In close combat with Brazil: the dilemmas of national identity in João Antônio's literature

• Grant number: 14/22950-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: August 01, 2015
• End date: July 31, 2017
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Literature - Brazilian Literature
• Agreement: Coordination of Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES)
• Principal Investigator: Tânia Pellegrini
• Grantee: Júlio Cezar Bastoni da Silva
• Host Institution: Centro de Educação e Ciências Humanas (CECH). Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR). São Carlos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

João Antônio's literary production, published between the 1960's and the 1990's, carries on a profound discussion on Brazilian nationality, in terms of a literary project. This project, explicitly characterized in his text-manifest "In close combat with life" ("Corpo-a-Corpo com a vida", 1975), published while his work was already in progress, reminds of a necessary representation of Brazilian life aspects, focusing mostly the popular experience and the urban development boundaries from the mid twentieth century. Thus, João Antônio's literature constantly retakes subjects developed since the beginning of his production, marking a progressive view about aspects that are considered authentic, authentically Brazilian and popular, for the correct apprehension of local inequalities and of its formation problems. This way, the writer oscillates between a latent view marked by national-popular art, such as its realization in the Brazilian mid twentieth century, and its subsequent deconstruction, nevertheless always present in his work. We have as a hypothesis, thus, that João Antônio's literature responds to questions on Brazilian literary tradition and on the representation of the national element, tradition that is questioned from the mid to the end of twentieth century, making a panel of the literary debates of the moment, and also of the historical transitions occurred during the Brazilian military dictatorship period (1964-1985). João Antônio, in this sense, appear to us as a fundamental writer for the comprehension of part of the changes in Brazilian literature by the end of the last century, when the national question loses its preeminence on literary representation, in behalf of another questions and conflicts that will outline contemporary production. (AU)