On ordinary speech: stylistic study of The Masters and the Slaves and The Mansions and the Shanties

Author(s)

João Guilherme Ladeia Viana

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: Campinas, SP.
• Institution: Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem
• Defense date: 2019-03-19

Examining board members

Alfredo Cesar Barbosa de Melo; Jefferson Cano Fernandes; Thiago Lima Nicodemo

• Advisor: Alfredo Cesar Barbosa de Melo

Abstract

Gilberto Freyre's prose style in "The Masters and the Slaves" and "The Mansions and the Shanties" has been seen as one of his defining characteristics ever since the immediate reception of the text until its most recent interpretations. In light of this, the current thesis undertook to analyse, through close-reading, the main characteristics of such style in depth. It was seen that Freyre, in a society of limited literacy, managed to produce a largely synesthetic prose, close to the literate oral variety of Brazilian Portuguese. It was also noted that the author employed the techniques of enumeration and modalization to construct his arguments, whilst formulating images from his own esthesis without disregard for documental work. To do so, he used an impressionist mode of expression and labored carefully with the varying perspectives present in his base archives. Along the process, one can notice a constant interlocution, sometimes implicit, other explicit, with the reading community, so as to invite it to participate in the experiences the author defined as characteriscally Brazilian (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 17/08500-3 - On ordinary speech: a stylistic study of CCasa-grande & Senzala e Sobrados e Mucambos
• Grantee: João Guilherme Ladeia Viana
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master