Critical thought of Álvares de Azevedo through his prefaces: antagonism and dissolution

Author(s)

Natália Gonçalves de Souza Santos

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: São Paulo.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH/SBD)
• Defense date: 2013-01-23

Examining board members

Eduardo Vieira Martins; Helder Garmes; Wilton José Marques

• Advisor: Eduardo Vieira Martins

Abstract

This research investigates the prefaces to the books Lira dos vinte anos, O conde Lopo and Macário, by the Romantic writer Álvares de Azevedo (1831-1852). Its purpose is to devise and systematize the fundamental conjectures of the critical thinking found in these texts. With a view to contextualizing the discussions they provide in parallel with the Romantic debate taking place both in Brazil and abroad, this research makes use of yet other critical essays by the author in order to elucidate questions raised in the prefaces and, occasionally, in some of his poems and other works. Confronting the texts from the corpus made it possible to reconstitute a rich array of bibliographic references, especially French and Portuguese, as Théophile Gautier and Lopes de Mendonça, to which the author constantly turns. Such an array evinces a vast horizon of readings that goes far beyond Byron and Musset the most common sources among the Brazilian second generation of Romantics projecting the eminent figure of the foreseeable literary critic in Azevedo even in his primitive essays. His distancing from nationalist struggles, major goal of the majority of Brazilian critics and writers during the 1800s, allowed Azevedo to relate to another conception of literary criticism, one of German origin, designed mainly by the Schlegel brothers and Novalis. Such approximation, which may have taken place through both direct contact and French, Portuguese or even English translations, made Álvares de Azevedo take a different stand from that of his contemporaries regarding his own production and that of the authors mentioned throughout his prefaces and essays. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 10/13644-5 - Álvares de Azevedo: literary critic
• Grantee: Natália Gonçalves de Souza Santos
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master