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  • Ensaio Sobre Caetes

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    Roberto Vecchi

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    Roberto Vecchi

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    15 visualizações13 páginas

    Ensaio Sobre Caetes

    Enviado por

    Eder Cabral
    Roberto Vecchi

    Direitos autorais:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Baixe no formato PDF ou leia online no Scribd
    Sinalizar o conteúdo como inadequado
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    Series Editors Professor David George (Swansea University) Professor Paul Garner (University of Leeds) Editorial Board David Frier (University of Leeds) sity of Liverpool) Gareth Walters (Swansea University) Rob Stone (University of Birmingham) David Gies (University of Virginia) Catherine Davies (University of London) Richard Gleminson (University of Leeds) ‘Duncan Wheeler (University of Leeds) ‘JoLabanyi (New York University) Roger Bartra (Universidad Nacional Auténoma de México) Other titles in the series Catalonia: National Identity and Cultural Policy Kathryn Crameri Melancholy and Culture: Diseases of the Soul in Golden Age Spain Roger Bartra ‘The Poetics of Otherness in Antonio Machado’s ‘Proverbios y Cantares’ ‘Nicolas FernandexMedina ‘The Spanish Golden Age Sonnet John Rutherford Marfa Zambrano: A Life of Poetic Reason and Political Commitment Beatriz. Caballero Rodriguez ‘Nationalism and Transnationalism in Spain and Latin America, 1808-1923 Paul Garner and Angel Smith (eds) ‘The Enlightenment in Iberia and Ibero-America Brian Hamnett TIBERIAN AND LATIN AMERICAN STUDIES Graciliano Ramos and the Making of Modern Brazil Memory, Politics and Identities Edited by SARA BRANDELLERO AND LUCIA VILLARES UNIVERSITY OF WALES PRESS. 2017 42 Randal Johnson jo, O fio da navalha: Graciliano Ramos ¢ a revista Cultura sana ies (unpublished PRD dimeration, Universidade de Sio Paul, Chapter Three a0, : 4 Ser Gece ae oto ee Da ; ieepaecale okisgems000 Debris of Worthless Senna, Homero, Repiblica das letras (Rio de Janeiro: Gréfica Olimpica, 1968) Shipwrecks: Caetés, the 1 Anachronisms and Simulacra of the Modern Nation ROBERTO VECCHI “uma narraiva iiota, conversa de papagaios. Limbo and the rest The debut novel by Graciliano Ramos (1892-1953), Caetés (1933), is, in many ways, awry. At least from the perspective of a reader who might attempt o situate it in a possible historical and literary tradi- tion, almost as though there were a disjunction in relation to the context in which itis inscribed, Hence the reason why, in a now canonical reading of the novel, critic Antonio Candido, deploying an image that aptly expresses its relation to the author's oewureas a whole, defines itasa ‘deliberado preambulo’ (deliberate preamble) of what was to come, as a kind of threshold of his most acclaimed works: ‘exercicio mediante 0 qual liquidou as raizes pés-natural- istas ese libertou para as obras primas’ (an exercise through which he rid himself of his post-naturalist roots and freed himself for his masterworks).” ‘One might suggest that this is precisely the feature that defines a first novel, which potentially establishes a relationship with later “ Roberto Vecchi sat dialogue with itand build on itsmeanings, the significance within the framework of a macro text that aims to neutralize or Fegularize its exceptions. From his perspective, what seems ca transpire isthe singularity of Gracliano’s first novel vss one of the most recognizable body of literary works ofthe history of the Brazilian novel of the twentieth century and its connections wit the modernist movement and its legacy. Because of this, Caetés has often been underestimated, as Luis Bueno observes, inthe con jiano’s monumental and canonical oevore? undertook in his essay ‘No aparecimento de Cae, when he recorded the interpretative analyses of the group of intellectuals from Maceis who first promoted the significance of Caué dhroughout Brazil. Candido dwells in particular on the critical appraisal by two members of the group, Valdemar Cavaleand an ‘Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, published in Bolt de Avie showing how in ther synchronized readings of the novel ‘souberam cterizar Graciliano Ramos com base apenas no seu prime ras muitas das suas caracteristicas, que seriam desenvolvidas © confirmadas nos livros seguintes’ (they were able to characterize Graciiano Ramos on the basis of his first book alone, which was enough for them to understand not only the rare power of is narrator, but many of the book's characteristics, which wou subsequently be developed and confirmed inthe later books) Yet for the purpose ofthis eading, the difference between the limo and the rest of Graciano's works can be seen Sic ise it problematizes many of the key features of the s "Rome de 0" (ane he 28s) nd lone ohio the roces jon of the modernist project in Brazil, providing ‘The distinctiveness of Graciliano’s debut novel is immediately identifable in the circumstances of its publication. In these, one ‘can see how, indirectly and involuntarily, the characteristic that pethaps best defines the novel in relation to the rest took shape: the Set anachronisms implied within and beyond Graciliano’s aesthetic Pe background to the delayed publication of Cat i well known and not without a comical edge: written between 1925 Caetés, the Anachvonisms and Simulacra of the Modern Nation 45 1988, undergoing revisions up to 1930, the book would remain unpublished until 1933, and included a surprisingly prescient perspective on modernity (one can think ofits appropriation of the theme of anthropophagy, which connects it to Oswald de Andrade’s Manifesto of 1928, thus potentially decentring So Paulo in the dynamics of the modernist movement).* Itisa moment in Brazilian literary life of which we know little,’ but the delay in publication was apparently down to the fact that the poet and publisher Augusto Frederico Schmidt forgot the manuscript in his raincoat pocket and couldn't find it.* The publication of the novel, which everyone knew about but few had read, coincided with the appearance of Casagrande & senzala ( The Master and the Slaves), by Gilberto Freyre. The delay had, according to some biographers, already made the novel appear outdated to the author himself, a feeling Graciliano shared in a leuter to his wife Heloisa in 1982: ‘A publicago daquilo seria um desastre, porque o livro é uma porcaria. Nao me lembro dele sem raiva. Nio sei como se escreve tanta besteira. Pensando bem, o Schmidt teve razio e fez-me um favor.’ (The publication of that thing would be a disaster, because the book is rubbish. The mere thought of it makes me angry. I don’t know how someone can write so much nonsense. On reflection, Schmidt was right and did me a favour.)* Irrespective of causes behind it, the delay determines substantial change in how we view the rest, since there could have been a quite different history of the Brazilian modernist novel. Indeed, Caetés seems to inhabit a time of its own, of rather it seems to belong outside the context with which it dialogues in order to enter an entirely new one. Yet, despite the many readings of the book that try to undermine the visionary quality of its critique of modernity in a Brazilian context, the chiasmic condition in which it found itself due to historical circumstances or to the power of its modern narrative perhaps situates it in a privileged interstitial position among the radical transformations that were taking place at the time. This would make it a prime example of a narrative of crisis. ‘The aesthetic context of novel, in fact, mirrors this duality or in-betweenness: bearing in mind the legacy of a realist-naturalist tradition at the time of its writing and the book's construction of a narrator whose subjectivity is at odds with the tradition it engages with, alluding to the transformations of a certain moder tradition." a Roberto Vecchi Few images express this conjuncture as poignantly as those deployed by the eminent historian Sérgio Buarque de Holanda in has socio-historical discussion of the country Ratzes do Brasil (Roots of Brazil; 1986), when he notes ‘Estariamos viendo assim entre dois mundos: um definitivamente morto ¢ outro que Iuta por vir & luz (We were thus living in two worlds: one definitely dead and the “other fighting to come to life.)"! In this in-between margin, at the heart of a period of transition, between two disconnected timescapes, Caetésis perhaps a work that allows us to rethink the rest that it introduced. Or the rest that itundermined. Peripheral modernities ‘Thus, time lapses, anachronisms, outdatedness, confused times capes, are not just part of peculiar publication circumstances that impacted on the historical position of a work at a time of crisis Rather, they are inscribed in the very makeup and plot of Caetés, adding layers to a narrative that otherwise could not but be seen as ‘anodyne. If we stick to the plot, we can summarize it ina few words, Itrevolvesarounda love triangle between the narrator, Joao Valério, Lufsa and the husband Adrido. Itisa love triangle that reflects hier archical power structures given that Adrido owns the shop where the narrator does the accounts. Then there is a historical novel languishing among Joao Valério’s papers, the writing of which proves increasingly impossible. There is the consummation of aty Nadultery that does not develop, the eventual death of the husband after a failed suicide attempt, the end of the relationship between the two lovers but the continuation of their shared business deale ings Palmeira dos Indios, the provincial city where the drama ‘without tragedy is set, is a grey world made up of mediocre chara ters that inhabit the narrative and make a world already small and ‘marginal even smaller. In this context, Candido sums up the unex ‘ceptional outcome of the romantic tryst with a poignant sociological synthesis: ‘Arrependido e, lids, arrefecido nos sentimentos, Valerio aneaba afastado de Luisa, mas s6cio da firma.’ (Repentant and, also, Subdued in his passion, Valério distances himself from Luisa, while still a partner in the business.)"* tis clear that what is relevant does not occur at the level of plot, in which a community from the provincial interior se Gaetés, the Anachronisms and Simulacra of the Modern Nation 47 defined bya suis thatis ouside modern, but rather atthe ee ofthe condition, pyhology and conscience ofthe narrator J lério descends from a decadent family: when speaki . wring this book he defines his socal onda wis pres “nisi coisa depois que fig si, quando aFelica me evo dintciro da heranc, prec vender a casa, vender 0 gad Mario me empregou no etre come guardatvos’ (1 Began it ats Im orphaned wen Fela ook ny nbs money vas forced to sell the house and the cattle and Adio hired man bookkespe nice) The nanaor hereby prove tha selfportait that clearly defines his poston, & sltsmage tha ‘eccal nvirnmen in which he move. Thi something Comparable o some recuring guresn Brain Tera, afr example the'mistra eli’ (Belmiian mix) are Roberto Scar notes in he ean of nance Bin or even the figure of the Yazendeiro doa landowner of thea), an in sjured up by the poet Carlos Drummond de Andrade. These are counterpoint that articulate identities defined by an internal tension, as we find in Joao Valerio: aso Procurei alguma coi r Poot wine isa que eu fosse. Nao era nada, realmente, mas tna boa figura ¢ os até no segundo capil, Eine e quatro anos a esrituraio mercantl, a amizade de Padre Atanisio, tion {looked for something th ching that I might be, Las nothing, looked goodand ad the Catesof the secondchaperfeara Sieur old bookkeeper, Iwas rend with Father Atanas some sucee] Within this perspective, Ramos's modern ing of: figure that is pial to'a cerain extent am be feked wo sppropian o natura wc, stemming om other periods jons. Such aesthetic promiscuity, in which tendenc {Maybe one day 1100 would hich my own Cat, witha ite noe {ge and assiduous efor Not that I as expecting o impres future ferro Oh Net My amon vere mee apy ettag and amaflcale triumph, that might impress Ls Mii Nendn ee ares, we tea part hore i n 's chemists, Bacurau café woul Jaber shops, the cinema, at Neves's chemists, sits "Sor have Jou tead the Vales nonel? ora a the Soman nee room my authority woud be feferenced daring dcusions betcen eabee ed Fathee Atanas “The stuff about savages and ok sor isValei'stertory-] Caetés, the Anachronisms and Simulacra of the Modern Nation 51 In order to construct the tableaux of peripheral modemnities, itis above all necessary to consider the question of time and shift the issue of modernity to another context: that of the contemporary. Anachronism and modern archaeologies Irony certainly plays a key role in the construction of Caetés, as a work attempting to give an accurate view of the heterogeneous nature of modernity in the periphery. Irony is the *perspectiva constituinte do romance’ (the structural perspective of the novel), and lies behind the novel's construction of wo nonsynchroni¢ narrative planes." Irony also lies behind Gracitiano’s dialogue with the novels of the Portuguese Eca de Queiroz, whose influence has been the focus of @ number of important studies on his work.” Indeed, there are a number of references and tributes to Eca before and during Graciliano’s writing of Caetés Clearly, such open homage to a Portuguese writer would have caused unease among the harbingers of the modern as a damnatio memoriae of forcign traditions. Nods to Eca are not only evident in clues found throughout the novel — we can think of the name Luisa, which evokes the homonymous protagonist of Eca’s novel Primo Basilio (Cousin Basilio, 1878), also featuring’a love affair, or allusions to his other masterpiece, and story of family decadence, Os Maias (The Maias, 1888). However, on a level, the mise en abyme of the writing of the eponymous novel on the Caeté Indians that the narrator attempts to complete points to a complex dialogue with Eca’s last published novel, similar in its narrative structure: A ilustre casa de Ramires (The Illustrious House of Ramires, 1900). Yet, Eca’s novel allegorizes the trauma of the British Ultimatum of 1890 and revisits Portugal's status as colonial power in Africa and the discussions on the country’s position in the Atlantic world with his friend Oliveira Martins, and critic José Paulo Pacs’s instigating essay on the relationship between the two novels has shown how their ultimate aim is diametrically opposed.” Indeed, considering Gactés i relation to E¢a’s last’ novel broadens the possibilities of interpretation, given Graciliano’s status as reader of Eca butalso his departure from the European author. Thus, Eca represents an anachronism that allows the construction of other anachronisms in the Brazilian author's early work. 5 Roberto Vecchi This intertextual dialogue is confirmed in his treatment of theme of Eca's work. In fact, A ilustre casa de Ramiresis the great novel about Portugal's decadence, a literary version of Nietzsche's essay “The ‘Uses and Disadvantages of History for Life’ (1874), in other words ‘an antihistoricist essay fundamental to defining the relation between decadence and modernity. Taking as his inspirations the figures of Nietzsche and Oliveira Martins, Eea constructs the character of Goncalo Mendes Ramires, who funetions asa collective allegory, forging a narrative in which a grey and mediocre Portuguese present is crushed by the memory of a glorious past. ‘The historical novel within the novel, A torre de D. Ramires (D. Ramires's Tower) reveals how a heroic Middle Ages stifles any action in the present: hence the sense of decadence and the cowardice of the protagonist, as well as his vague ambition to succeed that in fact depends on political favours. The past belongs to atime that is definitely ‘other’ and makes inhabiting the present impossible. History is thus a burden for the present, and modernity js obsessively backward-looking, with its repertoire of losses that we can define as decadence. Tin his novel, Eca deals with the ontological relation between Portugal and the Adantic, thereby looking at the experience of colonialism for the country’s identity. His perspective was marked by ambiguity, something that especially defined his later works, Because of this, the narrative can be perceived as articulating some kind of praise of colonialism, given that while in Africa Goncalo’s life turns around and his return, in the final pages of the novel, can be seen as conveying his overcoming mediocrity and that of this time, Africa becomes the space where national decadence becomes diluted, as it were, where national problems are masked and which provides a palliative cure to the crisis of the nation, without necessarily solving it Similarly in Caetés two novels overlap and are interwoven, which suggests a strong link to Eca’s work. However, what emerges is that ‘A ilustre casa de Ramiresserves much more asa pretext to Graciliano’s novel, and therefore looking at the differences and departures from the European model will be useful to define his intentions more clearly. How does one narrative stem from the other? There are several clues: as with Ea, Graciliano’s work includesa “historical novel’, with ‘boring’ mistake-filled parts, which the narrator Joao Valério begins when hit by his family’s downfall. The theme is the Caetés, the Anachronisms and Simulacra of the Modern Nation 58 shipwreck of 156, ff Coruripe da Pra inthe north-eastern tate of Alagoas, of the ship eating the Portuguese Bishop D. Pero Sanda who, having survive the ackent at ea, was eaten y the ians in a tribal inidation ritual. The episode narrated is the same historical event famously referenced by the So Paulo moremist writer Oswald de Andrade in his 1928 “Cannibal nifesio". The appearance ofthis episode in diferent texts poi to.a connection between the modernist movement in Ste Paulo and other moderns peripheries, in this case inthe northeast 2 Jott novel by Ee’ tonal character Gono Ramis io Valério's novel prod : : ¢ ° produces a temporal disjuncture that Accentatesthesenseof decadence But he dlerences abound Ts the Portuguese ease, for example, dhe historical novels fnshed and i published inthe Anat we the novel by Jado Valeo remains unfinished a debra ofan impose etonaization of pas el ronal foating ai. in both novels, the metanarrative articu , arratve articulation of the mise en abyme proces ‘an anachronism that progress) ianadgee whereby the fictional world absorbs that of dhe “real world ofthe sarator:Thisiswhat happenin Graciano hook ote character Balbino, the poor descendant of Indians who move from being a character of the present time narrative to one belongi a dara n ne belonging to narrator's class prejudice aes Desert com una i : D naa engi, qe me ri Bain transfor male ade 1550 aio un foredab ono ato, clan um home pend ora perma. Ns tgs ed este pensamento mesquinho que told {te Pensamento mesquinho que tldava.a passagem mais brihante [woke up witha werd idea : iain my ea that made me gh Babin ior no Cac om 125 ain, pr de at rae cripple tang tan hanging fom one tg But qc eked aside the mean thought that was overshadow moment of mye) ng the most briliant A similar case takes place earlier in k ¢ earlier in the book, when the narrator struggling to reereate a cannibalistic feast in his novel and asks the housekeeper D. Maria José how one prepares a meat stew becanse he wants know como se cozinha umn homem (hov you man). Two distinct temporalities are brought closer here, BA Roberto Vecchi as the narrator naively tries to deny differences between them and evokes Indianist mythologies of the Romantic period: -ocupacio de arranjar 0 cles que esperem, nio D. Maria. A ee ale cer In the interplay of the two narrative threads what is clears that itis not intended fo emphasize the decadence of the present. The narrator's personal predicament is not accentuated by the contrasting of the narratives. Rather ths overlapping of past and resent emphasizes permanence as though the anachronism threw vip the connections and continuities instead of ruptures betwee theeiferenttnefes: Ths the use ofthe Mile Ages in en and Graciliano (modern in the case of the latter) could not high light beter a fundamental difference: Ega demythologizes the colonial present projected onto the African empire through narrative ofthe past. Graciliano, on the other hand, while sharing Bea's desmythologizing intent, reveals the continuity bewween the colonial and postcolonial ee how: = ae oa of the independent nation in Brazil (first as empire and then Tp) ne conti af er ace hat ae anachronisms expose uncontroversilly. : Insti text appca configure he temporality that fins « peripheral modernity through the use ofthe past, Graciliano seems to ereateatablea ofthis modernity throughn anachronism that intrdes fnto the present and that reflec is condon, mnected and not separated from the pas : , ofodhnkof Ccasaiesco of peripheral modernity toa certain extent entails drawing on Georges Diai-Hfuberman’sea according to which the image is an agglomerate of different times, where the anachronism i ‘el modo temporal de expresar la exuerancia, la ‘complejidad, lasobredeterminaci6n delas imagenes (the temp ea nese eno fon of images), remembering that it emerges ‘en el cae raat relacon enue imagen eho’ (mn the exact Caetés, the Anachronisms and Simulacra ofthe Modem Nation 58 overlapping of the relation between image and history).® This condition values above all the montage of heterogeneous timeframes; through it the two narratives take on added meaning thanks to the interconnection of the two worlds ~ and periods ~ to which they refer. What impresses in Graciliano’s debut novel, and in which it exceeds its Portuguese model, is its complete aesthetic command of the imagination of different temporalities inscribed in the narrative: a picture that conflates different histories and timeframes, that mixes them with fractures and gaps, so that what emerges is what Foucault calls effective history (‘wirkliche Historie’), which appears. precisely from discontinuities and Tuptures and not from a false homogeneity disguised by mystifying and teleological narratives. ‘The diguuncture that emerges from the image of a different modernity in Graciliano’s work, through thealternating of narrative threads, seems to fit perfectly into the vision of the contemporary developed by Giorgio Agamben. In fact, the Italian philosopher identifies a specific relationship with his own time that implies partly adhering to it and a certain distance, a double movement that occurs ‘através de uma dissociacio e de um anacronismo’ (through dissociation and an anachronism).” In the contemporary sphere, as occurs in Caetés itis an anachronism that allows, through difference, to capture the meaning of one’s time, which makes it possible to perceive the contemporary by virtue of its composite temporality, always also ‘other’. Caetés is, thus, a narrative that ‘exposes how, in modernity, the archaic and the modern intersect 10 an extent that the access to the present of Joao Valério can occur through an archaeology of the nation. This attempts to tune into the Romantic ideology (key to conceptualizations of Brazilian identity in the wake of the country’s independence from Portugal in 1822) although it does so showing how the fetishist character of this arche, this origin, renders the production of an effective time impossible. As Agamben notes, the vacuum of the anachronism, in the case of the writer, or poet, allows for the contemporary to fix hi gaze on his own time and receive “em pleno rosto o facho de trevas que provém do seu tempo’ (in his face the darkness that comes from his time). The thickness of this darkness filled with the past, ‘with gaps in its discourse and invented origins, can be expressed beyond speculation, through the image of a modernity that combines different temporalities, thereby creating its own effective contemporaneity. 56 Roberto Vecchi (which would throw into question Tatas a tion to Gracliano’s subsequent output its condition as imbo in relation t neque op considered mate and engaged), tx characterized bya dominant jcon tht rar conterporaniy and which found in the figure of te shipwreck. Not the shipwreck that becomes an icin veers a8 the Sardinha tragedy of 1556, but a series of sll Inglorious shipwrecks that through these features preserve ah darkness_ series of worthless shipwrecks: ‘Eu tinha confiado naquele naufrigio, idealizara um grande naufrgio sa ae er im ne spre pg Si nals at dete ane 2a eee a note own a he MPs Gui om wine’ F ee ae ae ae Ont Sa ovum bagi Net te nara como Desequbem ie {he me tht tps, Lage ig prs al Me ey sn aly Cam ty eso rs Anda cghees eet pe “ong i sovecio o pening mb as “nad I seen a galleon? And who said it was a galleon? Wher tad tf a shnone 1 oul hae been Deter resting the Cats inland and Tet the vessel to break up as pleased.] if weak, is a figure that disrupts linearity, Yet thee rseca revelation, Asin moments of risk or urgency. which can produce a revel ‘The self, the other: shipwrecks “The worthless shipwreck, a contemporary shipwreck, might here fore be seen as the sign of that ftesco of peripheral moder se in Palmeiras dos indios, ‘aptured in particular circumstances nc Glpnecis are the sins historical novel, the love fa with Lisa, the badly accomplished suicide attempt by Adriao Te} ng the endless list of failures. a eer: clininaon of tance between spectator and Sao lace in the shipwred catastrophe - contrary to what takes pl hp Sree rm adtance by the wine epcurean of De run Nana Caetés, the Anachronisms and Simulacra of the Modern Nation 57 by the Roman poet and philosopher Lucretius (first century BC) ~ marks one of the breaks that define modernity, the loss of its theological horizon, in line with which experience is reconceptualized and becomes impossible to. communicate according to formulations by Hans Blumenberg.” Therefore, as Joao Valério confirms, one can only speak of the experience that one lives through, and only once it has lost its symbolic weight. In a ‘way, we have here a connection between Caetés and another novel by Eca, A Cidade e as serras (The City and the Mountains, 1901), which stages the same shipwreck of communication, "The impossibili recreate Sardinha’sshipwreckin writings reflected in Joao Valério's personal shipwreck, which establishes a link between private and Public dimensions and turns personal history into a domain where official history is rearticulated or, as Miranda observes, ‘o que se parte da hist6ria da colonizacao do Pais tornase histéria privada no relato de Joao Valério e ficcio no texto de Graciliano Ramos’ (what should be part ofthe history of colonization of the country becomes private history in Joao Valério’s narrative and the fiction by Graciliano Ramos).® Thus the overall process governing the narrative is an uncompromising revision of the symbolic legacy of cultural tradition, as occurs with the image of the shipwreck and its reinscription into the sphere of the moder. This process affects other symbols in the novel. One of the clearest cases is that of the red star that symbolizes the protection of the love of Joao Valério for Luisa. It appears when he is rejected by her: Afastei-me cheio de uma vaga tristeza por nao ser selvagem [.. Como € que se chama uma estrela vermelha que esté agora por cima dos morros do Tanque [...] Muito grande, muito brilhante ... Ser Aldebari? Uma vermelha. O Doutor sabe? (left with a vague sad feeling for not being a savage. What is the nname of a red star that is now high above the Tanque mountains ... Very big, very bright ... Might it be Aldebaran? A red one. Do you know, Sir?] Although small, itis to its good auspices that the narrator refers after spending time with Luisa in the bedroom: A porta de casa retrocedi com a idea esquisita de procurara minha ‘strela protetora sobre o monte negro. E sort imeriormente. Fu & beira do agude, avisteta. Tinha mudado de Ingar e estava menor. 10 Vecchi 58 Roberto Vece Contempleta, supersticioso, quase convencido de que elame em parabéns li de cima. : stepped back, withthe strange eat ook ny guardian star above the dark hill And [smiled inside. Twent v0 mpereat i. Ithad changed place and was smaller the edge of the dam, and sawit os nasa Tlooked at it, superstitions, almost convinced that it rat lating me from up there.) {Once at the front door, 1 rscondhus ai athe nov! cnluson correspo a emote i transcendental value of the symbol, oo ce that lier ya tat could e compared so ere ofthe ine tat ne find in he Be sete cs athe pert, sch a anit Bandi (ASS 1968) in his collection Lenten ohne ara ae oe ‘of Ramos, however, there isan addition: s fh onder fo create anew sublime: ‘The end of the romance Umatarde, girando por estas ras, pare na beira do acude, embre ‘me da estrela vermelha e da noite em que Lasa me repetit =. cotrela vermelha brilhava 3 esquerda. Pareceusme pequena, come os estrela comum. Comum, como as outrasE estve um dit speito supersticioso, contané ‘coracio. E, lamentei nio ser ‘muito tempo a contempléla com res The et de bnixo os segredos do meu coraco. Ean selvagem para colocé-a entre os meus long these streets, [stopped on the edge ne aternoon vanes cig eet rere the sed ar rom the nigh we tome ike smth toe lef Kappearedsall om, 2oSiers common sa Common he te ote And Tet 3 een one day contemplating it with superstitious respect, tellin tong ime ote yom down here. An Tegreted ot being & da x inlading among my gods and worshipping) s downgraded and de‘idealized (ultimately revealing ). Decoupled from its former associations, it re there seems ‘The symbol is its reified nature) : allows the hardness of a world to appear, a world whe 10 place for love or writing. si vo Ra the empng ofthe object's aura, the denifcaion of Joe Valério with the (nonsavage) Indians seems to resolve tie anachronism of the novel within the novel, unmasking the romane idealization of the nation’s identity. This is a complex game 1 conjunctions and disjunctions. We might say that an archacology the present is based on a shifting contemporancity, telescopicy Cactés, the Anachronisms and Simulacra of the Modem Nation 59 articulated through approximations and distancing, w ontology in discourse. Beside the questions of non. (the not being savage) there isin the narrativea chiasmic movement by which not only does the real appear in the historic narrative but history also emerges in the present, through its incorporation into the world of the narrator and through the anachronisms that cluster around the image of the shipwreck. As Erwin Torralbo Giminez noted, irony always plays a structural role in connecting times and narratives: (O titulo do romance ~ Caetés-, a lembrar os nomes de epopéia, como Os Lusiadas, reforca a ironia: imposstvel entre nés um canto épico, dado o circulo hist6rico, a nossa tragédia pode ser contada a partir de qualquer momento, pois passado e presente se comunicam."” [The title ~ Castés ~ recalls those of epics such as Os Lusiadas (The Lusiads] and strengthens the irony: an epic canto is impossible among us, given our circular history, our tragedy can be told starting from ‘any moment, since past and present connect.) The lack of distancing is the underlying condition that undermines the possibility of the epic (evidenced by the narrative’s ironic thread). At the same time, it is important to consider the theoretical approach behind Graciliano’s intentions, in the light of the modernist context of demythologizing/re-mythologizing the narratives of the nation. The question seems close to the dilemma expressed by Graciliano’s contemporary Oswald de Andrade in the famous dictum “tupy or not tupy’ from his ‘Manifesto antrop6fago’, one of the most acclaimed legacies of the modernist experience in, Brazil. In wuth, Caetés goes beyond the dilemma of anthropophagy (by definition a dilemma implies no solution) and proposes an ontological interpretation of Brazil. Graciliano’s novel, on the other hand, shows the aporias that emerge from a postcolonial discourse that modernizes itself by establishing its own archaeology of the past. In fact, if on one side, as we saw, Joao Valério states that he is no savage, on the other the narrative takes a substantially opposed line, coalescing in the image of the shipwreck the heterogeneity of timeframes, overlapping the contemporary shipwreck with the anachronism of Sardinha's shipwreck, demythologized and remythologized ouside romantic frameworks. In this scenario, we must take into account the 60 Roberto Vecchi impossibility attached to the realization of the historical novel ~ proclaimed at the end of the novel with cutting selfirony: abd det ack dekvamente! on cactés: umn negoctante no ‘Abandone es de arte. hs vaca devnterro-os da sot reso rc ara tatanga dos portguescs, © morubixaba de Pes fou canita) na cab, o estore do galedo de D- Pro eda er caeenn lange dejo de etomar aqui, mascontenho- Mend pereo obabito™ mt et {tabandoned the Cato good A businesan must ot mele tian atten Take tem onto the drawer, {sce agin the pec Phat sqare gens ving) he ling f he Nt aa fether ti (or headdren), the wreckage ol Port i Gn wo time wa wo esr othe, but Fold ck And Tget out ofthe babi] e failure of the historical novel to materialize also wee a roc re the Romantic classic foundational fiction Tracema (1865) es he canonical writer José de Alencar (1829-77): ‘sto me fez: pee ceo xno xc “parbado. Daf passe paralracema, da ae para omen romans Fea att ia of od len also was excessively thick-bearded. Then I moved to Inncemas ang from Iracema to my novel, eae ab path eerkage . Ban Teftis the debris of the nationalistic ideology. Despite fe no te eee it ante ‘of Palmeira dos Indios. This has the effect of creating @ iad break in historical time, as Jodo Valério realizes on occasion Sane Dep a im rn ade sme Be ot eee amps Sane Pn sis wo mo ee Caetés, the Anachronisms and Simulacra of the Modern Nation 61 [After that crisis, among the promiscuity and hassle and bustle of those anguished days, there existed among us all an unsettling famili- arity. We almost always slept in the same rooms, men and women, sleptsitting down, like savages. Many social manners had disappeared, wwe sometimes revealed impatience, irritation, curt words; in the ‘morning the women would appear pale, shivery, with yellow lips; at night we would all selfishly look for the best places to rest. So, in a ‘week we had gone back some thousands of years.) This step back in time reveals the hidden barbarity within moder. ity, the Medusa face ~ the process of modernization in the periphery. Itis the same that Euclides da Cunha (1866-1909) iden- tified in the massacre of Belo Monte, at the height of the struggle, when he recalled the practice of beheading that was carried out in the government's attempts to end the insurgency in the Canudos community: “Realizavase um recuo prodigioso no t resvalar estonteador por alguns séculos abaixo’ (A prodigious step back in time was taking place; a shocking setback of a few centuries.)" The novel also raises another relevant, though less visible, issue: that of the indigenous population of Brazil, whose history has been wiped outand can become an empty signifier on whichany meaning can be projected, at the mercy of any re-use, be it ideological, historical, or in terms of identity. This is a risk also potentially implicit in any supposedly postcolonial critique, when not fully critical of the coloniality implied in questions of agency and power. In this sense, and to draw towards conclusion, we might propose that Graciliano’s achievement in this debut and seminal novel, against the backdrop of the modemist movement in Brazil, is its indirect reformulation of another of Oswald de Andrade’s famous ‘maxims of his avant-garde texts, this time his definition of Brazilian cultural identity as being ‘Barbaro e nosso’ (barbarian and ours) (Pau Brasil, 1925), in which he defined primitivism as the condition of modernity, a sign of the contemporary Indeed, it could be argued that Ramos proposes a subtle but substantial variation to Oswald's vision, Caetés appears to evoke the maxim while implying an alteration through the change of the possessive for a pronoun: “Barbaro e és’ (barbarian and us). This is a combination that cludes synthesis, where analogies and ruptures are not articulated in a smooth, homogeneous narrative and, as emerges in Cactés, privileges the interplay of relations often disunctive, some false 6 Roberto Vecchi some real, and always underpinned by the importance of an ethical Aiscourse in literature, rethinking the subject’s position in relation to the world, and that of the author in relation to the text. ‘As Graciliano ‘dealt with the Cactés', words with which he described his writing of the novel in October of 1930," in the days of the ‘revolution’ and the rise to power of Getilio Vargas, he was tunidermining the construction that was taking place of modern simulacra in which Brazil was to be reflected. Thus, through Titerature he demonstrated the risks that are always implicit in aesthetic articulations when one intends to speak in the name of, or decause of, acommunity,a past, an identity, an ideology, an ‘other’, 2 subaltern, a self, etc. This is a concern that reveals Caetés's strong Connection with the other great novels by the author that would followand would become classics. tightandsubstantial connection between the threshold and the rest, therefore. Notes 1 ‘It isan idiotic narrative, a conversation among parrots’: Graciliano: ‘Ramos, “Alguns tipos sem importincia’, in Linkas fortas, 8th edn (RIO de Janeiro: Record, 1980), p. 195. 2 Antonio Candido, Fieedo¢ confissdo: ensaio sobre Gracitiano Ramos, 30 ‘ex. edn (Rio de Janeiro: Ouro sobre Azul, 2006), pp. 18, 36. 3. Lunfs Bueno, Uma histéria do romance de 30 (S40 Paulo/Campinas: EDUSP/Editora UNICAMP, 2006), p. 228. Candido, Ficedo e confssao, p. 142. Wander Melo Miranda, Gracliano Ramas (Sio Paulo: Publifolha, 2004), p. 16. 6 Oswald de Andrade (1890-1954), one of the leaders of the avante garde modernist movement that developed in So Patio in the 1920s ‘edefine Brazilian cultural production. (Translator’s and aimed to note.) 7, Bueno, Uma histiria do romance de 30, p. 229. Miranda, Graciliano Ramos, p. 16. 9 In Dénis de Moraes, O velho Graca, 3rd edn (Rio de Janeiro: José ‘Olympio, 1996), p. 89. 10 Bueno, Uma historia do romance de 30, p. 252. 11. Sérgio Buarque de Holanda, Raées do Brasil, 18th edn (Rio de Janeiro: ‘José Olympio, 1984), p. 135. 12. Candido, Ficedo econfissdo, p. 103. 18 Graciliano Ramos, Caeés, 13th edn (Rio de Janeiro: Record, 1977), peal 16 "7 18 19 a 2 8 24 % 26 7 28 30 31 32 33 4 35 36 37 38 39 Caetés, the Anachronisms and Simulacra of the Modern Nation 63 R Setar, Sobre O A Betmio’ Amanense Beir’ in Oi de amie utr estudos (Rio de Jane Paze Terra, 1978), p. 14. aoa \ These images of decadence reer tothe novel Amanuene Bln (1887) by the writer from Minas Gerais Ciro do Anjos (1006-94) wie records the mere Ife ofthe protigonist and narrator ni a ante eof the 1954 election a poy writer Carlos Drummond de Andrade roca) ster Calo Dr rade (1902-87) (Tranlator’snote) Duc, Ci ht man dep 23 con Troy, Th History ote Pasian Pelton, rans. Ma (London: Pluto Press, 1977), pp. 26-7. cote emt E. Bock, Nonsnchronivm and the Obligation to Is Diaecic’, Ns eee ‘11 (1977), 22-38, 22, $4, « ranco Moret, Opr mond sail forma pica da Fast aC Gsatesdne Trine Ena, WOO pate Schwa, ‘Sobre O Amanuense Belmio' p18 The age refer to the metaphor used by economist Franco de liveira in his essay ‘O ornitorinco’, in Critica é raxo duali i torinco (Sao Paulo: Boitempo, 2003) encom Ramos, Caetés, p. 96. 2 Marshal Berman, Liyperena dela made et temas, Lop it tan. Lal (Bologna: Ramos, Coats p10, Miranda, Gracie Rama p17. See, among others studies by enced here, * Morne, Otho Gara. 92. ito Fei 2 José Palo Pas, ‘Do algo a0 guardaivos, in : Js Pao Pas ‘Do Bago gid in Tia (So Miranda, Graton Romas.18 Ramos, Cats p. 105. Ramos, Cant p. 101, Ramos, Cant p10 GcorgsDi ters, Aner on. Hiri a at econo de imdgenes, 2nd edn (Buenos Aires: Adriana Hic 008 ‘imine (hens Se Adana iyo, 20), M. Foucal,‘Nieusche, a . ‘Nieusche, ls genealogia, a storia’, in Miia ‘oer. Inerventi poi (Torino: Einaudi, 1977), p. 43. woe Gorge Aganen, 0 ge é«cnmpina us es, a finicius Nicastro Honesko (Chapecé: Argos, 2009), p.59. Agamben, O que conenfrinat p Ramon, Cat p45. lido, Paes, Miranda, Bueno, refer: 64 Roberto Vecchi 40. Hans Blumenberg, Nawfiagio com spetiatore, Paradigma di una metafora ialsstenza, trans FRigotti (Bologna: I! Mulino, 1985), pp. 38-40. 41. See R. Vecchi, "Naufragio a portuguesa’, in A. Barros Baptista (org) wh eidade ¢ as seras: uma revisdo (Coitabra: Angelus Nowus, 2001), pp- 75-85. 42. Miranda, Graciliano Rams, 20. 43 Ramos, Cacti, pp. 105-6. 44 Ramos, Caeés,p. 141 45, Ramos, Caetés,p. 215 46. B. Abdala Jr, Ideologia ¢ linguagem nos romances de Graciliano Ramos, in J.C. Garbuglio, A. Bosi and V. Facioti (orgs), Graciiano ‘Ramos cole escrito brasileiro (Sio Paulo; Atica, 1987), p. 400. 47. E- Tornalbo Giminer, ‘Cactés: nossa gente € sem heréi', Revita EB, 48 (2008), 161-80 (178). 48 Ramos, Caeés,p.212. 49 Ramos, Caeés,p. 9. 50 Ramos, Cacé, pp. 195-6. BI. Euclides da Gunha, Os srt: campanha de Canuos, ed, W. Nogueira Galvao (Sao Paulo: Atica, 1998), p. 464. Originally published in 1902, (Ossertas (The backlands), by Sio Paulo journalist Euelides da Cunha, records the brutality ofthe war (1896-7) waged by the government in Rio de Janeiro and the newly established republic against the insur gent community in Canudos (state of Bahia), gathered around the feligious charismatic leader AntOnio Consctheiro. The violence ‘gainst the community, made up of impoverished north-

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