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| Caetés (book) | |
|---|---|
| Name | Caetés |
| Author | Antonio Candido |
| Language | Portuguese |
| Country | Brazil |
| Publisher | Editora Civilização Brasileira |
| Pub date | 1964 |
| Pages | 248 |
| Genre | Literary criticism |
Caetés (book) is a landmark work of Brazilian literary criticism by Antonio Candido, first published in 1964. The book examines Brazilian social formations, regional identities, and literary production through the figure of the sertão, engaging with the works of canonical writers and intellectual movements. It interlaces close readings of fiction with historical and sociological analysis to interrogate national identity, modernity, and culture in twentieth-century Brazil.
Antonio Candido composed Caetés during a period of intense political and intellectual ferment in Brazil, amid debates sparked by the Vargas Era, the Second Brazilian Republic, and rising tensions leading to the 1964 Brazilian coup d'état. The manuscript was prepared while Candido held academic positions at the University of São Paulo and collaborated with scholars from the Museu Paulista and the Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas. Initial serialization appeared in literary supplements associated with Folha de S.Paulo, Jornal do Brasil, and journals like Clima before publication by Editora Civilização Brasileira. The 1964 release coincided with broader discussions in the Cambridge School of comparative literature and resonated with contemporaneous texts by figures such as Sérgio Buarque de Holanda, Gilberto Freyre, and Roberto Schwarz.
Antonio Candido, a critic and essayist trained at the University of São Paulo and a member of the Brazilian Academy of Letters, drew on a lifetime of scholarship on Brazilian literature, including studies of Machado de Assis, Jorge Amado, Graciliano Ramos, and Euclides da Cunha. Candido's methodological influences include comparative approaches associated with the Frankfurt School, the sociological frameworks of Émile Durkheim and Max Weber, and literary historicism practiced at institutions like the Sorbonne and the British Museum. The composition of Caetés mixes archival research in the Arquivo Nacional and libraries in São Paulo with field observations in northeastern municipalities, following trajectories similar to anthropological fieldwork conducted by researchers linked to the Instituto do Ceará and the Museu Nacional. Candido collaborated indirectly with contemporaries in theatre and poetry circles such as Nélson Rodrigues, Gonçalves Dias, and critics from Revista de Cultura.
Caetés foregrounds the sertão as an organizing metaphor to analyze works by Euclides da Cunha, Graciliano Ramos, Jorge Amado, Ariano Suassuna, and lesser-known regional authors from Pernambuco, Paraíba, and Rio Grande do Norte. Candido reads novels, short stories, and chronicles through lenses drawn from realism and modernism in Brazilian letters, while invoking social theory from Karl Marx and cultural critique associated with the Annales School. Major themes include peripheral modernity, rural-urban relations, representation of nature, and the formation of national myths exemplified in debates around Canudos and the imagery of the sertanejo. The book also interrogates literary form—narrative voice, dialogism, and lyricism—by discussing texts by Ceará-based poets and dramatists and comparing them to regionalist trends in Northeast Brazil.
Candido situates his analysis within Brazil's historical trajectory from the post-abolition period through industrialization and urbanization, touching on episodes such as the Canudos War, the consolidation of coffee oligarchies in Minas Gerais, and migration patterns tied to the Great Depression. He connects literary production to institutional developments in higher education—referencing the Federal University of Pernambuco and the University of Brasília—and to state cultural policies under administrations like Getúlio Vargas and the Jânio Quadros government. The work converses with cultural movements including Modernismo (Brazil), the Semana de Arte Moderna, and leftist intellectual networks allied with the Partido Comunista Brasileiro and trade-union organizing in industrial centers such as Santos and Recife.
On publication, Caetés received attention in periodicals like O Estado de S. Paulo, Correio da Manhã, and Revista de História (USP), prompting responses from scholars including Roberto Schwarz, Sylvio Pinheiro, and Antonio Candido Filho. Supporters praised its interdisciplinary scope and nuanced readings of canonical works by Machado de Assis and Euclides da Cunha, while detractors questioned its reliance on certain sociological paradigms and the representation of regional voices. Critiques referenced theoretical debates with proponents of structuralism at institutions like the École Pratique des Hautes Études and with Marxist critics affiliated with the Centro de Estudos Sociais and the Partido dos Trabalhadores intellectual circles. The book has been the subject of dissertations at the University of São Paulo and taught in courses on Brazilian literature at the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro.
Caetés shaped subsequent scholarship on Brazilian regionalism and informed readings of authors such as Graciliano Ramos, Jorge Amado, Ariano Suassuna, and Clarice Lispector. Its interdisciplinary model influenced research agendas at the Instituto de Estudos Brasileiros and the Centro Brasileiro de Análise e Planejamento, and it became a touchstone for cultural historians and literary theorists in Brazil and abroad, referenced in comparative studies at institutions like Harvard University, University of Oxford, and Université de Paris. The book's emphasis on the interplay of landscape, social structure, and narrative voice continues to be cited in debates over national canon formation, curriculum design in Brazilian studies programs, and cultural policy discussions within bodies such as the Ministério da Cultura.
Category:Brazilian books Category:Literary criticism books