Brazilian Literature

Know more about the history, the names and the works of the Brazilian Literature.

The history of Brazilian Literature is divided in periods, basically: Barroco, Arcadismo, Romantismo, Realismo/Naturalismo, Parnasianismo, Simbolismo, Modernismo.

Important names from the past and today:

Castro Alves, the "poet of the slaves", was one of the first abolitionists in Brazil, on XIX century.

Machado de Assis founded the Brazilian Academy of Letters in 1896. Maybe the greatest Brazilian novelist.

Jorge Amado, who wrote "Tieta" and "Gabriela Cravo e Canela", the most famous books of Amado in the world, but there are several other important works.

Carlos Drummond de Andrade, once wrote a Ode to the ordinary man:
"...Key in hand,
you want to open the door -
there is no door. . ."
and several other poems.

João Cabral de Melo Neto, "I try not to perfume the flower".
He wrote "Morte e Vida Severina" (Death and Life of a Severino) and several other poems and books.

Vinicius de Moraes, poet and diplomat, best remembered for his words in Bossa Nova songs.
The girl from Ipanema is just one of the Vinicius (poet) and Tom Jobim (musician) works. Vinicius has books and several poems.

Paulo Coelho, the "wizard", is a Brazilian novelist. His books have appeared on bestsellers list of UK, USA, Greece, Romania, Bulgaria, Russia, Cuba, Poland, Lithuania, France, Germany, Iran, Canada, Italy, Israel, Finland, Serbia. He is the all time best-selling Portuguese language author.
Madonna (singer) and Bill Clinton (ex-president) are fans of his work.

Latter I'll continue.

Maybe you can answer this, is Coelho's Portuguese as bad as they say? His translations into English aren't great to begin with, but I hear his grammar and style in original is even worse.

Earlier this year I read Capitães da areia (Captains of the Sand) by Jorge Amado, and quite liked it, but other than that I can't remember having read much from Brasilia. Where is a good starting point?

Thanks for join the thread!

JBI,
Congratulations, you're well-informed about it.
Yes indeed, the critic exist. But just about the Coelho's portuguese structure, not about themes of his books. It looks like the critics about Tolkien' english, almost all of them the same type of critics.
People says Coelho's books is for the housewives, teenagers, etc... never for the literature students. I agree in terms, but also disagree.
There are a lot of prejudice from the intelecuals about Coelho.
Coelho is not a rich literature as Carlos Drummond, Machado de Assis, etc... I know that. However, I apreciate the mysticism and the philosophy of his work. His stories teach us a few things, make we think sometimes... It is a good thing to considerate.

Furthermore, Portuguese grammar is not a easy thing, I have admit it.

The greek philosopher, Plato, was a terrible writer too (too long sentences, confuse, not very creative with vocabullary), I've read his work and I know that. But the knowledge of the Plato's philosophy is amazing! I really love his philosophy and I am a great fan of Plato. For me, Plato is one of the best philosophers, ever!
But I not compare Plato and Coelho. It's totally different.

So, Coelho is far from the top of greatest writers, but he has other qualities to consider.
Conclusion: Coelho is not a "Drummond" or a "Machado", but, as we say in Brazil, "he has his place".

Erichtho
I'm glad to hear your interess. I not sure if I understood your question, but I will try to answer it.
Brasilia is the capital of Brasil, you know, where the politics decisions are made.

If you want to learn more about Brazilian culture (I think that was the question, am I right?) I reccomend to you:
- Joao Cabral de Melo Neto
- Ariano Suassuna
- Vinicius de Moraes (the books, the poetry, the songs, etc)
- Machado de Assis, specially the book Memórias Póstumas de Bras Cubas (Bras Cuba's Posthumous Memories) The narrator is a dead person, and he is recalling his lost life. Great!
Specialists says that Machado de Assis goes beyond the Realism.
On Machado, it's a common thing his narrator talk to the reader.

Once again, thank you all for your participation.

Coelho portuguese is awful. If he was at school (not high school) he would have problems to get a C- or something like this. And what is this thing about his themes not receiving critics? When people call him a self-help writer they are exactly doing it. When they say he always tell the same story with the same message they are doing it. When they he is a new wave mambo jambo they are doing it. He have a place indeed, a place to remind us what happens with a dictadorship destroys a culture and education: Bad writers will domain the scene. I fall to see how Tolkien's english (Tolkien was a stundent of english language, Coelho is a destroyer of portuguese language was related to this) and dimissing the critics to coelho as t he same thing as If there is no reason to criticise Tolkien as well.

Coelho does not make us think - He give us always the easy answer. It is easy to understand. It is easy to read and put aside. It is accessible to everyone (hence why he is a best-seller). Machado de Assis, Guimaraes Rosa, Lima Barreto, Drummond, etc make us think because there is complexity in their works that match the complexity of life. Something Coelho likes to destroy.
And there is no prejudice about Coelho. They read coelho and saw him as cheap literature because he is cheap literature. They are not talking about something unknow, only use pre-judgmeent. However Coelho's pretenssion to be considered a great writer, his political manipulation to get a seat in the Brazilian Academy is ridiculous.
Have you read Plato in greek??? (Obviously you can Compare Plato to Coelho, but not for aesthetic merit since Plato didn't aimed it... however, Plato was a great creator of devices that would be used later for aesthetic devices, so he can be called an artists, either PLato likes or not).
Jorge Amado is a local kind of literature - as Much as Faulkner is in USA. You may start from him but that does not means you will go anywhere from him. Everything depends the kind of literature you like.

JCamilo, are you Brazilian?

I respect your oppinion, but disagree.
There are many different ways of literature. The world would be boring if all writers were always worried about grammar and vocabulary details.
Coelho writes for the simple people, not for the doctors. He writes at the same way people talk at the streets.
If exists a song style that sings slangs all the time (rock, hip hop...) and its way of sing is near from what people talk at streets, so why not the literature can do the same?
I love the classic way of speak, the classical literature is my favorite. But literature is not just it. Some people had studies, some didn't. Because of that they are forbbiden to write, to express themselves? I don't think so!

So, that's social prejudice and intelectual arrogance.

As in other countries, Brazilian literature is very rich and varied too.
But now I going to make a little change at the subject, just for a while.

The lyric poetry on ancient Greece times was made to sing and to hear, not to read. In Middle Age, the rondò and the song were forms of poetry, originally to be sung. The word "sonnet" means "little sound".
There were also the Minstrels and the Troubadours. I belive you all know that. So, what we have today?
I'm going to post a beautiful brazilian song here, cause I consider it is a kind of literature too.
The composer and letrist is Renato Russo, from the pop group Legião Urbana. For me, he was a great poet/singer. For a generation he was a hero.
I am not going to post Tom Jobim, Chico Buarque, etc, because everybody in whole world already know theese great composers. I want to present something new to the foreign people and popular to the Brazilians.
What is the bad of being pop? Shakespeare was pop on his time.

The lyric bellow talks about the discovery of Brazil and its colonization. Maybe it can be extend to the whole American Continet in general

Stanza 3 talks about the european people who arrived and made indians turn to slaves (europeans gave mirrors exchanged for indian labour, so the natives became slaves).
Stanza 4 talks about the europeans taughts about the christianism (the holy Trinity)
Last stanza: Maybe it had some influence from Jacques Rosseau philosophy.
Other details you will see in the lyric.

I've translated all by myself, from the Portuguese to English. It is a hard work, I don't know if it is correct. Sorry.
Anyway, here it goes:

Índios (Legião Urbana)
Indians (by Legiao Urbana)

I wish,
Once at least,
Take back all the gold
That I delivered to the one
who convinced me
That was proof of friendship
let someone take from me
Even what I hadn't

I wish,
Once at least,
To Prove that the one who
has more than needs
Almost always is convinced
That it is not enough
And speak a lot
because he has nothing to say.

I wish,
Once at least,
The simple things were seen
As the most important ones,
But they gave us mirrors
And we saw a sick world.

I wish,
Once at least,
To Understand how one only God
Is, at the same time, three
And This same God
was killed by you all
It is so evil
Drives a God to sadness.

I wish,
Once at least,
As the most beautiful tribe
Of the most beautiful Indians,
Do not be attacked
Because being innocent.

There are more, but for me these are best parts of the song. And that is what I wanted to share with you all.

I'm not here to enter into a discussion about if Paulo Coelho is poor literature or not.
I just want to say this: most of people which hate Coelho are envious, cause Coelho sold, and still sell, a lot of books all over the world. A lot of intelectual writers would like to make money with their books as Coelho does, but they don't, so they feel a little envy.
I'm not saying Coelho is a rich literature, but I respect him. As I told before, his portuguese is not a glamorous thing, but there are other kinds of literature, other kinds of languages, so he has his place.

I prefer people in this thread read the post before, see the poem and enjoy it, instead of wasting time with discussions.

If you hate Paulo Coelho, leave him with his peace of mind. Look for an author you apreciate. Why wasting your time talking about someone you dislike?

I totally agree with Antiquarian. There is beauty in the simplicity.

Now I hope you all enjoy the Legiao Urbana poem/song posted above. And I hope my translations work.

Yes simple prose can often be more beautiful than flowery prose-Kafka, Chekhov and Mansfield are great examples.

I really enjoyed the novel The Devil to Pay in Backlands, it is a great novel, my favourite Brazillian one, though I am not well-versed in Braz. lit. If your writing is as beautiful as your football then I might be more interested though....:D

Carolina
Darling, at the foot of your final bedstead
In which now you rest from this long life,
I come and will be coming my poor darling,
to offer you a companion’s heart.

True affection throbs in it
That, despite all strife in life,
Made our existence worthwhile
And contained the whole world in a single corner.

I bring flowers to you – remains torn from
This earth that saw us pass by together
And now that we’re deceased, it keeps us apart.

When I, in my mortally hurt eyes,
formulated thoughts about life,
those thoughts are past and gone.

Machado de Assis, 1906

From: Nadia Kerecuk – Machado de Assis poems – basic working translation for workshop on poetry - S. Watts June 07

Machado de Assis poems (translated to english):
http://www.brazil.org.uk/events/mach...chadopoems.pdf

Machado de Assis page (in english):
http://www.brazil.org.uk/events/machadodeassis.html

Available in english:

http://books.google.com.br/books?id=...mbnail#PPP1,M1

I don't know if it is the complete version of the book.

I'll try to find a pdf for download and other books translated to english, then I post here the link.

Inderjit Sanghe
Be welcome to the thread.
Did you read the post about Legiao Urbana and the posts before? I am trying to translate a few poems to present to the people a little part of the Bras. Lit.
Try to read Machado de Assis.
I belive you're going to enjoy it.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Brasil

JCamilo, are you Brazilian?

---

Yes. Are you as well?

Quote:

---

I respect your oppinion, but disagree.
There are many different ways of literature.

---

That is correct. There is different literatures and also different qualities of literature. Coelho writers self help books disguised of oriental parables and writes badly.

Quote:

---

The world would be boring if all writers were always worried about grammar and vocabulary details.

---

That is like a pilot who does not care about cars, a footballer that does not care about ball. A Writer must domain his vocabulary or grammar.

Quote:

---

Coelho writes for the simple people, not for the doctors. He writes at the same way people talk at the streets.

---

No. Jorge Amado or Lima Barreto wrote like people talk in the streets. Paulo Coelho writes very badly. And No writer writes for Doctors, having a simple and clear language is one thing - no writer needs to be Joyce or Guimaraes Rosa - but do not confund using badly a language with the same as writing for somple people.
Yes, he writes for simple people and worst, he kept them simple.

Quote:

---

If exists a song style that sings slangs all the time (rock, hip hop...) and its way of sing is near from what people talk at streets, so why not the literature can do the same?

---

Literature can. That is not what Coelho does. I am not talking about him writing like a linguistic, but he does that mistake when using average portuguese language.

Quote:

---

I love the classic way of speak, the classical literature is my favorite. But literature is not just it. Some people had studies, some didn't. Because of that they are forbbiden to write, to express themselves? I don't think so!

---

The problem of Coelho is not picking the popular vocabulary to write - the great part of the best brazilian literature was build that way, Dante did it - is doing the mistakes while doing it.

Quote:

---

So, that's social prejudice and intelectual arrogance.

---

He is one of the richest brazilians, he fought to be an Immortal in the Brazilian Academy and be equalled to James Joyce. I agree, he is arrogant.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Antiquarian

Some people might say the grammar in Eudora Welty's stories is awful, or in Alice Walker's Pulitzer Prize winning novel, The Color Purple. And, grammatically, it is. But it fits the story and the characters perfectly, and that's what counts. That's what matters. Welty's characters and Walker's characters couldn't be expected to speak any other way.

---

Walker and Eudora Welty are not great examples but well... Coelho does his mistakes when compared to an average brazilian writer. He does mistakes with the vocabulary/grammar/semantics he tries to use. He is not picking different dialetics even because everyone in coelho's stories have the same voice and style.

Quote:

---

While Coelho isn't my favorite author, I think his writing style fits his subject matter perfectly.

---

Agree, simple books that won't cause the reader any doubt, any thinking, and the sensation that happiness is one step from you.

Quote:

---

He tells fables, not complicated stories, and so his prose is uncomplicated as well. But there's beauty in simplicity as well as complexity. And there's depth. I've found both in Coelho's stories.

---

I wonder what depth. His stories are all the same about the "magic" that is fiding the happiness within or trusting yourself to achive success. Self Help.