Brazil Literature – Modernism

By | January 10, 2022

Modernism. – Towards 1923, a movement which called itself “modernist” began to appear in Brazil and which continues to this day: a movement not unlike others which occurred in many European countries, as soon as the war was over, and which was in a certain way the resumption of a literary and aesthetic agitation that had already broken out before the war. It presents an analogy with Futurism, on the one hand, and, on the other, with the Italian movement of “strapaese” against “stracittà”. It is an essentially agricultural people which is now entering, albeit imperfectly, its industrial phase. An economic and psychological imbalance has therefore emerged between the residents of the large coastal centers and those of the interior. Thus, while some of the “new” advocates of mechanical progress and champions of architecture of skyscrapers, others – writers, painters, sculptors, architects, musicians – interpret in their attempts the nostalgia of the primordial, wild moods, and declare themselves bitter opponents of every European culture: finally someone is looking for a way to reconcile the two trends. The movement that stands out, among other things, in lyric for the use of free verse and for the deliberately fragmentary style, is very combative; it includes poets, novelists, scholars, such as, to name a few among the many: Paulo Silveira, Rodrigues de Atreu, Mario de Andrade, Oswald de Andrade (Pau Brasil, canzoniere, and Os condemnados, romanzo), Raul Bopp, Augusto Meyer, Vargas Netto, Plinio Salgado (The foreigner, romanzo), José Americo de Almeida (The bagaceira), Paulo Prado (Portrait of Brazil, Paulistica), Gastão Cruls, Alfredo Ellis Iunior (Ra O the giants), Raymundo de Moraes (in Amazon plain), Roquette Pinto (Rondonia), Oliveira Vianna, sociologist di gran merit, Paulo Gonçalves, poet and commediografo and alcuni intellettuali illustri eats Grace Spider, Ronald de Carvalho, Guilherme de Almeida, Menotti del Picchia, (Lais ;O homem ea morte), Cassiano Ricardo (Jardim das Esperidas), but the disparity of trends makes it difficult to predict the final results.

According to Ehuacom, the multiple contrasts and conflicts of ideas, passions, interests, characteristic of societies still in formation, where so many ethnically and psychologically different elements mix and clash, would seem to be the most propitious elements for the flowering of a strong and new dramatic production. ; and during the war, while this kept the elites who are used to crossing the ocean every year at home for a long time, and on the other hand also prevented the French, Italian and Spanish companies from going beyond the Atlantic, there was actually a short period shooting of the national theater. It began with the truly extraordinary success of the comedy Flores de sombra, by Claudio de Souza. The author, spurred on by this outcome, wrote new plays, some of which were very popular; other young writers, such as Viriato Correia, Abadie de Faria Rosa, Paulo de Magalhães, Renato Vianna, Tobias Moscoso, Paulo Barreto, as well as Coelho Netto and Goulard de Andrade who had preceded them, willing and able, went down the same path. Then the public’s favor quickly died away; and today the national theater is once again experiencing one of the most serious crises in its short history. (On the theaters of individual cities see rio de janeiro, s. Paolo etc.).

For what concerns the theater as acting, v. the entries corresponding to the names of the main cities: Rio de Janeiro, S. Paolo, Manáos, San Salvatore della Bahia, Recife, Porto Alegre, etc.

Critical and historical studies. – The criticism is represented especially by Carlos Magalhães de Azeredo, by João Ribeiro, who, in his youth, also cultivated poetry and novella; also by Sousa Bandeira, Tasso da Silveira, Mucio Leão, Tristam da Cunha, Mario de Alencar, Azevedo Amaral, Assis Chateaubriand, Renato Almeida, Ronald de Carvalho, Andrade Muniz, Almachio Diniz, Laudelino Freire, Julio de Mesquita, Alfredo Pujol, Humberto de Campos, Amadeu Amaral, Goulart de Andrade, Nestor Rangel Pestana, Constancio Alves, Agrippino Grieco. Many of them are also political writers and journalists. And among these, Jackson de Figueiredo deserves particular importance, a young writer and thinker, who from an alleged atheism returned, through the spiritualist philosophy of Farias Brito, to the most integral Catholicism and aroused an important movement of Catholic culture, with the magazineIn Ordem and the Dom Vital Center. The most recent adhesion to this movement was that of the authoritative critic Tristão de Athayde.

Arthur Motta stands out in historical criticism. The study of history intensified after the world war. The most fruitful center of such studies continues to be the Brazilian Historical Institute in Rio de Janeiro. Among the most eminent historians of this century are Oliveira Lima, author of the Formation historique de la nationalité brésilienne, the excellent work Dom João VI no Brasil and a Rela ç ão dos manuscritos portuguezes e estrangeiros de interess para o Brasil existentes no Museu British de Londres ; Rocha Pombo, author of a complete and excellent Historia do Brasil ; Affonso de Escragnolle Taunay, Celso Vieira, with his magnificent Vida do father José de Anchieta; Max Fleiuss (Paginas brasileiras, Quadros da historia patria, etc.), Basilio de Magalhães, João Ribeiro, Affonso Celso, Alberto Rangel, Helio Lobo, Alberto Torres, Araujo Jorge, Elysio de Carvalho and many others. For the originality of the vision and for the style Euclydes da Cunha deserves particular mention, the book of which Os sertões constituted a real revelation in Brazilian literature: it also left unforgettable pages in A ‘margem da historia.

Brazil Literature - Modernism