Bernardo Carvalho was born on September 5, 1960, in Rio de Janeiro. He studied Journalism and started writing for the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo. Author, mainly, of novels, he has a book of short stories: Aberration. He received awards for his works, being three times winner of Jabuti.
The novelist is the author of novels such as Mongolia and Nine Nights, being mostly known for the latter. Works by him, belonging to literature contemporary, are characterized by objective language and narrative fragmentation. In addition, its characters are ordinary or unadapted people who seek a meaning for existence.
See too: Conceição Evaristo — important novelist of contemporary literature
Topics of this article
- 1 - Summary about Bernardo Carvalho
- 2 - Biography of Bernardo Carvalho
- 3 - Characteristics of Bernardo Carvalho's work
- 4 - Main works of Bernardo Carvalho
Summary about Bernardo Carvalho
- Brazilian writer Bernardo Carvalho was born in 1960.
- In addition to being a short story writer and novelist, he also works as a journalist.
- His works are part of contemporary Brazilian literature.
- His books present characters in search of meaning for themselves.
- His only book of short stories is the work entitled Aberration.
- He is also the author of novels such as Mongolia It is nine nights.
Do not stop now... There's more after the publicity ;)
Biography of Bernardo Carvalho
Bernardo Carvalho was born on September 5, 1960, in Rio de Janeiro. During adolescence, the author thought of being a filmmaker. But, in 1983, he completed the Faculty of Journalism at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro. In 1986, residing in São Paulo, went to work at the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo.
In this communication vehicle, he was editor of the section “Folhetim”, correspondent in New York, London and Paris. In 1993, received a Master's degree in Cinema, by the School of Communications and Arts of the University of São Paulo, after defending a dissertation on the work of Wim Wenders.
Upon discovering the literature of the Austrian Thomas Bernhard (1931–1989), Bernardo Carvalho understood that he too could be a writer. In 1993, he published his first book, the only work of short stories to date, entitled Aberration. In 2003, he received the Portugal Telecom Prize for Brazilian Literature and the Jabuti, for the novel nine nights.
In the same year, he also won the São Paulo Association of Art Critics award for his novel Mongolia, which also took Jabuti in 2004. In 2014, he received another Jabuti award, with the book reproduction. Currently, the novelist works as a columnist for Folha de S.Paulo.
Characteristics of Bernardo Carvalho's work
Bernardo Carvalho is an author of contemporary Brazilian literature. His works have the following characteristics:
- objective and journalistic language;
- characters in search of meaning;
- issues around sexuality;
- mixture of fiction with real facts;
- mystery narratives;
- subversion of the police genre;
- ordinary, non-heroic protagonists;
- homoerotic theme;
- characters in transit;
- fragmentation of narrative;
- theme of disappearance;
- maladaptive characters;
- bewilderment of the contemporary subject.
Know more: Caio Fernando Abreu — one of the most popular writers in Brazilian literature
Bernardo Carvalho's main works
- Aberration (1993);
- Eleven (1995);
- The drunks and the sleepwalkers (1996);
- theater (1998);
- the initials (1999);
- fear of sad (2000);
- nine nights (2002);
- Mongolia (2003);
- The sun sets in São Paulo (2007);
- the motherfucker (2009);
- reproduction (2013);
- sympathy for the devil (2016).
→ freak, by Bernardo Carvalho
The work Aberration, for now, is the only book of short stories by the author and consists of 11 narratives:
1- “The Appreciation”: tale with a homoerotic theme, in which homosexuality is used to reflect on beauty, fleetingness and illusions.
2- “The German”: the story of a couple (whose past is marked by the pain caused by Nazism) who is reunited in Rio de Janeiro after years of separation.
3- "The architect": O storyteller tells how he idealized the perfect city for a perfect woman: “sitting on the toilet with constipation”.
4- "Life": After being widowed, a man believes that his longtime friend's daughter is the reincarnation of his wife.
5- “The Eye in the Wind”: a woman is considered crazy for claiming to have found an eye in the wind.
6- “Equities”: the narrator talks about her ex-husband's relationship with her best friend.
7- “The Astronomer”: after receiving the prediction that he will be destroyed by his two sons, a man tries to escape his destiny.
8- "The music": A man leaves his two families after hearing a song in his head.
9- "Aberration": a painting in an Amsterdam museum, a postcard, a photographer and a family mystery that a man obsessively tries to unravel.
10- “Actors”: Characters A and B, both homosexuals, fall in love after meeting each other in a bar.
11- “A Civilization”: An archaeologist discovers a tiny ancient civilization.
→ nine nights, by Bernardo Carvalho
The romance nine nightshas two narrators. One of them is the character Manoel Perna, who was a friend of the American anthropologist Buell Quain, who killed himself on August 2, 1939. He narrates his interaction with the protagonist, during nine nights, which took place in the city of Carolina.
The other narrator is confused with the author himself, who, after reading Buell's name in a newspaper article in 2001, decides to find out why the anthropologist committed suicide. The story is shrouded in mystery. Thus, the narrative is a mixture of detective novel and journalistic novel.
It must be said that, despite being a work of fiction, the book depicts a real event, because Buell Quain actually existed and killed himself in 1939, when he was doing research in an Indian tribe in the Brazil. On the date of his death, he was 27 years old. The narrators tell us a little of their history, full of gaps.
To get to the truth, the second narrator looks for people directly and indirectly related to the deceased, both in Brazil and in the United States. U.S. In this way, readers assemble a puzzle, together with the narrator, based on facts prior to the anthropologist's arrival in Brazil or that occurred during his stay in Carolina.
Furthermore, the narrative has autobiographical facts of the narrator-journalist. Therefore, the book has an autobiographical character, at times. But the narrator always returns to the central point, that is, the mysterious suicide of Buell Quain and the reason that led the anthropologist to kill himself. This is one of the author's most famous works.
Video class on the literary analysis of nine nights
image credits
[1] Companhia das Letras (reproduction)
By Warley Souza
Literature Teacher
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