Aspectos da nacionalidade e da regionalidade em o Gaúcho (1870) e o sertanejo (1875), de José de Alencar

Abstract

He work aims to examine the guidelines of José de Alencar's aesthetic program (1929-1877), which considers the multiplicity of the region as necessary for the construction of the unity of the country's literary landscape, as evidenced in his text "Paternal Blessing" (1872) . For this, it should be considered that the writer from Ceará produced a large and diversified work committed to such construction. It should be emphasized that Antonio Candido (2007) classifies the nineteenth century literature in the country as "committed". Thus, in view of the recent Brazilian independence, the Romantic regionalist novel endeavors to fulfill a program that required an affirmative attitude towards the construction of the national identity. In this programmatic direction are located two regionalist novels alencarinos - The Gaucho (1870) and The Sertanejo (1875) that integrate the corpus of this work. Through a comparative reading, both are analyzed, especially from the historical perspective of Sérgio Buarque de Holanda (2014) and Darcy Ribeiro (2006). Alencar's narratives reveal the peculiarities of rural properties described in literary terms that combine reality and imagination and project some harmonization among social classes, although in an ambiguous way they also offer a sample of their geographical, historical, sociological and cultural activities. In this environment, the protagonists Manuel Canho and Arnaldo Loureiro, respectively, experience singular experiences amid the popular cultures – gaucho and sertaneja – with their social inequalities, music, parties, dances and customs.