Bom Crioulo: Adolfo Caminha's Controversial Novel on Homosexuality, Race, and Nationality , Schemi e mappe concettuali di Letteratura Portoghese

Scarica Bom Crioulo: Adolfo Caminha's Controversial Novel on Homosexuality, Race, and Nationality e più Schemi e mappe concettuali in PDF di Letteratura Portoghese solo su Docsity! Adolfo Caminha's Bom Criuolo was the first major work on homosexuality and race issues to be published in Brazil in 1895. One of the first work that appeared to have a black pureblood as a "hero". It has caused stir with it's modern approach towards the issue of race, nationality, gender and sexuality. The novel is set during the Empire of D.Pedro II sometime before the abolition of slavery in 1888. It's considered a re-working of classic literary themes such as Othello's. A bunch of literary critics called the novel in numerous ways such as: "o ponto alto do naturalismo" • "o naturalista envergonhado"(he's referring to Caminha) • David Brookshaw says that Caminha attributes to Bom Crioulo's homosexuality to the • perversions and immorality of slave life, resulting in uncontrollable and destructive passion and sexuality. Nelson Vieira interprets BC as an example of lusophobia and see the protagonist as a • symbol of corruption, disdain and exploration. David Foster writes that: the most impressive thing about the novel is the acceptance of • the author as describing the relationship between Aleixo and Amaro as quite natural. Another importat thesis is developed by Ethan Brackett about the dichotomies whitin the novel such as: male\female, black\white and master\slave as the novel moves from the initial domination of the white cabin boy over the black man through Aleixo's feeling as a slave for the black man to Dona Carolina's description of herself to Aleixo as "tua negra". The novel can be described as ambiguous and contradictory especially in it's treatment of homosexuality, at one poit Caminha will call the physical relationship " a delito contra a natureza". Caminha himself had a pretty rough life where he couldn't trust a friend critical reception of his own work. The initial reaction to Bom Crioulo appereance was gossip about the author, we're not sure about the reaction of the military even if Gastão Penalva in 1939 said that the navy was revolted by the book. There was a second edition published by Caminha's daughter around the 1940 that was block by the police for spreading communist propaganda but the ban was soon lifted. One review in particular signed by Valentina Magalhães described the book as "shady,scary because of the themes that it addressed such as unnatural pornography", in addiction she'll suggest that the book was based on the author's experience. She admitted that was hoping to read a book that spoke for the Braizilian black community instead of reading about a black,instinctive and vicious person. Caminha responded months later in an article entitled "Um libro condenado" (1896) where he noted that all the great writers of the century as Balzac, Zola and even Eça de Queiroz had been accused of immorality and then went on to reply to the specific criticisms made against the novel. In response to the allegations made about Caminha's sexuality he said that if we'd have to judge like every imbecil, all the greater writers have practiced incest and adultery. He ended by emphasising the seriousness of his study of homosexuality and deriding Magalhaes's preference for naughty bedroom and brothel scene. Caminha died of tuberculosis just over a year after the publication of Bom-Crioulo. Francisco Pacheco apparently offered to publish a second edition in Portugal but nothing came of this and the novel lapsed into obscurity for the next half-century (Lacerda). Both Verissimo ( magazine) and Magalhaes suggested that the novel reflected Caminha's personal experience but if we have to analyze his life we would knoww that he came from a white and established family in Ceará. As a cadet in the novel he protested against the method to spank mainly non white people and that played a big role in the novel. About his sexuality we cannot know for sure but we do know that at the age of 22 he found himself in the middle of a scandal with the wife of an army officer. The wife left the husband to live happily ever after with Caminha that decided to also left the army and sacrifice his career to endure a life of social ostracism and poverty rather than give up the relationship. Other than that, we can notice that even if he wasn't homosexual he for sure was fascinated by transgressive sexual relations. the description of life on board was for sure based on his personal experience had it seemed that he indeed observe some kind of homosexual behaviour in the army and navy. Another source of inspiration was for sure an event that happened in Portugal not Brazil in April 1886 when a cadet in the Escola do Exército shot dead another cadet in the street near the school in Lisbon. It's not sure that Caminha could have had read Aristotele's works but Bom Crioulo has most of the elements of tragedy described in the "Poetics" ": Peripetetia --> reversal of situations (change of boat of Amaro) • Anagnorisis -->recognition (when he learns from Herculano that Aleixo had a girlfriend) • Pathos ---> suffering of Amaro in the hospital ecc.. • One of the difficulties they faced was to reconcile tragedy's emphasis on the heroic deeds of high-ranking characters with the more mundane concerns of the novel. Caminha tried to deal with this problem by making his characters representatives of larger social trends. This can be seen if we examine one of Bom-Crioulo's literary influences, since it seems likely that Caminha chose the name Amaro for his black hero as a reference to Eça de Queiroz's O crime do padre amaro. Both novels are set in a street called "Rua da Misericordia" one in Leira and the other in Rio. Similarities are found in both texts since both turn on a transgresssive passion which leads to tragedy and both use these domestic tragedies to reveal the working of society in large. Both characters are enslaved not by society but their passions. Amaro's passions allows no room for Aleixo's development, in reality Bom Crioulo can be seen as the reflection of Dona Carolina, instead the role played but Aleixo rapidly change from a passive partner in a homosexual relationship to the assertive active role in a heterosexual one. While gender and sexuality topic are pretty fluid the race one is not, everything is identified as black or white in fact he ofter refers to Amaro as the "negro or pederasta (pedofilo)" Caminha emphasises his blackness and Aleixo's whiteness considering that most of the civilian characters are portugueses and therefore white.