moriconi & streeter, does literature still matter?

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Does Literature Still Matter? (Working Notes on the States of the Art of Brazilian Literature)Author(s): Ítalo Moriconi and Mark StreeterSource: Luso-Brazilian Review, Vol. 40, No. 2, Special Issue: Luso-Brazilian Studies in the NewMillennium (Winter, 2003), pp. 83-88Published by: University of Wisconsin PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3514078 .

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Does Literature Still Matter? (Working Notes on theStates of the Art of Brazilian Literature)

Italo Moriconi

The final ten to at the most fifteen years of the 20th centuryhave frequentlybeencharacterized as a period of profound crisis in Brazilian literature.Along with this

diagnosis-which is not, it maybe saidin passing, uniquein any way eitherto ourcountryor to its ideologues-one hearsof a crisis in literary ulture,of a crisisin literary ducation

[formacao].' Inthe following pagesI will presupposearelationofnecessitybetweenvarious

diverse terms: literature, iterarylife, literaryculture, literaryeducation, literarydesire[vontade], literary etishization.Literature xists only if thereexists a literary ife; literarylife exists only if there exists a literaryculture,that is, a more or less codified systemofcollective reference to a determined,yet flexible, canonicalrepertoireof texts, at bottomfictionalandpoetical,withina secularcivilization thathasrelegatedoa secondplanesacredtexts of monologicalreferencesuch as the Bible, the Torah,or the Koran.

The historyof literaryculture, n the translinguistic,occidental and now even almost

global sense of the expression,and of literarycultures, n the particularized, egionalandnationalsense, is theagonistichistoryof thedialectic betweenthetrajectory f belles lettresand instances of canonical legitimation.The lively andrapidmovementof belles lettres,

whichderivesfrom themarketplace ndthepublicsphere, s alwaysproducinganti-canons.In turn, iteraryculturecansurviveonly if thereexists literary ducationas a centralaspectof "education" n the largersense (in the sense ofpaideia). Thehistoryof education s the

subjective and objective history of educational institutions in which are produced,reproduced,and circulatedshared ntellectualvalues, ethics, andattitudes,hermeneutical

traditions,as well as the codes andritualsof scholarlypracticeandthought.In Braziltoday,such educational nstitutionsare,solely andexclusively, the universities.2

From a socio-structuralpoint of view, literaryculture is a result of literarydesire,organizedin discoursesandpracticeswhose thematicobsessions,as well as whose formallimitsandpossibilities,borderon a largerpolitical-pedagogical space n whichconflictsaredecidedin relation o the

foundationalprinciplesandgreater ndsof thesociety,understoodas whatever social group (national, regional, local, transversal,virtual) in which theexistence of such a desireis registeredandverified.Literarydesire is what defines literaryfetishization,without whichno texthaseithersense or value.3From heinstitutional ointof

view, literarydesirenurtures heformationof theformative radition,definingahorizonfor

writing's social responsibility.Inthe case of Brazil,writing'sresponsibilityhasbeen linkedtraditionallyo its role in

the constructionof anefficientstate.Oneshould rememberhereAntonioCandido'sclassicthesis abouttheperiodthathe calledthe "formation f Brazilian iterature"the 18thand19th

centuries),duringwhich the pattern or intellectualand literary ife was instituted n our

country, a patternmarkedby a certainduality

in social roles in which the writer is also

frequentlya professionalpolitician,and,moreoftenthannot, the professionalpoliticiana

Luso-BrazilianReview,XL 0024-7413/02/083? 2003 by theBoardof Regentsof the

Universityof WisconsinSystem



Luso-BrazilianReview,40/2

practitionerof fiction andpoetry.In the semanticsof Candido,"formation"s a collective

termreferring o the historicalconstructionof a"we"-a community f writersandreaders,which he calls "the literary system." Such a system is defined by the desire to have a

literature,whichechoes thedesire to have anation, tself"in formation" nder heaegisof a

never-endingeffort atpoliticalandculturalunificationpromulgatedby the state,for whichwritersare, literally,functionaries.

Despite the ideological rupturesthat have divided-for the most part in a rather

superficialway-the protagonistsof ourliteraryandintellectual ife in thepost-1930 epoch,the responsibility for supplying the nation with a literature-a literatureacceptablefor

adoptionas acanonby state-supported edagogical nstitutionsandcapableofenteringnto

internationalcirculation as works of quality-has been thrownuponthe shouldersof all.

There is a correlation between an individual's educationalformationin literature, he

formation of an autonomousliterarysystem,and the formationof the nationas an entityendowed with its own eruditecultural dentity.The exportabilityof eruditeor learned(in

sum, literary)culture has always been put forwardas the exportationof that potentialnational identity. Oswald de Andrade believed that such exportationwould come to be

accomplishedby diplomat-intellectuals.Antonio Candidofor his parttrustedsolely and

exclusively in thenationalizeduniversitysystem,of whichhe wastheprimary roductof the

firstgeneration.No matterhow dominant he constructiveandpedagogicalresponsibility o the state

mayhave been for literarymodernism, t failed to controlthescene in itsentirety; herewas

analternative urrent hatsubsequentlyachieveddominance,onerecycledandre-clothedbythe work of ClariceLispectorout of a vanguardist-kitsch ardrobe.This currentpertains o

the movementrepresentedby prosewritersof a tragicbent,suchas Licio Cardoso,Corelio

Pena,Octavio de Fariaandothers,andby poets such as theearlyViniciusde Moraesor the

Jorgede Lima from Tempoe eternidadeto Invencaode Orfeu.It is a currentdirectedmore

towards the existential and subjective dimension of literarycreation than towards its

pedagogicalinsertion ntoa comprehensiveproject nspiredbythe nationorstate.If there s

a pedagogy here, it is one of intimacy,of affects,of passions.When we examine the directions that Brazilian fiction took in the 1960s in the

emblematic works of Clarice Lispectorand Rubem Fonseca we can see that this new

dominantis already n play. LispectorandFonsecaopeneda creative vein quite different

fromthatgiven by themodelthatobliged responsibility o thestate(theintellectualpatternof which is impiouslycaricaturednAHoradaEstrela).InLispector'swork-on everypageof every text-one finds reaffirmedthe fact that the responsibilityof artistic creation

concerns only the idiosyncraticandtransgressive ndividualityof the artistherself, in her

intenseandpermanentdialoguewith a readingpublicthat nitiallywas barelysoughtafter,butwhich she projectedwithanobsessive, yetpolymorphic,coherence ntovirtuallyeverybook thatshe publishedin her career.

Inthe characters ndsituationsof thegreaterpartof RubemFonseca'sworkonedetects

the micrological horizon of a "life-world"foreign to the totalizing referentialityof the

nationalpolitics of unification,a life-world thatfunctionsonly in accordancewith its own

perversedynamics. (Oneexceptionwould beAgosto, in whichFonseca,in aninvestigationof the Brazilian national character via the dynamics of state politics, approachesthe

historicalnovel.)

The withdrawalof literature rom its relationto any articulatedsocial or politicalexigency continues to be accentuated n the course of the 1980s.Givingvoice to theperiod'slack, the rockmusicianCazuzautters he somewhatbelatedcry:"Ideologia eu querouma

pra viver" ("Ideology / I need one so that I can live"). A crucial aspect of the allegedmillennial crisis is the fact thatemergingwriters,not knowing in which values to anchor

84



their works, see themselves as adriftand lost. Each writer finds himself faced with the

circumstanceof havingto createhis own individualproject, nwhich he mustincludein an

at least implicitmannera definition of its addressee,of its desiredreader'snature,because

the category of the readertoo has lost its clarityand homogeneity. If in the modernist

paradigmone wrote in order o constructa Brazilian iterature, tcentury'sendthis ethicaljustificationfor literatures no longersufficient;for the timebeing at least, thereis simplyno will sufficiently grandioseto be able to occupythe spacevacatedby the flightof form-

giving meta-narrative.

I do not believe that this situationnecessarilypertainsto any crisis in the national

project-despite the fact that one may detect something like this in the process of the

dramatic reorientation that occurred in the 1990s with its emphasis on supra-nationalarticulations mostnotably Mercosul),something hatbrings,will bringorthatcontinues o

bringimportant onsequencesforthedisciplinaryknowledgeof literaturenoureducational

institutions.Whatone mustpointoutinstead s precisely hedisjunction etween,on the one

hand, the level of the nationalprojectthatis undergoing ransformation nd,on the otherhand,the level of political-pedagogicalprojects hatwould offerwritersandreaders reason

to continuewritingandreading.

* * *

A standard eadingof themillennialcrisislinksit to the transformationsssociatedwith

postmodemityas a global phenomenon.In orderto develop suggestionsalreadymadebyother critics and culturalcommentators, ne canadmitas a workinghypothesisthat Brazil

passed directly to postmoderity without ever having had implantedin its territoryacanonical moder culture.4Brazil entered into the era of televisual hegemony and,

immediatelythereafter, hat of digital literacybefore it could be said to have gotten even

close to winning the war for phoneticliteracyand for primaryandhigh school education.

One mustnote, however,thatthis is a problemonly insofaras one believes in a necessarycorrelationbetween the qualityof literaryart and the achievementof the Enlightenmentdreamof the criticalenlightenmentof the masses.

In the final two decades of the past centuryone witnessed the abrupt, houghlargelyuntraumatic, establishment of the hegemony of the multi-medial, multi-sensorial,communicationalparadigm,whichreachescapillary-likentoeverycorer of our ndividual

and collective bodies. One leaves the order of Literature n order to enter into that of

Communication.From iterary ormationasacumulative, elf-referentialntellectual rocess(to an "I"and to a "we")one passes to a libidinal immersion n the constantly changinguniverse of the proliferating ystemof audiovisualsigns. Fromthe horizon of constructive

responsibilityone passes to a horizondominatedby the culturalpracticesof diversionand

entertainment.

In Brazil, the primaryand high school educational system alreadyhas opted for

Communication n place of Literature, erhapson a scale unimagined n otherpartsof the

world.Theteachingof the"readingof signs"predominates verthe"alphabetic"eadingof

adiscursivetext, this understoodas a specifictypeof reading,of readingas anactivity, tself

discursive,involvingparaphrase ndtextualanalysisaccompanied y trainingn rhetoric nd

hermeneutics,anddesignedto equipindividualsandgroupswith the tools for nterventionnthe public sphereor, as one says in contemporaryargon,for the exerciseof theirrightsas

citizens.

Againstsuchtraditionaliterarypedagogy,we see todaythatsong lyrics,comicbooks,andfacile newspapercr6nicasconstitute heprivilegedmaterialsnthe"language"lasses of

Moriconi 85




ourchildrenandadolescents. Thatwhich in other countriesmay yet be seenperhapsas the

daringof revolutionary ducatorsoras acomplemento othermoremainstreamctivitieshas

become banal in the day-to-day reality of Brazilian schools. On the other hand,

paradoxically,because of the lack of adequate quipment nd heunpreparednessf teachers

in termsof didacticmethodology, hepedagogicalpossibilitiesof television itself,of video,andof personalcomputersremainunrealized.

If one looks attheschedules forthe finalyearsof highschool, one sees that"literature"

class, when it exists autonomously romclasses in grammar, ccupiestwo periods(or even

only one period)eachweek and that t is limited, n theabsolutemajority f cases,to leadingstudents in mechanically dentifyingthe characteristics f the baroque,of romanticism,of

pamassianism,and of modernism ntextualfragments.Thereadingof entire iteraryworks s

practicallybanishedfromthe lives of adolescents n themajorityof Brazilian chools.When

it is necessaryto readentirebooks, works of juvenile literature reusuallyassigned.Thereis a clear infantilizationof the readerof literaturehe or she who readsbecause

he or she likes to read) that is reflected in the publishing world and in its concept ofliterature,and which has spread to the university system itself in the context of the

disseminationand decentralizationof educationalinstitutions.The decline of the meta-

narrativeof formation n Candido's sense is indeedthe decline of the hegemonicforceof

USP [TheUniversityof Sao Paulo],orof what one can call USP-ianthought,understood s

a modelof thoughtthat endorsesa strategyof power/knowledge. ronically, heUSPprojectattained ts political apogee at the sametime as the complementary ystemformedby the

political partiesPSDB and PTcame into existence,while the humanistic houghtthathad

always sustained it lost its centralityas a resultof the growthof the universitysystem's

graduateprograms n Letters.

* * *

One victim of this new configuration s what in the 1970s we used to like to call the

opacityof the text.Themyththatprovidessustenance o the kind of literature emandedbythe marketplace s that literature s transparent nd clear,and thatthe writerof literature

should be capableof communicatingwith a wide numberof people.Maleandfemalewriters

of the 1990s andof the firstyearsof the21stcenturyhave had to be competentcompositionwritersabove all. Theyhave had to be preparedo say in anelegantor slightly provocativemannerthatwhich the

publicwantsto hear,thatwhich the

publicalreadyknows, a

publicthateachdaymoreand moreequatesto andcoincideswiththeTV-viewing public.A "one-

size-fits-all"knowledgeof life's facts andof esotericspirituality uits the writerbest. The

symbolof all of this is the namePaulo Coelho. In a recentmeetingwithwritersnSaoPaulo,MarciaDensercommentedthatthe "end"or "disappearance"f literaturen the courseof

the 1980s musthave occurredon the daywhenPaulo Coelho firstoccupiedthetop spot in

the bestsellerlists.

Indeed,threeyears ago, my graduate tudentsandImadeaquickcomparisonbetween

the bestsellerlists of the mid-1970s and those of the mid-1990s; it was possible to confirm

whateditors have been sayingfor years:thereis increasingly ess and less room for "real"

literature n the general accountingof book sales. It is of course true that the Brazilian

publishing market has not stoppedgrowing and that, in absolutenumbers,the sales forfiction and for the most renownedpoets have increased as well (including contemporary

poets, as in the cases of AdeliaPrado,Manoel de Barros,FerreiraGullarand,morerecently,Hilda Hilst). Nevertheless, the percentage of quality literaturesold has diminished in

relation to the overall numbersof book production.

86



The lists of thebestsellingbooks of the 1970sappear ike somethingout of adream: nthe same month one could find, simultaneously,recently publishedworksby authors ike

LygiaFagundesTelles, RubemFonseca,JoaoAntonio,OsmanLins.... Today,there is noliterature thatis, qualityfiction andpoetry)to be found,even at the bottom of such lists.

Rather,such spots aredominatedby books of little realvalue,which I proposebe deemedthe "MalbaTahaneffect."5

Still, contraryto the apocalyptic tones of some who see this crisis as absolutelyterminal,one must point out thatthereis a new generationof prose-writers hat surfaced

duringthe 1990s. AgainstwhatCazuzawas calling for at the beginningof the 1980s, this

generationhas madede-ideologizationits battlecry,while at the same time being able to

vary significantlythe ways in which such an anti-projectmightbe manifested.One of the

words or expressionsmostrepeatedby youngwritershas been levity,or lightness.Another

keyword s de-dramatization.From his basis one canidentify n prosefictiontwo principalcurrents,one that is investedin humor,another hat seeks to reinstate entimentalism.The

formerhas to do with languagehumor,with nonsense,which in the case of anauthor ikeMarcelo Mirisola achieves a total outrageousness,finding in literature he adolescentlyiconoclastic mirage of an "offensive machine,"which is nothing but the symmetricalcounterpoint o the comforting,seductivemachinethat is communicational,media-basedculture.There are othernotableauthorson the humorside, amongwhom I might highlightNelson de Oliveira andBerardo Carvalho.

The recuperationof sentimentalismhas been achievedin partby new female,thoughnot feminist, writers(I will mentionhere the name of AdrianaLisboa)as well as by gaywriters, although not exclusively, since one can also say that an author like Rubens

Figueiredo s equallyinvolved in linkingliterature nd affectiveintensity. nthe sentimental

current n contemporaryBrazilianliterature glimpse the glimmerof values: solidarity,generosity,identity-not as anessence-but as thedialogicalprocessof theconstruction f

interpersonalmemoriesandhistories.

TranslatedbyMarkStreeter

NOTES

See RobertoSchwarz n 1999:"Atpresent he literary ystemseems a repositoryof

forces in disintegration. do not saythis with any greatyearning,but in a spiritof realism.The system yet managesto function,or can function,as somethingreal andconstructiveinsofar as it is one of the spaces in which we can sense what is being decomposed.The

contemplationof the loss of acivilizatory orce does not for itspartceasebeing civilizatory.For a long time we have tended to see inorganicity,and the hypothesis of its beingovercome,as theparticulardestinyof Brazil. Now this inorganicityandtheruinationof thebelief in overcomingit appearas the destinyof the greaterpartof contemporary umanity;this is not, in this sense, a secondary experience" Seqiiuncias brasileiras 58). See alsoGalvao.

2 1have investigatedthe topic offormacao in the intellectual radition n two essays:"Conflitoe

integracao.A

pedagogiae a

pedagogiado

poemaem Antonio Candido,"and

"Umestadistasensitivo.A nogaode formacaoe o papeldo literario mMinhaformacaode

JoaquimNabuco."3 I have for some timebeen attempting o elaboratea reflectionon the categoryof the

"political-pedagogical"n essays such as those cited in the previousnote, as well as in the

Moriconi 87




following: "Qualquercoisa fora do tempo e do espaco (Poesia, literatura,pedagogiada

barbarie)" nd"A outradimensao:desidentidades."4 Silviano Santiago,"Alfabetizacao,eiturae sociedadede massa";AntonioCandido,

"Literatura subdesenvolvimento."

5 For those unfamiliar with Malba Tahan, see the website:

http://www.ohomemquecalculava.hpg.ig.com.br/index.htm.

WORKSCITED

Candido,Antonio. "Literatura subdesenvolvimento."A educacdopela noite. Sao Paulo:

Atica, 1987. 140-163.

Galvao,WalniceNogueira."CulturaContraCultura."adernoMais.Folhade SaoPaulo 17

Mar. 2002: 5-9.

Moriconi, italo. "Conflitoe integracao.A pedagogiae a pedagogiado poemaem AntonioCandido." Antonio Candido y los estudios latinoamericanos. Ed. Rail Antelo.

Pittsburgh: nstitutoInteracional de Literaturaberoamericana,001. 249-281.

."Um estadista sensitivo. A nocao de formanaoe o papel do literarioem Minha

formacao de JoaquimNabuco." RevistaBrasileira de Ciencias Sociais 16.46 (June

2001): 161-172.

. "A outra dimensao: desidentidades." Raizes e rumos - Perspectivas

interdisciplinaresem estudos americanos. Ed. Sonia Torres.Rio de Janeiro:Sette

Letras,2001. 71-78.

."Qualquercoisa fora do tempo e do espaco (Poesia, literatura,pedagogia da

barbarie)."Leiturasdo ciclo. Ed.RauilAntelo.Florian6polis:Grifos/Abralic, 999.75-86.

Santiago, Silviano. "Alfabetiza:ao, leitura e sociedade de massa."Rede imagindria -

Televisdo e democracia. Ed. Adauto Novaes. Sao Paulo: Cia das Letras, 1991.

["Readingand discursive intensities; on the situation of postmodernreception in

Brazil."Trans.MichaelAronna.Boundary2 [Durham]20.3 (Fall 1993): 194-202.]

Schwarz,Roberto.Seqiienciasbrasileiras.Sao Paulo: Ciadas Letras,1999.

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