Coutinho, the Nova Critica and Portugal

Abstract

CULTURAL nationalism a fickle companion, responsible for many positive benefits to a society in process, but sometimes causing facts to be sacrificed to wishful thinking. Afrafnio Coutinho's cultural nationalism was just such an unpredictable ally. It caused him to confuse is with ought, the concept of literary autonomy with the desired cultural autonomy, and moral with intellectual qualities. These confusions appear most blatantly in Coutinho's attitude toward Portugal, the object of his cultural nationalism. The extraordinary relationship between Portugal and the scientific nova critica, as it existed in the mind of the fiery, controversial Coutinho, the subject of this study. Coutinho first described the Portuguese character very early in his career, in an essay written in 1939. At this point, he was neither a new critic nor a Lusophobe, but a student of Brazilian literature and culture and an ardent admirer of Portugal. Deeply influenced by the sociologist Gilberto Freyre and the Christian Humanist, Jacques Maritain, Coutinho shared Freyre's colorful view of the Portuguese colonist, of the fraternal nature of Brazilian slavery, and of the strong African influence in the formation of the Brazilian race. He extolled the wise policy of miscegenation pursued vigorously by the Portuguese, and offered Brazil's exemplary racial harmony as proof that the Portuguese were good colonists and egalitarian Christians.' Whatever racial problems remained, such as the inferiority complex of the resentful mulatto, would be erased eventually through a humanistic education program. Though Coutinho reminded readers that Brazil was not merely an extension of Portuguese culture, but a mixing of Indian and African elements as well, he was quite flattering to the Portuguese. He stated the need to free the popular mind from the clutches of atavism, fetishism, magic and superstition, which he considered legacies of the institution of slavery, not of the commendable Portuguese colonial experience.2 So spoke Coutinho in 1939. By 1957, however, he blamed the irresponsible Portuguese for three hundred years of ignorance in Brazil.3 Further, he faulted them for the intolerable colonial legacy of personalism, adventurism, dilettantism, amateurism and improvisation that still plagued Brazilian culture like a curse.4 Even for the mercurial Coutinho this was quite an astonishing about face. How can we account for it? Coutinho's radical transformation from Lusophile to Lusophobe occurred dramatically during his years of study in the United States, from 1942-47.' His time at Columbia University, where the New Criticism was the approach to literature, and his enthusiastic embrace of the North American democratic values proved to be the parting of the ways as far as his attitudes toward the relationship between Brazil and Portugal were concerned. How the austere Anglo-American New Criticism fit into this development quite a story, and one that would surely amaze any North American or English new critic, for it inspired in Coutinho a thorough critique of Brazilian culture. By every standard, as he saw it, Brazil was woefully inadequate when compared to the advanced cultural and intellectual life of the United States. Where Americans were serious and professional, Brazilians were frivolous and amateurish. Where Americans debated significant issues, Brazilians postured in cafe conversations. Where Americans rewarded merit, Brazilians rewarded connections. Where American universities were vibrant centers of intellectual stimulation, Brazilian universities were irrelevant strongholds of the incompetent. But Coutinho could not accept the notion that Brazilians were inherently inferior; he had to find an external cause that, once found, could be uprooted. This need led him to a sweeping rejection of the colonial connection. It was Portugal that was responsible for the poor showing of Brazilian culture. Portugal had created the monstrous, characterless Macunaima. So far, we have a critique of Brazil by means of an unfavorable contrast with the United States. But what does the New Criticism have to do with this development? The rigor of the New Criticism, by Coutinho's interpretation, supplied the antidote to widespread flaws in the nation-