in Recife, capital of Pernambuco. There, he was a law student at the Federal University of Pernambuco, graduating in 1950.
During his undergraduate years, he writes his first stage play “A Woman Dressed in the Sun” and with her he received the Nicolau Carlos Magno award.
Together with Hermilo Barbosa Filho, he founded the “Teatro do Estudante de Pernambuco”. This creation was the key to writing more plays, which were staged on site.
He even worked in the field of law, however, he did not let go of his passion for writing. So he continued writing plays and novels.
He married Zélia de Andrade Lima Suassuna in 1957 and with her they had six children.
Marriage of Ariano Suassuna and Zélia Suassuna
Suassuna as a teacher
Back in Recife, he began teaching “Aesthetics” at the Federal University of Pernambuco, in 1956.
Still in this profession, he continued to work in dramaturgy and three years later founded the "Teatro Popular do Nordeste", also with the support of Hermilo Barbosa Filho.
He remained acting as a professor for years and in 1994 retired from the Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE).
Show-class by Ariano Suassuna at the opening of the National Book Fair of Ribeirão Preto (2013)
Suassuna and the Armorial Movement
Many of his works were focused on popular literature.
Linked to these themes, Suassuna was a founding member of the Federal Council of Culture, a position he held from 1967 to 1973.
Parallel to this, he was part of the Pernambuco State Council of Culture between 1968 and 1972.
From 1969 to 1974 he served as director of the Department of Cultural Extension at UFPE.
From 1970 onwards, he headed the “Armory Movement”, focusing on popular expressions. The central idea was to bring out folklore and popular arts and give scholarly value to the themes.
This movement includes various artistic manifestations such as music, dance, plastic arts, literature, theater, cinema, etc. According to him:
“I am in favor of the internationalization of culture, but not putting an end to local and national peculiarities.”
Awards
Ariano Suassuna receives the necklace from writer Rachel de Queirós at the ABL (Brazilian Academy of Letters) in São Paulo.
Suassuna received the National Fiction Award in 1973 and the Conrado Wessel Foundation (FCW) award in 2008.
Fur Compadecida's Report won the gold medal from the Brazilian Association of Theater Critics.
He received the title of Doctor Honoris Causa by the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte.
He also received it from the Universities: Federal University of Paraíba (2002); Federal Rural University of Pernambuco (2005); University of Passo Fundo (2005); and Federal University of Ceará (2006).
Death
Ariano Suassuna died on July 23, 2014, in Recife, Pernambuco, victim of cardiac arrest.
This occurred after being admitted with a stroke (cerebrovascular accident). The writer from Paraíba was 87 years old.
Construction
Suassuna wrote essays, novels, dramaturgies and poems. Most of his work is related to northeastern elements.
Thus, Suassuna explores regional speech and part of Brazilian folklore. The writer has a vast work of which the following deserve mention:
- A Woman Dressed in the Sun (1947)
- Sing the Harps of Zion or The Deserter of Princess (1948)
- The Clay Men (1949)
- Act of João da Cruz (1950)
- Tortures of a Heart (1951)
- The Punishment of Pride (1953)
- The Rich Miser (1954)
- Court Report (1955)
- The Suspicious Marriage (1957)
- The Saint and the Nut (1957)
- Cow Man and the Power of Fortune (1958)
- The Penalty and the Law (1959)
- Good Sloth Farce (1960)
- The Housekeeper and Catarina (1961)
- The Romance of The Stone of the Kingdom and the Prince of the Blood of the Come-and-Volta (1971)
Suasuna's Phrases
- “I don't exchange my oxente for anyone's ok!”
- “You can write without spelling mistakes, but still writing in colloquial language.”
- “The optimist is a fool. The pessimist, a bore. Good thing is to be a hopeful realist.”
- “Art for me is not a market product. Call me romantic. Art for me is mission, vocation and party.”
- “The dream is what takes us forward. If we are going to follow the reason, we remain quiet, accommodated.”
Read too:
- Contemporary Brazilian Literature
- Third Generation Modernist
- Literature of twine
