Biografia de JOSÉ DE ALENCAR - O "Pai do Romance Brasileiro"

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Now come on! Feel that there is history! Today's biography is about the first great Brazilian writer and author of important plays by Jose de Alencar.

Alencar's role is essential. He was the first to be concerned with building national literature. Each of his novels addresses Brazil geographically or historically .

Hence the importance of reading Jose de Alencar's works for entrance exams, it is more than mere novels, it is the history of the construction of our country. He extolled several national aspects by nationalizing Brazilian literature and culture and the figure of the Indian as a Brazilian hero. Alencar was one of the greatest representatives of Indianist literature.

His best known books are the Indianists: Ubirajara, Guarani, Iracema. The novel "O Guarani" achieved enormous success and served as inspiration for the Brazilian opera composer Carlos Gomes who composed his most important opera "O Guarani". Jose de Alencar was chosen by none other than Machado de Assis as patron of Chair nº.

23 of the Brazilian Academy of Letters. José de Alencar is called - “The Father of Brazilian Romance”. Another Brazilian worth knowing the history!

Seven years after D. Pedro I proclaimed the Independence of Brazil, José Martiniano de Alencar was born on May 1, 1829 in the small town of Messejana, which today has become a neighborhood in the city of Fortaleza, Ceará. Alencar was born out of an illegitimate relationship and considered scandalous at the time.

His father was a priest in the Catholic church. He was baptized by his father father and had his paternity recognized through a "Scripture for the Recognition and Profiling of Spurious Sons" in 1859, which recorded that "Father José Martiniano de Alencar, contracted illicit and private friendship with Dona Ana Josefina de Alencar, his first cousin. José Martiniano, gave up the priesthood and had with Ana Josefina twelve sons.

When priesthood abdicated, Martiniano migrated to politics. on the paternal side, Alencar is the grandson of Portuguese trader José Gonçalves dos Santos and D. Bárbara de Alencar, matron from Pernambuco who would become the hero of the 1817 revolution .

Barbara and her son José Martiniano, father of Jose Alencar, then a seminarian at Crato, spent four years in prison in Bahia, for having joined the revolutionary movement that took place in Pernambuco. in 1836 his father was elected governor of Ceara. When he was 9 years old, Alencar made a long journey with the parents of Ceará to Bahia.

the impressions of that trip were reflected in all his work. Much of his love for nature comes from this trip. When his father was elected senator of the empire of Brazil and the family moved to Rio de Janeiro.

At the age of 11, Alencar was enrolled at the Elementary School, which were private schools . As the eldest son, he was the one who read the novels to his mother, aunts and sisters, because at that time women were not literate. He even thanks the mother for having instilled in him that spirit of reader.

At the age of 17, he went to São Paulo to study at the Faculty of Law of Largo de São Francisco, which was where he studied the sons of the imperial elite so that they could exercise their political profession. In college he started to read books by French authors like Balzac, Victor Hugo, Flaubert. The 3rd year of college he attended Olinda's college.

This time in Olinda was very important for his work. Jose de Alencar read a lot, and in Olinda, there is a large library in the monastery of São Bento and Alencar began to read the Brazilian chroniclers of the colonial era. He studied the Dutch invasion of Brazil by Mauricio de Nassau, the arrival of the Jesuits, the letters and sermons of Father Antônio Viera telling how the evangelization they were doing in Brazil was like.

So in Olinda he learned about many facts in the history of Brazil and each day he became more and more in love with this idea of ​​Brazil as a nation. Then he returned to São Paulo and completed his law school in 1950. He spent a year near his uncle in Recife, and there at the age of 19, he contracted tuberculosis, the disease called “bad of the century”.

In many cases, tuberculosis could improve, but it did not heal completely. When the person took a rain, or had the flu, it manifested itself again. From the age of 19 onwards Jose de Alencar was always dealing with this disease.

Graduated, he returned to live in Rio de Janeiro, where he started to advocate. Although many writers are bohemians, go to taverns, this was never the characteristic of Jose de Alencar. He was very serious, reserved, lonely, always focused on his literary production and work.

In 1854, he went to work at Correio Mercantil, in the section "Ao Correr da Pena", where he commented on social events, the opening of plays, new books and political issues . In the following year, he assumed the functions of manager and chief editor of "Diário do Rio". In 1856 the book “Confederação dos Tamoios” was launched, written by the poet Gonçalves de Magalhaes.

This book was intended to be the great Brazilian epic, coupled with the fact that Gonçalves de Magalhaes was the favorite poet of Dom Pedro II. José de Alencar's notoriety began when he wrote the Letters on The Confederation of Tamoios, in the Diário do Rio criticizing the poem of Gonçalves de Magalhães, saying that he had a poor lyricism, was poorly written, did not have a great character to lead the action . A great controversy was established between José de Alencar and the friends of Gonçalves de Magalhães, among them D.

Pedro II himself, who participated under a pseudonym. When Alencar took over, the "Diário do Rio" the newspaper was not in good condition. In order to increase newspaper sales, Alencar decided to write novels that would be published in the journal footer, offered as a gift to readers.

Your first novel "Cinco Minutos" was published in 1856, in a serial, in the Diário do Rio. In the following year, he published two novels, "A Viuvinha" and "O Guarani" also in a serial, which achieved enormous success and was released in the form of book at the end of the same year. Each chapter ended up making the reader curious to buy the newspaper the next day to see the continuation of the story.

It worked very well and the newspaper started selling a lot more. Alencar's novels are almost theatrical for the scenery he creates, for the way he talks about his characters. Thirteen years after the publication of the novel “O Guarani” in serials, Brazilian composer Carlos Gomes studying in Italy, commissioned the book and based on the work of Alencar composed your most important operation.

"O Guarani". Although D. Pedro II did not sympathize with Alencar, due to his criticism of the poet Gonçalves de Magalhaes, he did not oppose his choice of Alencar for the Ministry of Justice of the Empire.

In 1858, José de Alencar left journalism to take over the Secretariat of the Ministry of Justice, becoming a Consultant with the title of Counselor, at the same time as he was teaching Mercantile Law. In 1860, with the death of his father, he ran for deputy for Ceará, for the Conservative party, being reelected for four legislatures. While visiting his homeland, he became enchanted with the legend "Iracema" and turned it into a book.

In 1864, he married Georgina, with whom he had four children. He failed to achieve the ambition to be a senator like his father, having to settle for the title of the Council. Even at the height of his political career, José de Alencar did not abandon literature.

You can divide your work into four types of novels: - 1st The Foundation Novels that were later called Indianist - The trilogy “Iracema”, “O Guarani”, “Ubirajara”. So important for the construction of our nationality. - In “O Guarani” Alencar told through the love story of Peri and Ceci the theme of miscegenation between the Indian and the white, the arrival of the Bandeirantes in Brazil.

In "Iracema" he will work on the foundation of the State of Ceara, the miscegenation of the races and his main character is the Indian Iracema, the "virgin of the honey lips" and colonizer Martim Soares Moreno. From this love, Moacir, the first Brazilian, was born, the genesis of the Brazilian people or as Alencar said, the first tapioca eater. “Ubirajara”, a brave indigenous warrior who throughout history grows towards maturity.

The second type is the works of urban literature - the books Senhora, Lucíola and Diva bring themes focused on the most everyday situations of urban life. The habits and customs of the bourgeoisie at court. The third type of Alencar novels are regionalist works - As the book Til being charged in several vestibular shows life in cities in the interior of São Paulo, its habits and customs.

The way of talking, of dressing, the scenery of the farms. And finally, historical novels like - Minas de Prata and O Gaúcho. José de Alencar builds this consecration.

Seeking to show the Indian, the sertanejo, the gaucho, the life in the city seeking to make a synthesis of the Brazilian people that today we know as Brazilianness. It shows Brazil with its exuberant nature. In Jose de Alencar's mind, Brazilian society would be a miscegenation between Portuguese and Indians.

The Negro is not present in Alencar's work as he should, due to his contribution to the formation of the Brazilian people. Jose de Alencar was against the abolition of slavery. He voted against the law of the free womb and the law of the sexagenarian.

He thought that the abolition should be gradual. Because to throw all the slaves on the street without a job, a land was to throw them into misery. In addition to this nationalist project to describe the Brazilian masses, Alencar brought the Tupi Guarani vocabulary to his work.

In 1866, Machado de Assis, in an article in Diário do Rio, warmly praised the novel Iracema, calling Jose de Alencar "The head of national literature ". In 1872, he became the father of Mário de Alencar, who, according to a never confirmed story, could actually be the son of Machado de Assis, which, for some, would support the main plot of the novel Dom Casmurro. José de Alencar's immense work causes admiration not only for the quality, but also for the volume, if we consider the short time that José de Alencar was able to dedicate to him.

In 1877 he traveled to Europe to try medical treatment for tuberculosis, but was unsuccessful. Jose de Alencar died on December 12, 1877, in Rio de Janeiro, at the age of 48. Machado de Assis, who was at the Alencar wake, was impressed by the poverty that the Alencar family lived.

When Dom Pedro II learned that José de Alencar had died he said: Brazil lost a great writer, but this guy was badly raised. And this is our story today. I hope I helped make your day a very good one!

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