Entre a política e a literatura: José Américo e a construção de representações de masculinidade em A Bagaceira (1928).

Abstract

Despite the existence of a considerable amount of research about the novel "A Bagaceira", by José Américo de Almeida, more extensive studies on the challenges of the genre are still scarce. Therefore, we propose in this dissertation to analyze the representation of masculinity found in this novel. Although "A Bagaceira" is our main source of information about the proposed subject, other complementary sources from the same author that are not from the same year of the our main book will be used. For that reason the analysis temporality is going be situated mainly around the 1920's. In this decade the author wrote his famous essay “A Paraíba e seus problemas” (1923) and his novel nationally famous novel, “A Bagaceira” (1928). This decade is also known for the arrival of the modernist ideals from São Paulo to the state of Pernambuco and, atthe same time, there was an invigoration of the Regionalist and traditionalist way of thinking that was being spread from Recife (Azevedo, 1984). This resulted in a strong debate between who defended a kind of art/literature aligned with the Modernism and the people who followed an ideal more focused in the Regional sentiment. We argue, based on his work, that José Américo de Almeida, despite the ambiguities, seems to have aligned towards the modernist proposal, according to evidences based on his choices when representing aspects of masculinity in his work. We can then read in "A Bagaceira" the representations created by José Américo in relation to the Modern masculinity: what manly values are involved in positive connotation through the logic narrative of the novel? What models of masculinity are being discouraged by the author's discourse? Our central theoretical framework is linked to Roder Chartier's (1990) work, following his ideas on cultural representation. We tried to relate the representations in his novels with his political, economical and intellectual views, at the same time we incorporate his views in the political esthetics debates from his time. We also tried to highlight how the author built from himself a representation that features specific manly values and how this representation characterized the genre in his work.