Brazilian Writer Research Articles

Review: Form and Feeling: The Making of Concretism in Brazil, edited by Antonio Sergio Bessa

Review: <i>Form and Feeling: The Making of Concretism in Brazil</i>, edited by Antonio Sergio Bessa

The particularities of a ballet collection: the Nélida Piñon Collection at Instituto Cervantes Rio de Janeiro

The authors discuss a bibliographical collection focused on ballet, the personal library of the Brazilian writer and academic of Galician descent Nélida Piñon. The academic donated her private library to Instituto Cervantes Rio de Janeiro in 2022.This article is based on a paper presented at 'Challenges of art librarianship: 2020 and beyond'.1

Metaphysics, Language, Art and Science: Nietzschean Echoes, National Thoughts

The homonymous research presented in this article will be developed on different fronts, interconnected from Nietzsche’s work and its reflections on Brazilian writers. It is about investigating apparently disconnected works that have ties of affinity and need to be understood not only based on what we call Nietzsche’s reception, but linked to a movement of revision and critical formation that has been built throughout the 20th century.

Stylistic Analysis of Coelho’s novel The Alchemist

Style can be defined as the way language is used in a given context. Literary style can be defined as the linguistic patterns chosen by a particular author intentionally or unintentionally among all of the other options that are not chosen by her/him. The focal point of the study is to do a stylistic analysis of The Alchemist (1993), written by famous Brazilian writer Paulo Coelho, which is the most influential novel with its profound thoughts and remarkable artistry. The novel has a unique narrative structure and profound symbolic meaning. As the research is theoretical, analytical, and descriptive in nature, close reading text-based analysis is applied in the analysis of the novel. The theoretical framework for the present study is a stylistic model based on linguistic and stylistic features proposed by Leech and Short (2007) that have been applied. They described a list of different categories; lexical categories, grammatical categories, figures of speech, coherence, and cohesion, but the present study focused on only two categories; lexical categories and grammatical categories. The researcher used a “mixed approach” for the study. The researcher used a secondary source of data collection. The present study used a non-random sampling design. Thus, in this study, the researcher has done a stylistic analysis of the novel and has presented how academic readers can better understand the writer’s use of different literary elements and how meanings are constructed from a specific novel to reveal its themes.

The Spiral of Words by Jorge Armenteros

Reviewed by: The Spiral of Words by Jorge Armenteros Karen Corinne Herceg (bio) the spiral of words Jorge Armenteros Spuyten Duyvil Press http://www.spuytenduyvil.net/the-spiral-of-words.html 250 pages; Print, $16.00 The Spiral of Words is Jorge Armenteros's third book in a trilogy that explores probative spiritual and existential issues. I highly recommend reading all three books, although each can certainly stand alone. In the traditions of myth and archetypal exploration, the character of the Striped Tunic returns once again as a seeker. Calixto, a writer, searches for words as a way to find meaning in a fearful, arbitrary, and uncertain existence. Calixto's approach to life leads him in confusing, circular paths as he spirals between illusion and truth. Armenteros examines the complexities of finding expression through language. His prose style is non-traditional but wholly accessible, questioning the constructs of language, how we perceive and navigate reality, and what it means to be human. The characters afford us minimal personal information. Doing so would detract from the universal imperatives Armenteros is conveying. Calixto, sees himself as "a conflicted writer and a walker in a dangerous void." Armenteros references Brazilian writer Clarice Lispector whose works explored the concepts of mystery, illusion, and reality and existing intuitively in a void, an overriding theme of The Spiral of Words. The writer seeks answers searching for the right words. Herein lies the spiral. While a viable resource, words are not a definitive methodology for explaining our existence. We must remain open to mystery, not allowing fears and insecurities to obscure possibilities for truth that can only be accessed in acceptance of the void and accessed by intuition. Calixto has set himself apart in a world he finds contrary and defined by separation. We see this in his perceptions such [End Page 62] as "the sun was assailing the beach." Colors weep and copulate, and sunlight shining through a window is "biting a chunk of his leg." He is at odds with the language he seeks for expression. He begins a long walk to the ancient Iberian Peninsula and the vast void of the ocean. Armenteros weaves symbols throughout his work, such as the essential elements of air, water, earth and fire. Of course, the first book of this trilogy is entitled Air and the second is The Roar of the River. All three books integrate the elements as characters walk the earth seeking answers. Fire is a transformative force representing the conflagration of an inner shift. The repetition of the number three, bread as a symbol of life, and the col-or red are highly prominent. The number three has a tradition representing spiritual authority, often associated with intuition as in the Trinity, whose three circles symbolize eternity and God. Calixto finds the number three to be "mysterious, metaphysical, and magical." And, of course, this book is the third in a trilogy. Calixto meets three women whose names begin with the letter L that signifies divine purpose. He meets Lulu in his hometown of Nice and wonders if he knows "her soul." She has three red stars tattooed on her ankle. Later he meets Lyubochka whose name means love in Russian. She has a tattoo of a salamander on her neck. Salamanders regenerate lost limbs which correlates to a resiliency of spirit. They are also associated with fire, hinting at opportunities for transformation and enlightenment. She speaks of "the essential relativity of all perceptions." His meeting with Leda references a queen of Greek mythology who becomes a swan, a symbol of divine healing and renewal. Bread is shared often. Lyubochka refers to it as "the essence of life." Red is the color of blood and life force of humanity. It is an imperative to forego our will to allow truth and mystery to flow through us and override the beast that seduces us with ego and illusions. Calixto meets an old man named Theo whose name means Divine Gift. There are references to Calixto's earlier book, No Somos Pero Somos, which translates as we are not but we are. Theo tells him it is all lies. Calixto accepts this "but points out that he only...

Errâncias: O Acervo Biojuntado de Décio Pignatari

This paper aims to analyze the book Errâncias, by the Brazilian writer Décio Pignatari. The incursion into the universe of biographical and fictional narrative, with the publication of O rosto da memória (1986), Panteros (1992) and Errâncias (2000) reiterated and updated, elements of the avant-garde poetics of concretism and theoretical questions of his intellectual activity in Communication and Semiotics. These books can be located in the "photoliterary territory", as the critic Jean-Pierre Montier (2015) names them. Printed in photographic album format, Errâncias articulates the images of the “acervo biojuntado” [bio-joined collection] (Pignatari10) by the writer with texts that hybridize the essay and the autobiography, the self-writing and writing about the others, in which the pages of a lifetime and reflections on friends, intellectual references, landscapes and texts are leafed, as the "metaphor of the album" suggests (Reverseau, 2017). As we propose, the thought by agglutination stresses the boundaries between languages, textual genres and discursive regimes of fiction, essay and autobiography, also acting as a procedure that approximates the writer’s archive to the book project. This reading dialogue with the assumptions of literary theory, psychoanalysis and studies on image and archive.

Animality and Textual Experimentalism in João Guimarães Rosa’s My Uncle, the Jaguar

This article analyses how form and content are intertwined in the story My Uncle, the Jaguar (1961) by Brazilian writer João Guimarães Rosa. In the first part, I use the fourteenth episode of Ulysses (1920), ‘Oxen of the Sun’, as an example of how language and form can convey ideas. The next section deals with Rosa’s efforts to create a character-narrator who seems to be on the verge of becoming-animal. The character’s transformation into a jaguar-like being is ambiguous, seeming to be both psychological and behavioural. In this sense, there is no evidence whether his metamorphosis is physical. However, the language of the narrative conveys his transformation, transcending him from Portuguese to Tupi-Guarani, to an animal snarling onomatopoeic language. To support my argument, I use a theoretical framework derived from Animal Studies and Anthropological Studies as a means of giving a better explanation of the variable cultural background concerning human-animal relationships.

Traduzir é resistir: Subversão e ateísmo como dispositivo de internacionalização da cultura brasileira

A resistência, a autonomia e a subversão da língua e da literatura no Brasil têm suas raízes no século XIX e se estendem no século XX, o que propiciou uma nacionalidade literária, uma independência cultural e literária, se demarcando da língua e literatura portuguesa da metrópole. Na primeira parte deste artigo, faço uma breve análise histórica da criação de uma língua (português do Brasil) dentro da língua (português da Metrópole) resistência às imposições literárias portuguesas a partir de dois exemplos de escritores brasileiros, José de Alencar e Mário de Andrade, e dos seus respectivos romances, Iracema e Macunaíma. E, na segunda parte, reflito sobre o lugar do Brasil literário no mapa mundial das literaturas a partir da teoria da multiplicação dos Mapas-Múndi de José Lambert e da teoria de Pascale Casanova sobre o parâmetro do Meridiano de Greenwich e das literaturas dominantes e dominadas assim como a questão do poder e da dominação das línguas-culturas. Toda argumentação se faz sob o prisma da tradução como meio de resistência ao poder hegemônico e como forma de ateísmo cultural.

Sexualidade feminina e religiosidade ocidental

In this work, we use some theories that are approached in the texts Mulheres pobres e violencia no Brasil urbano (2004), by Rachel Soihet, A dominacao masculina (2003), by Pierre Bourdieu, and O segundo sexo (1970), by Simone de Beauvoir, for the purpose of understand the relationship between sexual freedom and repression of female sexuality – a duality that appears in the short stories “Pai Nosso” and “Redencao”, by brazilian writer Henriette Effenberger. With this, we intend to reflect about the prohibitions imposed by the Christian religions on the woman’s sexual pleasure, based on the literary representation of such restriction.

In the End.

In the End.

Edgar Allan Poe: Efemérides em trama

Edgar Allan Poe: Efemérides em trama

The Artist and the Art in ‘O Guarani’, by José de Alencar, an adaptation by Pedro Pernambuco

During the COVID-19 pandemic, The Família Pernambuco2, a folk-dance group, decides to gather people to produce an online video dance presentation and face the challenges of the year 2020 through art.Formed by people of different ages and professional backgrounds, with artistic experience or not and spread around some cities in the world, the group was engaged in the process of the production of the show ‘O Guarani’ by Pedro Pernambuco, an adaptation of the homonymous work by the Brazilian romantic writer, José de Alencar. The original work narrates the unconditional love of the indigenous, Peri for the young white lady, Ceci. For Pedro Pernambuco, Peri represents the artist who does everything to protect his love, the art, Ceci. Thus, this is the encounter of the Artist with the Art. In this adaptation all participants were invited to go deep in search of their own art and the meaning of it to their lives.From this collection of home-made recordings, the group, formed only by volunteers, gathered everybody’s participations to produce the narrative of their own findings as artists, who through the dance and the acting, defended the Art, as Peri did with Ceci.Under the general direction of Pedro Pernambuco and Carmen Queiroz and with poems by Amélia Veloso3 and direction of choreography by José W. Júnior, the video dance show ‘O Guarani’, by Pedro Pernambuco will be released in the end of the first semester of 2021 on open video-streaming platforms.

Brazilian Literature as World Literature

Brazilian Literature as World Literature

A Casa da Madrinha: o processo de individuação na obra de Lygia Bojunga

Consagrada entre os mais destacados escritores brasileiros da literatura infantojuvenil, a narrativa de Lygia Bojunga entrelaça a temática social ao conflito psicológico e ao processo de amadurecimento das personagens protagonistas. Ou seja, elementos do real servem de base para a fantasia, possibilitando várias formas de leitura das histórias criadas pela escritora. Nesse sentido, o presente artigo traz uma abordagem teórico-analítica, em que o objetivo foi analisar a obra A Casa da Madrinha, de Lygia Bojunga (2015), a partir de uma leitura junguiana. A jornada de Alexandre, personagem central, é desvelada como símbolo do processo de individuação. A Psicologia Analítica de Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) foi utilizada como instrumento de revelação do simbólico, do mitológico da obra da escritora, ou seja, para a interpretação do espaço de fantasia da narrativa e do processo de individuação do personagem protagonista da história. Na literatura de Lygia Bojunga, a imaginação não aparece como fator de alienação do real, mas como processo fundamental de transformação e mobilização da vida, onde o personagem Alexandre, na experiência de seu processo de individuação, foi capaz de ressignificar seus espaços de vida exterior e interior.

Julian Tuwim: Misfortunes of a Polish-Jewish Poet in Exile

Abstract This article examines the lesser-known chapter in the life of the Polish poet and writer of Jewish origin Julian Tuwim during World War II. With the German invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939, and after suffering in prewar ethnocentric and anti-Semitic Poland, Tuwim fled to Romania, where he tried, in vain, to obtain a visa for the British Mandatory Palestine, without having any Zionist affinity. This attempt was based on friendly relations with Leib Jaffe, the director of the Zionist National Fund in Poland. Tuwim’s attitude towards Zionism is analyzed in the context of similar attitudes of Joseph Roth and Stefan Zweig. Shortly thereafter, Tuwim came to Paris where he manifested, for the first time, anguish of exile, a feeling that didn’t leave him until the end of the war. After the German invasion of France, Tuwim fled to Portugal where he experienced a deep anguish over the refusal of an American visa, lack of money and prospects. In Lisbon, with the help of a Brazilian writer and diplomat, Tuwim obtained a visa to enter Brazil, where, with ambivalent feelings, he began his famous poem “Kwiaty polskie” [Polish flowers]. After nine months, Tuwim and his wife finally arrived in the USA where, in addition to being a writer, Tuwim became a political engagé. “We Polish Jews …” is the poem written in the shadow of the Jewish tragedy which reflects the complexity of Tuwim’s Polish-Jewish identity before and during World War II.

Arquitetura do tema, engenharia do poema: sonho e realidade na obra de João Cabral de Melo Neto

This article refers to the transcript of the communication made by the Brazilian journalist Ricardo Viveiros on the occasion of the 1st International Seminar on Religion, Art and Literature, promoted by the Lusophone University of Humanities and Technologies and the University of Lisbon, on November 18, 2020. Ricardo Viveiros addresses in his communication aspects of the daily life of João Cabral de Melo Neto, whom he met personally through his profession as a journalist. With great sensitivity he brings curiosities from the life of the great Brazilian writer, highlighting his subtle criticism, ironic humor and his perfectionism.

Lo justo en el testimonio. Ley, justicia y violencia en los cuentos de João Guimarães Rosa

Our article undertakes an analysis of three short stories by Brazilian writer Joao Guimaraes Rosa — «Irmaos Dagobe», «Fatalidade» and «Meu tio, o Iauarete» — through the approximation between law studies and literary criticism. The legal dimensions of the narratives are thought through the notions of Law, Justice and Violence. The three short stories share the fact that they present fictional situations in which there is a conflict, often insoluble, between different legal systems and social values ​​related to the notions of «justice». In each story, the metaphorical and social developments of such conflicts are analyzed. Our reading is based on Rosa´s brazilian literary criticism, in particular the readings made by Antonio Candido (2001), Eduardo F. Coutinho (2013), Paulo Ronai (2017), Silviano Santiago (2019), Walnice Nogueira Galvao (2006) and Lourival Holanda (2019). The article is divided into two parts: in the first, there is a presentation, for the reader unfamiliar with the work of the Brazilian writer, of his production context and the main characteristics of his work. In the second part, the three stories are analyzed according to the proposal of the relations between law and literature.

Clarice Lispector, Ora stelei: Măști narative și violență textuală

Published in 1977, the year of its author’s death, The Hour of the Star, Clarice Lispector’s last novel, represents one of the best creations of the Brazilian writer. The book describes the poor life of a young woman, but at a deeper level it analyzes the complex relationship between author and reader, but also between authors and their fictional creations, the characters. Rodrigo and Macabéa, the character and the narrative voice in The Hour of the Star play an intricate game of masks, permanently reduplicating perspectives and forcing the reader to decode the meanings of violence (either textual or physical) Lispector describes within the novel.

Documenting Brazil's battle with HIV/AIDS

Carta Para Além dos Muros (Letter Beyond the Walls) is something of a tribute to Brazilian writer Caio Fernando Abreu, who died from an AIDS-related illness in 1996 at the age of 47 years. Abreu wrote about loss and loneliness:

Quarantine and the Quarantined Man

Bruna Dantas Lobato is a Brazilian writer and literary translator from Portuguese. Her translations of Caio Fernando Abreu's Moldy Strawberries and No Dragons in Paradise are forthcoming.Quarantine...