The forgotten major: Histórias de Alexandre, by Graciliano Ramos

• Grant number: 11/16814-1
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date until: March 01, 2012
• End date until: July 31, 2013
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Literature - Brazilian Literature
• Principal Investigator: Carlos Eduardo Ornelas Berriel
• Grantee: Edmar Monteiro Filho
• Host Institution: Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem (IEL). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Histórias de Alexandre, by Graciliano Ramos, was published in 1944, when the writer lived in Rio de Janeiro. A few years earlier, in 1938, had come to public Vidas Secas, the last of his devoted novels. It's possible to say that Graciliano was in an important creative moment, publishing articles and stories in the press in Rio. Histórias de Alexandre received little media attention, being described as smaller book and remaining on the sidelines of a consistent and critically acclaimed work, perhaps overshadowed by Infância, his first overtly autobiographical book features, published soon after in 1945. However, a careful reading shows that Histórias de Alexandre displays the same concerns present in all other writings by Graciliano Ramos - disbelief concerning with the politics and the justice, the clash between rural and archaic structures and modernizing forces represented by the urban environment and industrialization; denunciation of misery, aversion to capitalism and the blistered language - although presented as wonderful tales, unusual shape in the work of the writer. Thus, we can say that the book shows not only be consistent within the overall Graciliano literature, but also as a space for the perception of his personality and formal choices. It's possible to establish a parallel between the stories told by Alexandre and O Narrador, by Walter Benjamin, from the point of view of the craftsmanship of the stories, as well as the destruction of an ideal model of organization of productive forces which would support the traditional forms of oral narrative. The character takes his place as a link in a complex chain formed by other unknown narrators and their hearers, who appropriate a fictional content, transforming it. Thus, overlooked by much of the criticism, Histórias de Alexandre brings together elements of interest within the set of his writings, adding even other dimensions subject to a more detailed look like a wonderful tale and fable. In Histórias de Alexandre, Graciliano Ramos elects narrative and memory as elements of discussion about the transformation of their world, allowing the use of ideas developed by Walter Benjamin in O Narrador for understanding the book.

Academic Publications

(References retrieved automatically from State of São Paulo Research Institutions)

MONTEIRO FILHO, Edmar. The forgotten major: Histórias de Alexandre, by Graciliano Ramos. 2013. Master's Dissertation - Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem Campinas, SP.