THE METAMORPHOSIS OF REGIONALISM IN THE CONTEXT OF THE

BRAZILIAN LITERATURE HISTORYi

Peterson Martins Alves de Araujo (UFRN)ii

Abstract
This article, based on the studies of Antonio Candido, proposes a new vision for the
transformation of the regional movement throughout the Brazilian literature history. And, unlike
the point of view of other researchers, it still identifies the regional movement in Brazilian
literature, yet with a new proposal that reflects the new profile of identity representations. This
paper seeks to provide answers in the analysis of Brazilian literary critique on works that reflect
the current phase of regionalism in Brazilian literature (herein known as hyper-regionalism). For
this reason, this paper attempts to identify the main structural features of hyper-regionalism from
a comparative study between the novel Grande Sertão: veredas (there is a traslation in English
titled “The devil to pay in the backlands”, 1963) – by João Guimarães Rosa, and the Romance
d’A Pedra do Reino – by Ariano Suassuna.

Keywords: Antonio Candido, regionalism, hyper-regionalism, Ariano Suassuna, João Guimarães

Rosa.

1 Introduction
The pathway of Brazilian literature in search of its authentic expression is steep and specular,
constituting not as a final point, but as an eternal 'forthcoming’ of this process. Being considered
steep by oppressive control of Portuguese Metropolis with relation to the intellectual production
of its colony; and speculate by fact that we mirror both the European styles and tastes in our
literary creation. This process, according to Candido (“Literatura e Subdesenvolvimento” 140),
embodies the entire Latin American literature; and even in our Modernism, considered the period
of literary maturity, we will always own the influences of European avant-guard movements.
However, in means of search for an identity in Brazilian literature, the regionalist movements
have emerged into different periods to respond, according to Galvão (92), to a certain interest in
knowing the inland’s mysteries of its own territory (the mysterious “sertão”1 ). Unlike Portuguese
people who filled themselves up with a certain obsession with the sea (as one can perceive in:
“bacarolas” in “Canções de Amigo”2 from the classical style called “Trovadorismo”; “Os
Lusíadas”, by Camões; A Mensagem, by Pessoa; and, contemporaneously, “Jangada de Pedra”,
by José Saramago).
However, in order to understand the formation of regionalism along the Brazilian literature,
we must mention the way how this style establishes the role of narrator throughout the history of
mankind. To do so, we rely on the text “The Narrator”, by Walter Benjamin. In this so reffered
essay, Benjamin proposes that the first identification of the narrator is basically constituted of
three social positions: “the sedentary peasant”, “the merchant seaman”, and “the artisans of
medieval constabulary” (Benjamin 198-199). Implicitly, this alignment of narrators was located
within two cultural traditions with respect to language development. The sedentary peasant

1 A type of climate with specific vegetation in Brazilian territory, specially found in some areas of the Brazilian
hinterland.
2 Both “bacarolas” and “canções de amigo” are different literary genres which appeared in “Trovadorismo”.
(regarding the sociocultural environment in peasantry) will be closer to the context of oral
traditions, whereas the merchant seaman (has been often found in various people and traditions)
will find it necessary to develop some sort of written code to register their business operations.
On being so, one will easily perceive a kind of urban area in its scenario and, therefore, a written
tradition which is present in most striking cities. The former example embodies the two first
traditions, once that the master artisan, in his time as an apprentice, also had a nomadic
characteristic (whose origen is mainly linked to peasantry), before he had settled in the borough
sedentarily (e.g., in the city).
According to all above mentioned, we argue that Benjamin was already aware of this
narrative tension between country and city, moreover this same tension will be the one that is
implicit (or explicit) in the whole narrative constructed. However, the artisan would be the one
who would be able to reconcile both traditions, and the most comprehensive model of narrator,
once that "the corporate system was associated with knowledge of distant lands, brought home
by migrants, with knowledge of the past, collected by the sedentary worker "(Benjamin 199).
The explanation of this tension (country x city), in our literature, will be mostly built when the
regionalist tendencies begin to take shape, and in the Brazilian context, this occurs consciously in
the same period in which it has been recognized that Brazil is an independent nation, and
therefore it is expected a great effort in establishing a national literature that reflects the "unity",
the "authenticity" and "exuberance" of the new heterogeneous nation. Hence, we will find in
artisan-narrators by João Guimarães Rosa, and Ariano Suassuna (respectively, Riobaldo – “The
Devil to Pay in the Backlands”; and Quaderna - Romance d’A Pedra do Reino) some of the most
perfect models in Brazilian literature – with respect to this misture of both oral and written
traditions (in other words, rural and urban) – in society. Similarly, Arrigucci Junior (18) endorses
what we stated, once that he realizes that Riobaldo embodies both the mobility of the seaman and
the sedentary lifestyle of the peasant. On the other hand, the former author does not advance well
enough in the understanding of the artisan-narrator, the same developed by Walter Benjamin as
mentioned before. However, one of the brilliant prospects of Arrigucci Junior (20) was drawing
the movement direction, presented in the novel herein reffered to, that flows from the country
(precisely, the “sertão”) to the city. Thus, this achievement ends up approaching this "being" –
who had been prejudicially considered as archaic and backward – to the bourgeois universe of
the city in a labyrinthic via in which the enjoyment of this movement does not occur in an one-
way direction, but a true two-way movement of going back-and-forth, as it is explained in the
full title of the novel by Suassuna (Romance d’A Pedra do Reino e O Príncipe do Sangua do
Vai-e-Volta), moreover we can extend this analysis to Grande Sertão, by Rosa, in their various
veredas3 .
2 How does the concept of hyper-regional come out?
In understanding this concept, we rely primarily on text Literatura e Subdesenvolvimento –
Literature and Underdevelopment – (1987), by Antonio Candido in which the author then
compiles it along with other essays in the book of his own Educação pela Noite e Outros
Ensaios (“Education by Night & Other Essays”). In that book, the author points out three stages

3 Grande Sertão: veredas is the original title for The Devil to Pay in the Backlands, one out of various known
translations into English. Grande Sertão means “great hinterland”; veredas means “paths”, in a free translation. The
sentence in question is written in a way that it makes use of Stylistics to cause an aesthetical effect. It sounds
something like that: “moreover we can extend this analysis to Great Hinderland, by Rosa, in their various paths.
of regionalism in literature, following a chronological order: “romantic regionalism” (late 19th
century); “critical regionalism” (late 19th century up to 1956) and “super-regionalism” (also
called “supra-mythic regionalism” by Benedito Nunes; “cosmic regionalism” by Arrigucci David
Jr). In order to come up with this concept, Candido was inspired by the aesthetic innovation in
Rosa's prose that started in 1946 with “Sagarana” and reaches its perfection in “Grande Sertão:
veredas”, in 1956. In this aesthetic proposal, we observe the use of the thematic “sertão” and,
unlike the regionalists of the 1930’s, the latter one starts from the local color, we can find the
universal in both being and land in a mythic and oniric narrative.
It is interesting to realize the foretelling character (Pires 74-75) that this text by Candido will
perform in literature, especially because it was written in the 1970’s. It was first published
outside the country (French translation in 1970, Spanish in 1972) and only released in Brazil at
the end of this decade.
The text ends up being a response to all the critics who felt that regionalism would have no
expressive power, because, according to Candido (86 in Frizon):
(...) both Brazilian and Latin America critics state that the slogan is 'death to
Regionalism', for the present, and contempt for what it was, for the past. This
critical attitude is good if we take it as an 'enough!' for the tyranny of the
picturesque, which happens to be after all a literature of exoticism a n d easy
exportation. But it must be admitted that, precisely because literature plays
roles in society, it depends not only on the view that critical regionalism exist or
cease to exist. It existed, exists and will exist as long as there are conditions of
underdevelopment, forcing the writer to focus as theme the rustic lifestyle more
or less in the margins of urban culture.
Reinforcing the belief that deconstruction of the death of regionalism, among various authors,
we highlight the work of Ligia Chiappini pointing regionalism as a worldwide phenomenon, as
the contemporary trend in the United States who have called “Sense of Place” (Chiappini 156-
157). To become familiar with the discussions around the theme, the article Do Beco Ao Belo:
Dez Teses Sobre o Regionalismo na Literatura (“From the beautiful alley: ten thesis on
regionalism in literature”), by Chiappini is quite enlightening, especially when pointing the
literary regionalism as a phenomenon, paradoxically, urban-generated conflict with
modernization, industrialization and urbanization (Chiappini 155). However, this same author, in
that same article, states that researches to this issue indicates that they should focus more on the
aesthetic quality of the works immersed in this subject than on the types of regionalisms
(Chiappini 157). However, unlike some of this positioning, we believe that the classification
proposed by Candido has the great merit of helping in a better understanding of the aesthetic
characteristics at each stage of regional development in our literature, but we would like to make
some criticism around the aforementioned classification of Candido. The first one is the need to
create an intermediate classification between the romantic and critical regionalism, since there
are nuances in naturalistic works that do not fit neither in the picturesque traits of romanticism,
nor in Marxist social critique of a forceful regionalism in the 1930’s. Thus, we propose the
perception of a “naturalist regionalism” (or scientific), as some authors have realized this need as
Durval Albuquerque Muniz Jr. (55), stating that
This naturalist regionalism, this vision of regional changes deeply with the
emergence of the new relationship between scenario and point of view brought
by modernity, as well as any changes in social relations and their spatial
 distribution. Modernism, as a result of this process, condemns aesthetically the
naturalistic regionalism and seeks to integrate the regional element to a
national aesthetic.
The other criticism is the choice of the term “super” that Candido joined to designate the
regionalism, which consists in paints from the surrealism, and realism to compose a
universalizing dimension of both regional and mythical thematics. We understand that the Latin
prefix (super-) is also an idea a quite smug superiority over all other literary aesthetic, or even a
regionalism more entrenched in local color in a totally disparate broad dimension of the one
proposed. Therefore, we decided to use the Greek prefix (hyper-), despite bringing the same idea
over the last previous prefix, we bring it closer to the concept of hyper-realism4 of the visual arts,
because it is known that the artistic aspect of this aesthetic movement has a very similar way to
the hyper-regionalism which consists in bringing the principles of realism to a surrealism.
Besides, the prefix hyper- (=beyond) indicates the characteristic of the hypertextuality which
marks an intensive heterogeneity and textual decentralization which permeates most of
contemporary text production in an eternal forthcoming that is established in the dialogical
process with the other - the otherness (Machado 216), and in the case of hyper-regionalism, this
hypertextuality will be added to an intensive hybridization of genres (such as one can see next
chapter).
In sum, we propose the following typology (Araújo 36) for didactic purposes of our study:
“romantic regionalism”, “naturalistic regionalism” (or scientific); “critical regionalism”, and
“hyper-regionalism”.

3 The various regionalisms of Brazilian literature

At first, called by Candido, “romantic regionalism” (19th century) seek a construction of the
local landscape steeped in the picturesque and exotic (which tags goes back to the point of view
of the chroniclers and foreign travelers who recorded their impressions of Brazil). On the
comments and criticisms of this period, there is “O Instinto do Nacionalismo” (The Instinct of
Nationality), an important text written by Machado de Assis. In it, Machado thinks that this event
comes as a reaction to the proposal of homogeneity of historical traditions, customs and
education (Assis 1959), starting from the metropolis in relation to its colony Based on this

4 This aesthetics starts in the 1960’s through Edward Hopp er’s paintings. In spite of the influence of Surrealism, it
does not present a theoretical-movementalist characterization. It is due to a conceptual art, “of gestualism and of the
non-geometrical lyric abstractionism, of graphic minimalism, ando f the neo -figurations (expressionists, either
savants or naïves), that goes further the terminal phase of the Pop’Art, as well as the Op -Art.
The deliberate excessive approximation of the Optical Real, in meticulous representative sofistication og the Picture,
along with particularization and detail, which is often taken into excess – even inconsequents, out of the context of
each piece of art, (either pictoric or sculptoric) – predominantely resorts to geometric descriptivism (the classical
one) of perspective, as long as it does not either intend to be revivalist, or one postulates (in this pictorical genre)
convictions of Art as the photographical copy of reality. On the other hand, it tends to the integration of amazing,
unusual, or enigmatic elements, which invade, in alogical proportions, in both dimention and scenario of the
painting (e.g. in the particular case of an easel painting): either establishing scales and tons of unusual, atractive or
cativating in calling the observer’s unaware attention colors; or in the use of workshop crafts which provoque
subliminar effects, or even generate trompa d’oeil, equationated in algorithms, or dispatched drawing solutions,
cumulatively perfectionists.” (Ferreira 4-5)
premise, this same author proposed, as a solution to the Brazilian writer, that he should bear a
certain “intimate feeling, that makes him a man of his time and his country, even when the
matter is remote in time and space” Assis (5). During this period, both the “sertão” and its
inhabitants will be described in a fascinating and idealized way (often pridely), which merit was
considered by the fact that this construction, for the first time, include the proposal of the literary
season. Hence, we have in “O Sertanejo”, by José de Alencar, a cowboy and a horse described so
idealized and, even with the description of the hostility and wilderness that resembles the real
environment, it will serve to highlight the qualities of the hero:
The combing horse, which he rode, seemed to understand him and help him in
the enterprise, it was not necessary that the reins will indicate the way, the
smart animals know when they should step into the woods, and when he could
fearlessly approaching the train. He walked through the trees with admirable
dexterity without breaking twigs or rustling the trees.
(...)
The traveler was a young man of twenty, of medium height, lithe and slender
figure. A black mustache and the long hair which longed to the neck shadowed
his sunburned face. His eyes, torn and vivid, flashed the vehemences of an
untamed heart. (Alencar 18)
However, this first regionalist influx of Brazilian literature, follows the French model,
therefore, it proposes the study of folklore through stories, songs and legends of the people that
will be used by writers affiliated with this current, in the literary construction of national culture.
As a hero, a symbol of nationality, will be chosen the Indian, so this time, many patriots will
exchange "their good breed surnames by indigenous onomastic, what came to be true fashion"
(Galvão 93). During this period, according to Candido (“Literatura e Subdesenvolvimento” 142),
the season will be a pleasant consciousness of backwardness, where there will be a critical
reflection on the ideological processes of the metropolis that foisted the delay in the colony that
became a young nation. In addition, Candido says that the best prose will be developed at the
time the urban resuming later discussion of Machado de Assis on the development of local color
in literature. In the Indianist aspect, there is the description of the human type and land in an
attempt to fit the local color to a literary-aesthetic project imported from Europe. Efforts in
search of local color in our literature, they even proposed a division of regional influences,
prepared by the northeastern writer Franklin Tavora. In its proposal, in 1870, suggested that the
Brazilian literature should be divided into two parts: northern and southern literature. Thus, this
is the explanation for the fact that in all his published novels, Távora had given the general title
of “North Literature” (Candido, “Os Brasileiros e a Literatura Latino-Americana” 58).
To understand the panel's literary season in the characterization of each region and its human
types, we present: Bernardo Guimaraes who puts on the scene the central Brazil in “O ermitão de
Muquém” (The hermit Muquém, 1865), “O Garimpeiro” (The Miner, 1872) and “A Escrava
Isaura” (The Slave Isaura, 1875). The most famous of his novels, under the pen-name Alfredo
d'Escragnolle Taunay, there is the East-central Brazil, such as in “Inocência” (Innocence, 1872),
and as noted before, the Ceará-born Franklin Tavora – theorist and militant in regionalism –
there is the representation of the Northeast – in “O Cabeleira” (The Hair on, 1876), “O Matuto”
(The backwoodsman, 1878), and “Lourenço” (Lawrence, 1881). At last, José de Alencar, a kind
of founding father of our prose fiction (as called Machado de Assis), who a framework aimed at
giving the framework, as complete as possible of the country, in time and space. The same went
on writing several novels, specifically regionalist ones, intending to relate not only a Brazilian
region, but many, like “O Gaúcho” (1870), “Til” (1872), and “O Sertanejo” (The backcountry,
1875). Thus, human types in different regions and provinces, local color, the notation
picturesque, wrapped in sentimental plots, concentrated the prose of these authors. In language,
despite the introduction of several terms of a lexical etymological indigenous root (Tupi or
Guarani) and some popular constructions, it follows an extremely normative language within the
tradition of writing. It becomes explicit when Machado de Assis, trying to put a right brake on
the trials of romantic (especially the first phase), suggests to maintain the "purity" of the
language stating that the popular influence has limits, that is, the mode of oral language is
contained, that is the reason why Machado, while getting into realism, will choose,
overwhelmingly in almost all his works, the context of the city, the standard language modality.
In “naturalist regionalism”, we have the strong influence of the currents of the basic
philosophical and scientific naturalism (determinism, positivism, evolutionism, etc..), And
though, it still has, initially, a lyrical and picturesque description of the land and being, there will
be a modification of that characterization during the development of regionalism, especially with
the advent of “Os Sertões”, by Euclides da Cunha in 1902. In this phase of regionalism, it
pointed out that the phase would be marked by a scientific consciousness (or deterministic) delay
in seeking to attribute true romance thesis (to taste naturalistic) scientific explanations for the
delay which demarcates the region (particularly those of an agricultural context). For an accurate
analysis of the narrative of this period exemplified by this emblematic excerpt emblematic from
“Os Sertões”, where we observe the influence of the determinist racist thesis by Rodrigues
shaped into a lyric expression that ends up giving a certain picturesque tone in description:
The “sertanejo” is, above all, strong. It has rickets completeness of
neurasthenic mestizos on the coast.
Its appearance, however, the first flight of view, reveals otherwise. It lacks the
plastic impeccable, the performance, the structure of rightous athletic
organizations.
It is clumsy, awkward, crooked. Hercules-Quasimodo, reflects the typical aspect
of the ugliness of the weak. Walking unsteadily, without aplomb, almost swing-
like and sinuous, appears disjointed members of the translation. It aggravates
the position usually slaughtered in a manifest indifference that gives a character
of humility depressing. (Cunha 157)
The most representative works of this period are: “O Missionário” (The missionary, by Sousa,
1888), and “Contos Amazônicos” (Amazonian Tales, 1893) thematizing the extreme North of
Brazil. We could also include “A Fome” (Hunger, 1890), “Os Brilhantes” (The shining, 1895),
“O Paraorá” (The Paroara, 1899), by Rodolfo Teófilo, in mentioning the Northeast. “Luzia-
Homem” (Lucy-Man, by Domingos Olímpio, 1903) constructed the scene of the inland in Ceará.
In pre-modernism we will also find the influence of scientific regionalism (or naturalist), along
with a sarcastic and ironic, especially with the tales of Monteiro Lobato – “Urupês” (1918),
“Cidades Mortas” (Dead Cities, 1919), and “Negrinha” (1920). However, we still find in the
Brazilian Naturalism, according to Galvão (97), two dissonant works – “Dona Guidinha do
Poço” (Ms.Guidinha Pit – incomplete text published in the “Revista Brasileira” in 1897, and as a
book only in 1952), by Manuel de Oliveira Paiva (1897); and “Pelo Sertão de Afonso Arinos”
(Through Afonso Arinos’ Sertão, 1898) - which will mark the beginning of the breakdown of
deterministic and fatalistic line that so hardly characterized the naturalistic works of the period;
as well as the attitude of taking a more critical posture.
 “Os Sertões” (1902), as previously mentioned, influence the later literature (except the
ostracized by the authors of the first modernist phase) culminating in a more critical regionalism
in the 1930’s. But what makes this Euclidean work (both scientific and literary) a milestone
perception of the in “sertão”? According to Galvão (99) the “Os Sertões”, although composed
under deterministic paint, have their importance by systematizing (first) the cultural clash
between the coastal country (with the urban and civilized), agrarian country, and backcountry
(perceived as rural and archaic), besides the complaint of the exploitation of the city people
against the inland people. The discussions included in this masterpiece by Euclides da Cunha
will not be restricted to his time as inspire a reflection on the formation of the Brazilian people
will drive further sociological research, culminating in works like "Casa Grande & Senzala”
(1933), by Gilberto Freyre, “Raízes do Brasil” (Roots of Brazil, 1936), by Sergio Buarque de
Holanda, and “Formação do Brasil Contemporâneo” – Formation of Contemporary Brazil, by
Caio Prado Jr., 1942 (Galvão 98-99). These works will encourage further discussions held by the
works of critical “regionalism of the 1930’s”. During this period, we will draw, according to
Candido (“Literatura e Subdesenvolvimento” 142), the awareness of the catastrophic delay, so
the works of this period will be beset by a strong pessimism about the issue of social inequality,
completely exposing the wound caused by the social class struggles, unlike the masked reality in
previous literary movements, and breaking with picturesque views involving the portrayal of
man and his backcountry land in literature. As an illustration of this new tone in the backcountry
we have chosen the work by Graciliano Ramos “Vidas Secas” (Barren Lives), in which the
cowboy Fabiano is stripped of everything even of language, and where his dog “Baleia” (Whale)
looks much more thoughtful and human than their owners:
Vitória kissed the muzzle of the “Whale”, and as his nose was bloody, she
licked the blood and took advantage of the kiss.
That game was very petty, but would postpone the death of the group. And
Fabiano wanted to live. He looked at the sky with a resolution. The cloud had
grown, now covered the entire hill. Fabiano stepped safely forget the cracks'
which spoiled the toes and heels. (Ramos 14)
With regard to the characteristics of the landscape and language developed in this phase, we
understand, according to José Hildebrando Dacanal (13-15), the presence of a greater option for
a scenario of a strong agricultural component realistic / naturalistic where characters are
historically embedded within a socioeconomic context questioned. As for language, we have a
filtered language called urban "hidden code". In it "both the narrator and the characters speak
accordingly to grammatical rules peculiar to urban groups of the Atlantic coast." According to
the author, this strategy on the one hand creates a linguistic homogeneity, on the other opens the
possibility of using a more colloquial language which nevertheless does not escape the urban
norm. One exception in this period is Jorge Amado that sought to carry out some linguistic
experimentation (within the oral mode) in the context of some of his novels. Thus, the
maturation of this awareness provided by the analytical approach of literature for new
philosophical and scientific theories (Marxism, psychology, critical sociology etc.). Associated
with the old naturalistic conceptions (in a neo-naturalism), we will design the literature of the
1930’s, culminating in the great writers of the strain, such as: José Américo de Almeida,
Graciliano Ramos, Jorge Amado, Rachel de Queiroz, José Lins do Rego, Érico Verissimo, Cyro
Martins, Amado Fontes, Ivan Pedro de Martins, and Aureliano de Figueiredo Pinto. However,
we also have writers who reflect a transition in their regionalism, among them there are: Jorge de
Lima in his initial prose “Calunga” (1935), and poetry (“Essa Nega Fulô”, 1928) will be
regarded as critical regionalism, but throughout the development of his work (“A Túnica
Inconsútil”, 1938; and “A Invenção de Orfeu, 1953) dare more esoteric and metaphysical flight,
similarly to Graciliano Ramos who, in “Angústia” (1936), present a prose in a much more
psychological than social tone. In addition, other authors (Galvão 112-113) seek a connotation of
transcendence and sublimation in his compositions.
And the “hyper-regionalism” (or super-regionalism, as Antonio Candido calls), we have a
universal local color, where the interior acquires regionalisms in proportions never seen before.
This categorization would result from the joining of two opposite understandings (the
'surrealism' with 'realism'), and rejection characteristics would some accounts previously
developed techniques, such as:
sentimentality ... and rhetoric; nourished non-realistic elements, such as the
absurd, the magic of the situations, or anti-naturalistic technique, such as:
interior monologue, simultaneous viewing, the foreshortening, the ellipse - it
implies nevertheless in use of what was once the very substance of nativism, the
exoticism and social documentary. This would lead to propose the distinction of
a third phase, which could (thinking of surrealism, or super-realism) call super-
regionalism. It corresponds to the consciousness of underdevelopment torn and
operates an explosion type of naturalism that is based on the reference to a n
empirical view of the world; naturalism that was the aesthetic trend peculiar to
a season in which the bourgeois mentality triumphed and corresponded to the
consolidation of our literature. (Candido, “Literatura e
Subdesenvolvimento” 161-162)
We also understand that consciousness torn underdevelopment, permeates not only the
configuration with the advent of economic globalization (consciousness of the idea of
fragmentation center and periphery), but also the conscience of identity. According to Hall (12),
there is the postmodern subject who is the one that does not have a fixed identity, or essentially
permanent, and therefore is also torn.

4 How to characterize the hyper-regionalis m?

To understand more clearly the features of this phase of regionalism, we must realize and
understand Rosa’s works, regarded by Candido (“Literatura e Subdesenvolvimento” 162) as a
representative mark of this phase, which would "be firmly settled in what might be called the
universality of the region”. The very work “Grande Sertão: veredas” (1956) translates this
principle:
You tolerate, that is the “sertão. Some people want that it is not “sertão”: that it
is located in the gerais (related to the “sertão” of Minas Gerais) fields from
outside to inside, they say, out of line, highlands, too much Urucuia. “Toleima”.
(...) The gerais runs in circles. These gerais have no size. Finally, each one
approves what it is interesting for oneself, you know, loaf or loaves, it is a
matter of “belifes”... The “sertão” is everywhere. (Rosa 23-24)
The great secret of the style developed by Rose and revealed, from his first prose book
“Sagarana” (1946), focuses on a proposal from the synthesis of two opposed literary strands, at
first, (Galvão 91-92), which are: the regionalist novel with the spiritual or psychological novels).
Thus, Rosa, throughout his prose, develops the construction of typical commoner characters,
such as: gunman “sertanejos” (tough armed people from “sertão”), mourners, outlaws (typical in
“sertão”), refugees from the draught etc; in a feudal and mythical world, where social issues will
be revealed through the mystic and spiritualist mask which also involves the popular culture of
the Northeast in its mysticism. This consciousness torn (or fragmented) we find the doubtful man
(taking into consideration the principles of post-modernity) in a constant search of identity. Thus,
the scene in which Riobaldo traces his life story and tells it to the visiting "doctor" may be
understood as an attempt at a reconstruction of identity which also pervades, allegorically, the
formation of Brazil. During this process, Rosa does not refrain himself from recreating, in a bold
way, the speech of his characters (as noted in his short stories in “Grande Sertão: veredas”, and
in “Corpo de Baile) implementing his linguistic experiences at the same level of the modernists’
and transpassing the mere, filtered language called urban "hidden code" (Dacanal 13-14) or the
so-called rustic speech, which was alike a caricature, developed by the critical regionalism found
in the Novel of the 1930’s. Thus, we understand that hyper-regionalism, in which Rosa laid the
foundations of our literature was also a primary response to criticism by modernists in relation to
the regionalists of the 1930’s. Because they were accused by those (the modernists) of
particularist who had lost the cosmopolitan vision of a nation that was intended to become
modern. On being so, the synthesis by Rosa will also endeavor to join the cultural translation of
orality with the cultural tradition of writing. With respect to this, Candido, in other words, (129
in Pires 70) states that the evolution of our spiritual life consists in a dialectic between localism
and cosmopolitanism (as well as principles of rural and urban) that will be reflected in
"premeditated statement and sometimes violent literary nationalism, with inclinations to create
up to a different language, now the declared conformity, conscious imitation of European
standards". Thus, we believe that one of the significant elements of Rosa’s narrative is the ability
to synthesize, masterfully, the balance between these two forces within literature. However, this
will have a price within the narrative aspects of perception, once that it will assume a baroque (or
neo-barroque) ambiguity that make the language more hermetic and written only for the locals.
In addition, various social issues and positions, in the narrative, will acquire an aspect of
commuting, such as: the exaltation of the modern and the archaic, ambiguous position in relation
to patriarchy, as in some works seem to criticize him (as well do the novelists of the 1930’s) and
other assumes a posture of glorification of the system (Bastos 298-300).
The characterization of this new wave of regionalism, however, became a problem because as
literary criticism (then and still today), had no instruments that could provide theoretical tools for
analysis of this new aesthetic creation. Then, most literary critics decided to label them as
regionalists (in association with the regionalism of the 1930’s), and therefore both were
handsomely denied by indifference in the statements made by Rosa, or in opposite critics with
respect to this labeling strongly reasoned by Suassuna, as it is evidenced by the manifestations of
the following writers:
[Ascendino Leite (AL)] By the way, do you accept that sort of 'regionalist' series
of novels collected in “Sagarana”?
[Rosa] I accept all. I have only a neutral focus on this interview.
[AL] But, what is your concept of 'regionalism', or how do you consider it
should be seen as a process of stylization?
[Rosa] Ask in a different way, please. Today, I’d rather go from the concrete to
the abstract". (Leite 61)
When, as an example, I see José Lins do Rego justifies that regionalism, 'on the
artistic part, it (regionalism) is a searching for peoples’ souls through f olklore
 sources', I feel an immediate sense of disgust and refuse to be called a
regionalist. Such a regionalism is only appearently social, which deserves all
charges of picturesque, for art has to be enriched by the light of real through
sensitiveness, through men, through life, through the things around us,
therefore, regionalism is something much deeper”. (Suassuna, Almanaque
Armorial 46-47)
Moreover, another problem was evident that Rosa, the forerunner of this new aesthetic line,
sternly refused to write any sort of literary manifesto that would provide a mold or script to
follow. Therefore, Rosa never gave much thought and many times, as stated by Galvão (113),
this author always withheld to "aesthetic hunches about which parameters should be applied in
Brazilian literature. However, one can not ignore the disgust he felt over the positions taken by
regionalism so far, and one of the few records that will demonstrate this is a longlengthed letter
he sent to his Uncle Vicente (author of children literature, which was published by the time of
“Sagarana” publication (1946). Such a letter states some aspects of literary criticism in Brazil, as
well as the literary construction, and the fictional elaboration (Galvão 113-15).
Although much of the Brazilian literary critics have remained silent (preferring to ignore this
aspect of the new regionalism), it is undeniable that it remains as a very much alive and
continues to be intensely written, as evidenced by the publications since early 21st century,
according to the following works: “Faca” (2003), “O Pavão Misteroso” (2004), and “O Livro dos
Homens” (2005), by the Ronaldo Correia de Brito (a Writer from Ceará); “Coivara da Memória”
(2001), by Francisco J. C. Dantas (a writer from Sergipe); “Metáforas para um duelo no Sertão”
(2012), by Linaldo Guedes (a poet from Paraíba); among many others who are already enshrined
in the Brazilian literary canon, as evidenced by their production in late 20th century, such as: João
Cabral de Melo Neto, João Ubaldo Ribeiro, Adonias Filho, Autran Dourado, Osman Lins,
Clarice Lispector, Raduan Nassar, Políbio Alves, Milton Hatoum, and Ariano Suassuna. The
latter author, although he considers that all his work belongs to an aesthetic called “armorial”, we
consider his masterpiece in prose – “Romance d’A Pedra do Reino e o Príncipe do Sangue do
Vai-e-Volta” – has several similarities with the proposed hyper-regionalism of Rosa’s, as
Massaud Moisés points out (401):
A Maravilhosa Desaventura de Quaderna, O Decifrador, general title of the
series, follows the mold of the “novella”, since the appearance of autonomous
fragments to the its composition in three parts, arranged in linear sequence.
They would say that it is a resurgence of medieval chivalric novels by retrieving
the folklore substrate of Paraíba, and, by extension, of the Northeast. That is
where his epic, heroic, and mythic character, as well as his resemblance to
Grande Sertão: veredas, although it is distinguished, because t is ostensibly a
novel of chivalry, dotted with events in Paraíba between 1912 and 1938, served
by a language of poetic accents similar to the “literatura de cordel”, under the
pen of a 'bard of the sertão'.
Suassuna himself will also be positioned on the presence of the regional aspect in his work
through various essays and reviews since the 1950’s, among which we highlight the item and
Armorial Regionalist Movement has published in the newspaper Folha de São Paulo (4 sept.
2000). In that article, the author proclaims himself bound to the ideals of regionalism in search of
our roots and an authentic expression of the reality around him, but tries to break from the
romantic regionalism (due to the picturesque setting of this latter one), and the regionalism of the
1930’s per si, a kind of "Neo-Naturalism." However, it is declared he is an author affiliated with
the Baroque, and Popular Brazilian Ballads, a sort of art that seeks a deeper enriched in "light of
the real sensitiveness". And through his own words in that article Suassuna positioning will
become clearer in:
I make originality in a quite different concept compared to the one seen
nowadays, trying to create a style capable of hosting the largest number of
stories, myths, characters and events to achieve, on doing so, through what can
glimpse in my region, the traditional and universal spirit. (Suassuna “O
Movimento Regionalista e Armorial” 9)
This presence of the mythical and the oniric are also some of the features present in the hyper-
regionalism, for these elements are also relevant to surrealism, as well as the appreciation of the
past (Teles 170), the illogic, the wonderful, the unconscious, magic, medieval alchemy and
political awareness (this feature became more emphasized in the movement from the Second
Surrealist Manifesto launched in 1930 by André Breton). From this second proposal of
surrealism, symbolic, mythic and metaphysical, also came to be seen as important instruments of
political awareness and social resistance (Bastos 296). However, literary criticism, for a long
time, judged badly all the works which presented these elements exagerately (the symbolic,
mythic and metaphysical). In the case of “Grande Sertão: veredas”, by Rosa, soon enough this
sociopolitical reading was made, as evidenced by the analysis of Cavalcanti Proenca, Antonio
Candido, Heloisa Starling, Willi Bolle, Luiz Roncari, among others. However, the “Romance
d’A Pedra do Reino”, despite the critical praise of the aesthetic innovation of the junction of the
popular and scholarly, and the very social relevance of the Armorial Movement, by Suassuna,
the sociopolitical dimension of identity in the renewal of the Northeasterners was not recognized
properly. On the contrary, it ended up being criticized atrociously, once that they awarded the
deformation of the social identity of the Northeast through the Middle Ages (in appreciation of
the past), and racial syncretism (associating it with prejudicial theories, such as the whitening).
Thus, we believe this work will bring an important contribution to this debate.
So to begin our analysis, the first point will be to distinguish hyper-regionalism from the
regionalism of the 1930’s. The first distinction is given, as we perceived earlier, by Antonio
Candido (“Literatura e Subdesenvolvimento” 161-162) that maps the hyper-regionalism as the
presence of the magical element (i.e. the illogicism starting from the metaphysical), the presence
of the absurd (paradoxical situations), and especially the use of anti-naturalistic techniques (the
interior monologue, simultaneous viewing, the foreshortening, the ellipse - Baroque element in
the discourse and images developed etc). Moreover, as Candido suggests to mention the
influence of Surrealism, we have the appreciation of the past (in a dialogical and critical
perspective while facing present) that permeates also the biographical memoir of the authors, the
presence of the mythic and the oniric. And, as the hyper-regionalism develops consciousness
torn delay, we also brought out the realization of this feature along with the notion of fragmented
identity of the characters, there is always a joint effort of them, throughout the narrative, they are
revisiting the past to find the keys to their present (as is done in a psychological therapy). Now,
with respect to the characteristics of the regionalism of the 1930’s there are, diametrically,
opposed elements, in which the first point of distinction is the strong influence of naturalism in a
new guise that associate Marxist theories. Therefore, most authors that we point out (affiliated to
this aesthetic) build true novel thesis (a la naturalism) exposing dichotomously representations
and social relations of exploitation and submission. This is done by completely different hyper-
regionalist authors who prefer to avoid discussion of historical materialism. Although it is a clear
social concern in their narratives, however, in a broader dimension. Moreover, we can not ignore
that, in most works related to this aesthetic regional of the 1930’s, the choice for the scenario lies
on the rural context instead of the urban. Finally, the dichotomous and static social vision of
class conflict, which ignores the flows and the inter-relationships especially in the new context of
capitalism taken from late 20th century.
The heart of the hyper-regionalism has given us through a track given by Rosa as quoted
earlier in this chapter, the interview with the journalist Ascendino Leite that asked whether his
work “Sagarana” was regionalist (regionalism of the 1930’s), he changes the subject and says he
prefers to go from the concrete to the abstract. Therefore, this perspective indicated by Rosa
indicates the dilution of the physical toward the metaphysical, as a means not only to elevates the
environment, but especially the human being as a concept widely used in the writings of
Suassuna - the transfiguration (Suassuna, Almanaque Armorial 67). Thus, in a sum, we can say
that the hyper-regionalism starts from local roots and, significantly changing itself, it reaches the
universal. That is why the mythical and oniric aspects have an important role in this movement.
Now we would also like to go back to the term “tear” that marks the hyper-regionalism
because, according to our analysis, this tear also reaches the very forms of discourse and literary
works. Therefore, undoubtly, the hybrid character will play an important role in this process.
And this hybrid concept, based on Bakhtin's reflections on the discourse and the novel will have
a fundamental importance in the visualization of this process.
With this, the literary work will act as a multiple mirror which real image is reflected several
times generating a surreal kaleidoscopic that amplifies the reflection of the “sertão” in the world,
as well as it amplifies the world of the “sertão”. On doing so, we come to understand the
statement made by Riobaldo in “Grande Sertão: veredas, which is: "The ‘sertão’ is the size of the
world" (Rosa 89), and the reverberation, by Suassuna, through the prophetic message that
Quaderna received from the mythical being - the Caetana Girl (Suassuna, Romance d'A Pedra do
Reino e o Príncipe do Sangue do Vai-e-Volta 306), who said he only had possession of what he
actually could decipher. Thus, we have the message of the authors (through their narrators) for
all those unsuspecting readers who dare to penetrate these hyper-regional “sertões” with the
obsolete eyes of the past in the regionalism of the 1930’s. If they do so, readers will lose the
focus on aesthetic construction of the new regionalism (as a reaffirmation of golcal identity) that
has been growing not only in Brazilian literature, but in many contexts in literature.

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i TRANSLATION BY MONALIZA RIOS SILVA

ii Professorat the University of Pernambuco (UPE) - Brazil. Paper based on chapter of his thesis “Nos Sertões
Infinitos de Ariano Suassuna e João Guimarães Rosa”