Milton Hatoum he is a contemporary Brazilian writer. Born on August 19, 1952, in the city of Manaus, in the Amazon. Later, he lived in Brasília and then in São Paulo, where he studied architecture at USP. In France, he studied literature at the Sorbonne. Back in Brazil, he was a professor at the Federal University of Amazonas.
The author is one of the main names in contemporary Brazilian literature. His books value memory and regional elements. Your first romance — Report of a certain East — was first published in 1989. Thus, Hatoum won his first Jabuti Award.
Read too:Luiz Alfredo Garcia-Roza — author whose crime novels are part of contemporary literature
Topics of this article
- 1 - Summary about Milton Hatoum
- 2 - Biography of Milton Hatoum
- 3 - Literary characteristics of Milton Hatoum
- 4 - Main works of Milton Hatoum
Summary about Milton Hatoum
Brazilian author Milton Hatoum was born in 1952.
In addition to being an award-winning writer, he was a university professor.
His books belong to contemporary Brazilian literature.
His works are marked by interior monologue and cultural hybridity.
Report of a certain East is one of his best-known narratives, as well as Two brothers.
Biography of Milton Hatoum
Milton Hatoum was born on August 19, 1952, in the city of Manaus. His family is of Lebanese origin. He studied at Colégio Amazonense D. Pedro II and lived in the capital of Amazonas until 1967. That's when he moved to the city of Brasília, where he studied at the UnB's Integrated Middle School Center.
Still as a high school student, he participated in a march against dictatorship and for this he was arrested, but soon released. So he went to live in São Paulo in 1970. In this town, he took the course Aarchitecture at USP and completed his graduation in 1977. He then worked as a professor of History of Architecture at the University of Taubaté.
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In 1980, he moved to France, where he studied literature at the Sorbonne.. Four years later, he returned to Brazil and started to work as a professor at the Federal University of Amazonas. Published his first novel — Report of a certain East — in 1989. In 1996, he served as a visiting professor at the University of California, in the United States.
Two years later, he left his position as a university professor and returned to live in São Paulo. He began to dedicate himself exclusively to writing and began working as a columnist for the newspaper The State of St. Paul. Thus, he became one of the most important contemporary authors in Brazil and received the following awards:
Jabuti (1990, 2001, 2006 and 2009);
APCA (2006);
Portugal Telecom (2006);
Book of the Year (2006);
Angry! (2006).
Literary Characteristics of Milton Hatoum
Contemporary Brazilian literature is characterized by the diversity of themes and authorial styles. So, the Hatoum's work is remembered for its memorialistic aspect, since it values the history of the author's ancestors. And, in this way, it demonstrates the cultural hybridism so typical of Brazil when discussing the issue of immigration.
To the The writer's narratives have a melancholy tone and feature psychological depth, demonstrated in the stream of consciousness of their characters. They also highlight regional characteristics, in addition to making social criticism. As in other contemporary works, it is also possible to perceive textual fragmentation.
Read too: Conceição Evaristo — great exponent of contemporary literature
Major works by Milton Hatoum
Report of a certain East (1989) — romance
Two brothers (2000) — romance
Northern Ashes (2005) — romance
Orphans of Eldorado (2008) — romance
the island city (2009) — short stories
A loner on the prowl (2013) — chronicles
the night of waiting (2017) — romance
vanishing points (2019) — romance
→ Report of a certain East
![Cover of the book “Report of a certain East”, by Milton Hatoum, published by Companhia das Letras.[2]](/f/2c160c14e5c90ef6f0b1b50c33ff2ff5.jpg)
Report of a certain Easttells the story of a family of Lebanese descent in Manaus. Almost 20 years after leaving town, a woman returns to the place where she was raised. Thus, the memories make her, one of the narrators of the story, rescue her past.
She arrives in Manaus the day before Emilie, her adoptive mother, dies. This character's death puts the focus of the narrative on the dead woman, so that all narrators have something to tell about her. In addition to the adopted daughter, the others narrators they are:
Hakim, the eldest son;
Dorner, a family friend
Emilie's husband;
Hindié, Emilie's friend.
The main narrator decides to write a letter to her brother, who lives in Spain. In this long letter or report, she resignifies her family history. Like this, the narrative is structured through characters' stream of consciousness, who narrate and analyze the lived past. As can be seen in this excerpt narrated by Hakim:
Since I was little I lived with a language at school and on the streets of the city, [...]. And sometimes I had the impression of living different lives. Did he know that he had been chosen as the number one interlocutor among Emilie's children: for having come into the world before the others? Because I'm still very close to your memories, to your ancestral world [...]? But that didn't shake my mind, rather his solitary walk intrigued me when we said goodbye after lessons. Without leaving a trace, she disappeared into that room that had always interested me for the simple reason that it was an inviolable space, inaccessible even to my father, [...].|1|
A cultural diversity is in evidence in the novel. The elements of Brazilian culture merge with the cultural differences between Emilie and her husband. She Catholic. He Muslim. Differences are also imprinted in the personality of each child, a living result of this cultural mix.
While the children return, in their memories, to childhood, Emilie's husband's narrative is centered on his coming to Brazil. He narrates his arrival in Manaus, his “last adventurous impulse”. Then he falls in love with Emilie, whom he is going to marry. In short, the novel seeks to discover in fact who Emilie was, who ends up becoming the protagonist of the story.
→ Two brothers
![Cover of the book “Dois Irmãos”, by Milton Hatoum, published by Companhia das Letras.[3]](/f/e3c44b2b78dd06996a94170f5cc347da.jpg)
O book has as protagonists the twins Yaqub and Omar, born in Manaus. It also brings a classic theme: the rivalry between twins, as well as in the book Esau and Jacob, in Machado de Assis (1839-1908). Both fall in love with the same woman, Livia. (In the book of the realist writer, the beloved was called Flora).
At a dance, Omar believes he has conquered the young woman, but soon his brother pays him back and gets a kiss from Lívia. Enraged, Omar slashes his brother's face with a bottle broken for that purpose. The scar will not let the brothers forget the hatred that separates them.
To try to appease the rivalry between them, the parents (Halim and Zana) force Yaqub to take a trip to Lebanon, the land of his ancestors. On the way back, right after Second World War, disagreements continue. But the differences between the twins are also related to their personalities.
Yaqub is disciplined and studious. Omar is chaotic, undisciplined and violent. He is even expelled from school for attacking a teacher, and starts to live with bohemians and artists. Yaqub, after a reunion with Lívia, goes to study in São Paulo. In that city, he becomes an engineer and gets married.
Omar also goes to São Paulo, where his brother helps him. There, he discovers that Yaqub is married to Lívia. Later, during the period of the military dictatorship, the hatred between the twins only increased, with more aggression. Omar is reported to the police by his brother and is later arrested. Only when Yaqub dies does the rivalry between them finally end.
Video lesson with the analysis of Two brothers
Note
|1| HATOUM, Milton. Report of a certain East. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 1989.
image credits
[1] Grupo Companhia das Letras (disclosure)
[2] Grupo Companhia das Letras (disclosure)
[3] Grupo Companhia das Letras (disclosure)
By Warley Souza
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