Montedor, de J. Rentes de Carvalho

Abstract

After four decades of literary recognition in Holland, where he lived and was a professor of Portuguese Literature, the Portuguese author J. Rentes de Carvalho (born in Vila Nova de Gaia, 1930) was almost completely ignored in Portugal until about five years ago. Today he is read and valued in Portuguese literary journalism, but academic studies of his work are rare. This article analyzes the author’s first novel, Montedor (1968), which combines traditional and modern elements, and is regarded as one of the great works of Portuguese literature. In particular, we will see how the novel presents a special type of pícaro (rogue), to whose distinctive and hyperactive consciousness the reader gains access through the narrative technique of stream of consciousness.