Year
in Review 1998: literature
BRAZIL
Encyclopædia Britannica Article
IRWIN STERN
During
1998 eminent Brazilian playwright Plínio Marcos turned
from his lifelong preoccupation with political themes. In his
new play, A dança final, he detailed a couple's
celebration of their 25-year marriage. Videoclip Blues,
a play by Marcos's son, Leo Lama, also dealt with human concerns--specifically
the lack of communication between a much younger couple. Also
of theatrical note was Aracy Balabanian's one-woman show Clarice
Lispector-Coração selvagem, which examined
and tried to dispel the myth behind the supposed depressed state
of Lispector, a short-story writer and novelist. A biography
of theatrical director Ademar Guerra, best known for his agitprop
productions of the 1970s, was written by his collaborator, Oswaldo
Mendes.
Marly
de Oliveira's volume of poems, O mar de permeio, dealt
with themes of anguish and emptiness. Roberto Piva, one of the
1960s poets most influenced by the Beat Generation, published
Ciclones, a volume of poems that centred on the sexual
nature of young men. Heitor Ferraz's first collection of poetry,
A mesma noite, provided isolation and frustration as
its resounding themes.
New
works of fiction included Marcelo Coelho's Jantando com Melvin,
which might be considered a Rabelaisian critique of contemporary
São Paulo high society; Luiz Alfredo García-Roza's
Achados e perdidos, which found detective Espinosa immersed
in contemporary life in Rio de Janeiro, where the city's social
extremes were accepted as part of a normal existence; and Carmen
L. Oliveira's Trilhos e quintais, a fictionalization
of the life of Maria Lacerda de Moura (1887-1945), an early
Brazilian feminist leader of the 1930s. Among other notable
novels were Cristovão Tezza's Breve espaço
entre cor e sombra and Betty Milan's O papagaio e o doutor.
New works of short fiction were published by Rubens Figueiredo
and Eric Nepomuceno.
Antônio
Cândido, Brazil's most highly regarded literary critic
and scholar, was awarded the Camões Prize for his body
of work. Poet Moacyr Félix published a biography of publisher
Ênio Silveira, who, during the 1960s and '70s, issued
works by the most controversial Brazilian and foreign writers
despite recurrent harassment by the military regime. Finally,
a new biography of film director Glauber Rocha was published
by João Carlos Teixeira Gomes.
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