| Lima Barreto | |
|---|---|
| Born | Afonso Henriques de Lima Barreto 13 May 1881 Rio de Janeiro City, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil |
| Died | 1 November 1922 (aged 41) Rio de Janeiro City, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil |
| Occupation | Novelist, short story writer, journalist |
| Nationality | Brazilian |
| Ethnicity | Mulatto |
| Literary movement | Pre-Modernism |
| Notable work(s) | Triste Fim de Policarpo Quaresma, Os Bruzundangas, Clara dos Anjos, O Cemitério dos Vivos |
| Relative(s) | Afonso Celso de Assis Figueiredo |
Afonso Henriques de Lima Barreto (May 13, 1881 — November 1, 1922) was a Brazilian novelist and journalist. A major figure on the Brazilian Pre-Modernism, he is famous for the novel Triste Fim de Policarpo Quaresma, a bitter satire of the first years of the República Velha in Brazil.
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Lima Barreto was born in Rio de Janeiro in 1881, to João Henriques de Lima Barreto and Amália Augusta. His father was a typographer and a monarchist, who had close connections to Afonso Celso de Assis Figueiredo, the Viscount of Ouro Preto, who would later become Lima Barreto's godfather. Barreto's mother died when he was very young, and he was subsequently sent to study at a private school run by Teresa Pimentel do Amaral. Soon after, he entered at the Liceu Popular Niteroiense, after the Viscount of Ouro Preto decided to pay for his studies. He graduated in 1894, and in the following year, he would enter the famous Colégio Pedro II. Soon after he graduated, he entered at the Escola Politécnica do Rio de Janeiro, but was forced to abandon it in 1904, in order to take care of his brothers, since his father's mental health was starting to deteriorate.
Barreto used to write for newspapers since 1902, but he achieved fame in 1905, writing for the Correio da Manhã a series of articles regarding the demolition of Castle Hill. In 1911 he founded, alongside some friends, a periodical named Floreal. Although it only lasted two issues, it received a warm reception by the critics. In 1909 he published his first novel, Recordações do Escrivão Isaías Caminha, a contundent and semi-autobiographical satire of the Brazilian society. However, his masterpiece, Triste Fim de Policarpo Quaresma, was published in 1911, under feuilleton form, being re-released under hardcover form in 1915.
During his last years of life, Barreto was attacked by heavy crisis of depression, which led him to alcoholism and many internations on different psychiatric hospitals. He died of a heart attack in 1922.
Barreto was a very sarcastic author, and he passed this personality to his books. His favoured target of criticism was the perceived mediocrity of the Brazilian people, mainly the government and the commercial / military authorities. One of his works that represents better this style is "Os Bruzundangas", a collection of tales he published in newspapers during a period of 20 years.
The author also heavily criticized the complex and difficult writing style, which was popular among Brazilian authorities as a symbol of "intelligence" and "high social status". Due this fact, Barreto adopted a simple style in his books, with less advanced vocabulary, so he could be understood by a majority of the Brazilian society. This provoked an increasing number of criticisms against the author, who was persecuted by the Brazilian elite for his non-classical style.
Barreto also used to explore the psychological conditions of his characters but, differently from realist authors like Brazilian Machado de Assis or Portuguese Eça de Queirós, this is not considered a great quality of Lima Barreto. Howsoever, his books are full of curious situations of its characters beliefs and thoughts: for example, Policarpo Quaresma (Barreto's most legendary creation) was a radical and almost utopian patriotic, and his beliefs led him to a tragic end. Policarpo was also innocent enough to believe the Brazilian "original nature" could be restored. Exaggerated innocence had also condemned the character Clara dos Anjos to a dishonored life (see "Main Works" below). As for the antagonists, Barreto explores the hypocrisy, the ignorance and the indifference to the others' suffering. Psychopathy was presented in his posthumous book Clara dos Anjos by the antagonist Cassi Jones, who had typical habits of a social psychopath: absence of care to other people's feelings, selfishness and detailed planning to achieve his goals, no matter how vile they are.
Tragic Death of Policarpo Quaresma - 1915
Considered Barreto's magnum opus, this story is frequently read in Brazilian schools and popular in the so called "Vestibular" (Yearly exams for University admission in Brazil). It tells the story of Policarpo Quaresma, a radical Brazilian patriot. Policarpo's dearest dream is to see Brazil as one of the world's most powerful nations. He notices many problems in the political and social structure of his country, realizing that Brazilian people loved the European culture more than their own country's and tries to change this reality.
The story, then, can be divided in three distinct parts:
The Bruzundangas - 1923
A collection of tales that Lima Barreto published in newspaper during the period of 20 years, approximately. It tells the life and customs of the People of Bruzundanga, an imaginary country that represents Brazil. In the book, tale by tale, Barreto tells of the corruption present in every sector of the Bruzundanga's life, from politics to education.
Lima Barreto decided to create a new country to represent Brazil in order to escape from politician and any other authority's persecution. In fact, The Bruzundangas itself is a great allegory to Brazilian famous personalities and public institutions. A notorious example can be found in the book's first chapter, which is called "Special Chapter": the narrator teaches about Bruzundanga's literature, which is conduced by the elitist school of the "Samoiedas". In this literary school, the students get satisfied "only with shallow literary appearances and an ordinary simulation of notoriety, sometimes because of their intellectual incapacity and some other times by a vicious and careless instruction", as Barreto himself wrote. In this case, the "Samoiedas' school" is an allegory to the Brazilian classical writing style, which was still heavily influenced by the Parnassianism and Symbolism.
Clara dos Anjos - 1948
This posthumous novel presents the character Clara dos Anjos, a girl from a poor family that lives in the suburb of Rio de Janeiro. The story is about Clara's passion for Cassi Jones, an unscrupulous boy and son of a richer family. Cassi, who has made an uncountable number of women pregnant and abandoned them all, seduces Clara for his libidinous purposes. Clara, who is innocent due her parents' severe protectionism, ends up pregnant. At the end, Cassi flees and Clara finds herself abandoned and "dishonored". In his book, Barreto intends to show how disgraced is the destiny of poor women in Brazil, as he demonstrates in Clara's last quote: "We are nothing in this life". More than that, however, the author also shows the hypocrisy of rich people (mainly represented by Cassis' mother, who constantly protects her son) and the absurd selfishness of the Brazilian youth (represented by the character Cassi Jones).