BRAZILIAN LITERATURE

Writings in the Portuguese language produced by inhabitants of Brazil. Three ethnic groups have contributed to the shaping of this literature: the native Indians, the transplanted Europeans, and the blacks, who were brought from Africa as slaves. The resulting cultural mosaic was given unity by a common tongue. Throughout the centuries after Portugal began (1530) its systematic colonization of Brazil, the Portuguese language established the particular character of Brazilian literature and the intimate relationship of the literature with that of the mother country.

The history of Brazilian literature parallels that of other Latin American literatures; influenced by European thought and culture, it is readily divided into two periods, the colonial and the national.

Colonial Period.

The literature of the colonial period is naturally rich in historical and geographical descriptions. A strong national pride pervades even the first works. The exploration of Brazil, the wars incidental to its conquest by Portugal, and the early settlement by Portuguese and other Europeans of its inland plateau, or sertão, form the major themes of the early writings. The first literary works based on the conquest were chronicles and epic poems. These soon began to reflect the affected and overcivilized influences emanating from the Iberian Peninsula. The mannered style called Gongorism, for instance, made its way to Brazil and especially to Bahia, which enjoyed distinction as the first literary center of the country. Indeed, Bahia was the locale of some of the first Brazilian epics. An early nationalist was the Jesuit priest Antônio Vieira (1608–97); he defended the Indians and preached against the Dutch, who repeatedly attacked Brazil during the 17th century, in sermons rich with rhetorical devices and polemical exaggeration. Contemporaneous tendencies in Spain and Portugal were reflected by the satirist Gregório de Mattos Guerra (1633–96); his work ranged from delicate lyricism to outright vulgarity.

By the second half of the 18th century the literary hegemony passed from Bahia to the vigorous mining towns of Minas Gerais. Of the several epics originating with this group, the outstanding was Uruguay (1769) by José Basílio da Gama (1740–95). This verse narrative deals with the war of Spain and Portugal against the Uruguayan missions. It depicts Indian life and customs with sympathy and even sentimentality. Friar José de Santa Ritta Durão (c. 1737–84) also belonged to the Minas Gerais school; his epic Caramurú (Sea Dragon) celebrated the discovery of Bahia. Although few masterpieces were written in the colonial period, the growth and economic betterment of the country permitted more Brazilians to turn to a career in letters.

National Period.

Continental literary tendencies continued to be reflected in 19th-century Brazilian literature, even as it came to grips with its own national preoccupations, the sertão and the selva (the Amazon jungle). Romanticism, for example, was brought to Brazil from France by Domingos José Gonçalves de Magalhães (1811–82) in his Suspiros poéticos e sâudades (Poetic Sighs and Longings, 1836). He is credited with giving to Brazilian verse new and freer forms that further distinguished it from Portuguese verse. Of greater status as a romantic poet was Antônio Gonçalves Dias (1823–64). Devoted to the Indians because of the indigenous blood in his own veins, he compiled a Dictionary of the Tupi Language (1858). His best poetic efforts, three volumes of Cantos (1846, 1848, 1851), are effusive and sentimental but vividly descriptive of tropical nature. Antônio Álvares de Azevedo (1831–52) was another of the considerable number of Brazilian romantic poets, many of whom, as it happened, died in their twenties and thirties. Many other 19th-century Brazilian poets, such as Olavo Bilac (1865–1918), Raimundo Correia (1860–1911), and Alberto de Oliveira (1857–1937), were disciples of the French Parnassians.

Jorge de Lima (1895–1953) was one of the most prolific and able poets of the 20th century. His career evolved from Parnassian beginnings to the expression of social and revolutionary ideas. Two other outstanding poets were Manuel Bandeira (1886–1968), whose Complete Poems were issued in English translation in 1944 (3d ed.), and Carlos Drummond de Andrade (1902–87). The latter, whose colloquial verse takes note of social and political problems, had much influence on younger poets. He was a popular dramatist as well. A poet concerned with regionalist themes was João Cabral de Melo Neto (1920–99); his verse, rooted in native folklore tradition, is represented in his Poesias completas (1968).

The most important novelist of the 19th century was Joaquím María Machado de Assis, whose reputation continues to grow with time. His many novels are distinguished for their psychological penetration; some of his insights into personality anticipate the findings of psychoanalysis. He views his characters with pessimism and irony, but his mood is one of sadness rather than anger. His novel Memorias póstumas de braz cubas (1881) was successful in English translation (Epitaph of a Small Winner, 1952). Other English versions of Machado’s works are Dom Casmurro (1953), regarded as his masterpiece, and Esau and Jacob (1965).

Indian themes were exploited by José de Alencar (1829–77) in such novels as O Guarani (The Guarani, 1857), which combines a romanticized picture of Brazil’s indigenous peoples with descriptions of the magnificence of nature and colorful accounts of local life. Two 19th-century novelists who chronicled life in the Brazilian backlands were Bernardo da Silva Guimarães (1825–84) and Euclides da Cunha (1866–1909). The novel Rebellion in the Backlands (1902; trans. 1957) by the latter remains the best-known regional novel of Brazil. This masterpiece is a fictionalized narrative concerning the uprising of a group of religious fanatics, depicting not only the society but also the geography, geology, and even zoology of the Brazilian backlands. Two novelists who set the stage for realism and naturalism in Brazilian literature were Manuel Antônio de Almeida (1831–61), author of Memories of a Militia Sergeant (2 vol., 1854–55; trans. 1959), and Alfredo d’Escragnolle, visconde Taunay (1843–99), who is identified with the Mato Grosso region that he pictured in his novels. The first authentic naturalistic author was Aluizio Azevedo (1857–1913), a harsh analyst in prose; his O mulato (1881) recounts the tragedy of a mulatto who is killed to prevent his marriage to a white woman. Mário de Andrade (1893–1945), on the other hand, ignored the naturalistic tradition and concern with social themes of his contemporaries, as is evident in his volume of poetry, Hallucinated City (1922; trans. 1968). His only novel, Macunaíma (1928), dealing with Brazilian folklore, is narrated in a style characterized by linguistic experiment.

African influences and the theme of slavery have played an important role in the work of Brazil’s many black writers, including, for example, the renowned poet João da Cruz e Sousa (1861–98). See also African-Americans.

The probing of Brazilian society continued to be a main task of the novelist in the 20th century. Examples include the analysis of country life in Plantation Boy (1932; trans. 1966), by José Lins do Rêgo (1901–57), and the portrayals of urban life in the works of the gifted, versatile Erico Veríssimo (1905–75). Veríssimo’s lively novels have been translated into many languages, including English: Crossroads, in 1943; Night, in 1954; and His Excellency the Ambassador, in 1967. João Guimarães Rosa (1908–67), author of The Devil to Pay in the Backlands (1956; trans. 1963) and Sagarana (1946; trans. 1966), continued the naturalistic tradition. Much influenced by the American novelist William Faulkner, he wrote in an idiosyncratic experimental style. The novels of Jorge Amado, particularly successful in the U.S., include Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon (1958; trans. 1962), The Violent Land (1944; trans. 1945), Shepherds of the Night (1964; trans. 1967), Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands (1966; trans. 1969), and The War of the Saints (1989; tr. 1993). Clarice Lispector (1925–77) was a short-story writer and novelist acclaimed for her spare lyricism, much in the manner of the contemporary French nouveau roman (or “antinovel”). Her collection Family Ties (1960; trans. 1972) includes the much-anthologized “The Crime of the Mathematics Professor.” Her novels include the allegorical, nightmarish The Apple in the Dark (1961; trans. 1967) and The Passion According to G.H. (1964).

Brazil has not produced dramatists equal in stature to its novelists and poets, but the works of Drummond de Andrade and Ariano Suassuna (1927– ) are to be noted. Suassuna’s work draws on folk material and is religious in content; his The Rogues’ Trial (1956; trans. 1963) presents a concept of the world as a puppet theater, with God as the puppeteer. The astonishing economic and social upsurge of Brazil during the second half of the 20th century, particularly the growth of huge urban centers, suggests that the nation will continue to produce a rich and varied literature of increasing international importance. R.J.C., ROBERT J. CLEMENTS, M.A., Ph.D.