THE first phase of mbrazilian odernism, or first modernist generation in Brazil, is how the period of national literature became known, which went from 1922 (its starting point was the Semana de Arte Moderna) to 1930. The works of this phase are characterized by their innovative, anti-academic and nationalist character. Thus, the modernist movement in Brazil emerged during the end of the old republic and it showed the artists' discontent with national art and politics prevailing up to that moment.
Read more: first generation of romanticism — one of the main Brazilian literary movements
Abstract about the first phase of Brazilian modernism
The first phase of modernism Brazilian period lasted from 1922 to 1930.
brought to the literature innovation and reinterpreted the National symbols.
It emerged at the end of the Old Republic and reflected discontent with national politics.
It featured authors such as Oswald de Andrade, Mário de Andrade and Manuel Bandeira.
In addition to manifests such as Manifesto of brazilwood poetry
, produced works such as Macunaima and Sentimental memories of João Miramar.
Video lesson on the first phase of Brazilian modernism
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Historical context of the first phase of Brazilian modernism
Brazilian modernism emerged in the end of the so-called Old Republic or First Republic, a period in the history of Brazil that began in 1889 and ended in 1930. During much of it, the oligarchic government, dominated mainly by farmers of Sao Paulo and Minas Gerais.
THE café au lait policy, therefore, guaranteed that representatives of the agricultural elite of these two states would take turns in command of the Brazilian State. It must be remembered that the majority of the country's population was rural and dominated by farmers (or colonels), who perpetuated themselves in power.
O lieutenant movement, of a military nature, showed his dissatisfaction with the current regime through the Revolta do Forte de Copacabana, in 1922, and the Revolta Paulista, in 1924, in addition to the Prestes column, a movement that lasted from 1924 to 1927. In this context, the modernist movement emerged to show the political dissatisfaction and mostly artistic of several Brazilian artists.
Traditional art represented the old, the past, and modernists valued the new, the future. Therefore, they felt the need to rethink nationality and went to search for true Brazilian identity.
See too: What is the relationship between modernism and the First World War?
Features of the first modernist generation
The first phase of Brazilian modernism began in 1922 with the advent of Modern Art Week, an event that sought to renew national art and was based on the following European trends (european vanguards):
cubism;
surrealism;
Dadaism;
expressionism;
futurism.
So the call heroic phase or destruction phase (from the aesthetic values of the past) presented the following characteristics:
innovation;
boldness;
nationalism;
sociopolitical critique;
reinterpretation of national symbols;
search for Brazilian identity;
creative freedom;
formal freedom;
use of free verse;
appreciation of oral language;
defense of a Brazilian language;
anti-academicism.
This phase ended in 1930, giving space to the authors of the second generation, who could freely enjoy the achievements of their predecessors.
→ Video lesson about the Modern Art Week
Authors of the first modernist generation
Oswald de Andrade (1890-1954)
Mario de Andrade (1893-1945)
Manuel Bandeira (1886-1968)
Cassiano Ricardo (1895-1974)
Menotti del Picchia (1892-1988)
Plínio Salgado (1895-1975)
Ronald de Carvalho (1893-1935)
Guilherme de Almeida (1890-1969)
Alcantara Machado (1901-1935)
Interesting:Tarsila do Amaral, Anita Malfatti, Mário de Andrade, Oswald de Andrade and Menotti del Picchia were the artists and writers who were part of the Grupo dos Cinco as well as important collaborators in that first phase from 1922 to 1930.
Works of the first phase of Brazilian modernism
Manifesto of brazilwood poetry (1924), by Oswald de Andrade
Sentimental memories of João Miramar (1924), by Oswald de Andrade
Breed (1925), by Guilherme de Almeida
The foreigner (1926), by Plínio Salgado
all of america (1926), by Ronald de Carvalho
love, intransitive verb (1927), by Mario de Andrade
Macunaima (1928), by Mario de Andrade
Martim Cererê (1928), by Cassiano Ricardo
Republic of the United States of Brazil (1928), by Menotti del Picchia
Chinese orange (1928), by Alcântara Machado
anthropophagous manifesto (1928), by Oswald de Andrade
Manifesto of yellowish green or tapir school (1929), by Plínio Salgado, Cassiano Ricardo, Menotti del Picchia and other members of the green-yellow group
debauchery (1930), by Manuel Bandeira
Video lesson about Macunaima, by Mario de Andrade
Exercises solved on the first phase of Brazilian modernism
question 1
(And either)
Lovers
The boy approached the girl and said:
— Antonia, I still haven't gotten used to your body, to your face.
The girl looked aside and waited.
"Don't you know when you're a kid and all of a sudden you see a striped caterpillar?"
The girl remembered:
"We're watching...
The girl played in her eyes again.
The boy went on very sweetly:
— Antonia, you look like a striped caterpillar.
The girl widened her eyes, made exclamations.
The boy concluded:
— Antonia, you are funny! You look crazy.
Manuel Bandeira. Complete poetry & prose. Rio de Janeiro: Nova Aguilar, 1985.
In Bandeira's poem, an important representative of modernist poetry, it stands out as a characteristic of the literary school of that time.
A) the reiteration of words as a resource to build rich rhymes.
B) the expressive use of spoken language in everyday situations.
C) the creative symmetry of verses to reproduce the rhythm of the approached theme.
D) the choice of the theme of romantic love, characterizing the literary style of that time.
E) the use of dialogue, a discursive genre typical of realism.
Resolution:
Alternative B
In the text in question, the valorization of oral or spoken language is characteristic of the first phase of Brazilian modernism. Furthermore, there are no rich rhymes or symmetry of lines in the text. As for the characteristics of romanticism, they are linked to the literary tradition, fought by the modernists. Dialogue, on the other hand, is not a typical feature of the rrealism, and can be in any other period style.
question 2
(Enem) The discussion about grammar in the class is “hot”. Do Brazilians know grammar? The Portuguese teacher proposes the following text for debate:
for me to play
There is nothing better than the me subject of a verb in the infinite. For me to play. Cariocas who don't know grammar talk like that. All Brazilians should want to talk like cariocas who don't know grammar.
— The ugliest words in the Portuguese language are perhaps, elsewhere and miúde.
BANDEIRA, Manuel. Select in prose and verse. Organized by Emanuel de Moraes. 4. ed. Rio de Janeiro: José Olympio, 1986. for. 19.
With the teacher's guidance and after the debate on Manuel Bandeira's text, the students reached the following conclusion:
A) one of the most daring proposals of modernism was the search for the identity of the Brazilian people and the registration, in the literary text, of the diversity of Brazilian speeches.
B) despite the modernists recording the regional speeches of Brazil, they were still prejudiced in relation to the cariocas.
C) the tradition of Portuguese values was the thematic agenda of the modernist movement.
D) Manuel Bandeira and the Brazilian modernists extolled in their texts the primitivism of the Brazilian nation.
E) Manuel Bandeira considers the diversity of Brazilian speaking an aggression to the Portuguese language.
Resolution:
Alternative A
In the text in question, there is an appreciation of the “diversity of Brazilian speeches”. Therefore, he does not show prejudice. The thematic agenda of the modernist movement was national identity and not the tradition of Portuguese values. Furthermore, the text does not bring primitivism nor does it consider the diversity of speeches as an aggression to the language, quite the opposite.
question 3
(And either)
Portuguese error
When the Portuguese arrived
Underneath a brutal rain
dressed the indian
What a pity!
Were it a sunny morning
The Indian had stripped
The Portuguese.
Oswald de Andrade. Poetry gathered. Rio de Janeiro: Brazilian Civilization, 1978.
The primitivism observed in the poem above, by Oswald de Andrade, markedly characterizes
A) the regionalism of the Northeast.
B) the São Paulo concretism.
C) pau-brasil poetry.
D) pre-modernist symbolism.
E) Bahian tropicalism.
Resolution:
Alternative C
the poetry redwood is based on the nationalist element and, therefore, identity of the Brazil. Thus, Oswald's poem, ironically, mentions the cultural contact between Indians and Portuguese, which would lead to a future Brazilian identity.
image credit
[1] FTD Publisher (reproduction)
By Warley Souza
Literature teacher
