O leitor verá...: itinerário da obra literária de Josué de Castro

Abstract

The title sentence The reader will see..., originally used by the writer and critic Olivio Montenegro (1896-1962) to refer to the originality of the short stories conceived by Josué de Castro (1908-1973), is incorporated as epigraph to the present study, in the sense of pointing out the horizon of circulation and reception of the literary work produced by the aforementioned doctor and writer from Pernambuco. Nevertheless, through this analysis, it aims to intermediate some of the interpretive nuances that consolidate the multiple reading history of josuenian’s work. The social drama of starvation discusses the ontological manner by Castro, from essays, tales from Documentário do Nordeste (1937), from poetry booklet A festa das Letras (1937) published with the Cecília Meireles co-authoring, and the novel Homens e caranguejos (1967) predicted the “exploited value of narrador, in a sense translation of ethical field to the aesthetics” (BOSI, 1996, p. 13). The thesis O leitor verá… O itinerário da obra literária de Josué de Castro supports the hermeneutical process based on assumptions from Estética do efeito (ISER, 1983; 2013), the Estética da recepção (JAUSS, 1979), the Geocrítica (BERGEZ et al., 1999) and the Teoria da tradução (BENJAMIN, 2001; BERMAN, 2009; CARVALHAL, 1993) and of Artetnografia (LYRA, 2013). It sets out the “mammoth architectural activity” from the Castro’s work (MELO, 2011; 2012) against the interpretation based on its readers. Availing the comparative theory, checks on reading process of the Josué de Castro literary oeuvre the historical development and consolidation of the readership. Recognizing the interpretation that has been referred since the impressionist reading (MONTENEGRO, 1958; 1959; TOBELEM, 1974), until the recently academic crisis (CARDOSO, 2007; FARIA, 2008; SILVA, 1998; 2012). It stills asking the recognized compliment of the josuenian literary output. The reviewer’s paper on the theoretical appreciation and the appropriation integrated to readers/translators in the work’s expectations. Josué de Castro’s literary collection retains the latent and necessary revision. The necessary receiving has made since 1930, when the first Josué de Castro tales and poems movement, until the contemporaneity, since to highlight the different publications context and the work signification, underscoring decrease in academic production reviewed during the 70’s and 80’s, in function of the Brazilian military government veto in 1964 to the writer’s text. The exiled condition competed to the josuenian literary oeuvre glare. So, the recovery reading history research in the Josué de Castro work, giving the judgment constructed by the audience, responsible for the actualization and the reception resistance of the josuenian work. In a lato sensu, discussing the aspects of the translation of the novel Homens e caranguejos contributes to the contemporary reader’s reflection on how Castro’s fictional text is drawn from written experience, being re-read by music and dramaturgy.