José de Alencar is considered one of the most important Brazilian writers. One of the main representatives of romanticism, artistic-literary movement that prevailed in Brazil in the 19th century, the author of the guaraní he built outstanding characters that still populate the national imagination, such as Peri and Iracema, as well as that he consolidated the production of the novel genre, writing it in Indianist, urban and regional.
Read too: How was the romanticism in Portugal?
Biography of José de Alencar
The writer José Martiniano de Alencar was born on May 1, 1829, in Messejana (current neighborhood of Fortaleza, Ceará). As a child, he moved with his family to Rio de Janeiro, then capital of the country, to accompany his father, José Martiniano de Alencar, elected senator by the state of Ceará. In 1844 he moved to São Paulo, where studied law (with the exception of the 3rd year, which he attended at the Faculty of Law of Olinda, in Pernambuco), remaining in São Paulo until 1850.
After graduating, he returned to Rio de Janeiro, where
acted as a lawyer and as a journalist at the Mercantile Mail, at the Journal of Commerce and in the Rio de Janeiro Diary, institution at which he was appointed editor-in-chief in 1855. This participation in the press enabled him to publish serials, many of which were later published in book form.
It should be noted that, in addition to this journalistic activity, José de Alencar also worked, like his father, in the political arena. Affiliated with the Conservative Party, he was elected for more than one term of congressperson for the state of Ceará, and, from 1868 to 1870, he held the executive position of Minister of Justice.
In the literary world, its recognition came from the publication, in 1856, of the Letters on The Tamoios Confederation, in the Diário do Rio de Janeiro, in which he criticized the poem epicThe confederation of Tamoios (1856), work by the writer Domingos Gonçalves de Magalhães, considered the introducer of romanticism in Brazil. died, victim of tuberculosis, in the city of Rio de Janeiro, on December 12, 1877, at 48 years of age.
Read too: Castro Alves – romantic poet who, among other themes, addressed slavery
Characteristics of José de Alencar's works
The vast literary production of José de Alencar, which consists of Indian, urban and regionalist novels, in addition to chronicles, literary reviews and plays, has as a general characteristic the attempt to build a genuinely Brazilian culture, disconnected, therefore, from the aesthetic characteristics that prevailed in Portugal.
This project to build a cultural identity Brazilian was the main flag of the romanticism, and José de Alencar was his main enthusiast. He sought, therefore, in his narratives, mainly in the Indianist ones, to portray, in a language as close as possible to the Portuguese spoken in the country, themes closely linked to Brazil, such as indigenous question, present in works like iracema (1865), the guaraní (1857) and Ubirajara (1874).
In addition to the indigenous-themed novels, the attempt to build a literary production, focused on national theme and the reproduction of the Brazilian Portuguese language, it also occurred through novels linked to rural and country theme, as noted in the gaucho (1870), in Tilt (1871), in the trunk of the ipe (1871) and in the countryman (1875).
THE thematichistoric it has not been neglected either, and thus, on the fictional plane, passages from the history of Brazil, like those linked to exploratory colonization, were transposed to works such as the silver mines (volume 1 and 2, respectively published in 1865 and 1866) and peddler war (volume 1 and 2, respectively published in 1871 and 1873).
O quiteurban had no less prominence, being the scene of novels like luciola (1862), Diva (1864) and Lady (1875). In these works, the bourgeois society carioca from second reign (1840-1889) is the scenario of plots that have strong women as protagonists.
That plurality of works, with varied themes and scenarios, fulfilled an aesthetic and political purpose of consolidating a genuinely Brazilian, however, it should be noted that the idealist content, also characteristic of romanticism, permeated these and other works by José of Alencar. Nevertheless, they are, without a doubt, essential for the understanding of Brazilian literature and constitute the foundation of modern and contemporary romance.
Main works by José de Alencar
José de Alencar published a extensive work, segmented into varied genres and themes, which confirms his attempt to consolidate a genuinely Brazilian literature, the main purpose of romanticism. See what they are:
→theater
- back and back (1857)
- the credit (1857)
- the familiar devil (1857)
- the wings of an angel (1858)
- Mom (1860)
- the atonement (1867)
- the Jesuit (1875)
→Affairs
- Five minutes (1856)
- the widow (1857)
- the guaraní (1857)
- luciola (1862)
- Diva (1864)
- iracema (1865)
- the silver mines - 1st vol. (1865)
- the silver mines - 2nd vol. (1866)
- the gaucho (1870)
- the gazelle's paw (1870)
- the trunk of the ipe(1871)
- peddler war - 1st vol. (1871)
- Tilt (1871)
- Golden dreams (1872)
- Caribs (1873)
- peddler war - 2nd vol. (1873)
- Ubirajara (1874)
- the countryman (1875)
- Lady (1875)
- Incarnation (1893)
→Chronicle
- in the run of the pen (1874)
- Running from the pen (unpublished serials) (2017) - organized by Wilton José Marques
→Reviews
- Letters on The Tamoios Confederation (1865)
- To the Emperor: Political Letters from Erasmus and Erasmus' New Political Letters (1865)
- To the people: Erasmus' political letters (1866)
- The representative system (1866)
→Autobiography
- How and why am I a novelist (1893)
To learn more about one of José de Alencar's fundamental Indianist works, read our text:iracema.
Tributes to José de Alencar
![Facade of the theater that honors José de Alencar, in Fortaleza. [1]](/f/82115f5b39de1f9b415805fe5fb305c9.jpg)
In 1897, when the Brazilian Academy of Letters was founded by the writer Machado de Assis, José de Alencar had already passed away. To honor him, the author of Dom Casmurro chose it as patron of chair 23, that is, its first occupant, even if in memory. Later, other honors were granted to José de Alencar.
Still in 1897, in the city of Rio de Janeiro, in the Flamengo neighborhood, opened its statue in the then Largo do Catete, renamed Praça José de Alencar. In strength, capital of Ceará, state in which the writer was born, was inaugurated, in 1910, the Theatro José de Alencar. Still in the capital of Ceará, there is, in honor of the author of iracema, a José de Alencar Square and the José de Alencar station of the southern line of the subway. In the interior of his home state, his name is the name of a district in the municipality of Iguatu.
Image credit
[1] CLAITON LUIS MORAES/commons
Leandro Guimaraes
Literature teacher
Source: Brazil School - https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/literatura/jose-alencar.htm
