Critical moments of Brazilian literary theory and criticism (1971-1989)

• Grant number: 18/15631-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: November 01, 2018
• End date: May 31, 2022
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Literature - Literature Theory
• Principal Investigator: Antonio Alcir Bernardez Pecora
• Grantee: Ana Karla Carvalho Canarinos
• Host Institution: Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem (IEL). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 19/14696-3 - The reception of French structuralism in Brazilian literary criticism in the 1970s and 1980s, BE.EP.DR

Abstract

This project proposes an investigation about the different positions of Brazilian literary criticism and theory of the 1970s and 1980s in the face of structuralism. To do so, we'll use the productions of Roberto Schwarz, Luiz Costa Lima, Silviano Santiago and José Guilherme Merquior over these two decades. The central problem refers to the different positions of critics before structuralism and how these different positions condition Brazilian literary criticism. Structuralism gained momentum in Brazil in the 1970s, when it received criticism from Roberto Schwarz and José Guilherme Merquior, and was absorbed in its various modalities by Luiz Costa Lima and Silviano Santiago. This dispute emphasized, on the one hand, the strength of the dialectic between form and social process; on the other, the defense of the autonomous character of the literary text in relation to socioeconomic factors. Therefore, the initial hypothesis of this project unfolds in two parts: 1) divergences in relation to structuralism generate disputes in the field of literary criticism, mainly through criticism of the vanguard movements present in the modernist aesthetic of 1920, and later in concrete poetry and in tropicalism (1950-1960); 2) the debate on structuralism goes beyond the binary opposition between committed criticism and formalist criticism. Thus, the study of these four authors will allow us to discuss: 1) the relationship between the problems of the constitution of literary theory in Brazil and the disputes in literary criticism; 2) the relationship between Brazilian literary theory and criticism and foreign theory, especially with regard to structuralism; 3) the problems of the institutionalization of literary studies in Brazil. (AU)