João Guimarães Rosa
| João Guimarães Rosa | |
|---|---|
 |
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| 3rd Academic of the 2nd chair of the Brazilian Academy of Letters | |
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In office 16 November 1967 – 19 November 1967 |
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| Preceded by | João Neves da Fontoura |
| Succeeded by | Mário Palmério |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
27 June 1908 Cordisburgo, Minas Gerais, Brazil |
| Died | 19 November 1967 (aged 59) Rio de Janeiro, Guanabara, Brazil |
| Nationality | Brazilian |
| Alma mater | Federal University of Minas Gerais |
| Occupation | Author, novelist, short story writer |
| Profession | Diplomat |
João Guimarães Rosa (Portuguese: [ˈʒwɐ̃w ɡimaˈɾɐ̃js ˈʁɔzɐ]; 27 June 1908 – 19 November 1967) was a Brazilian novelist, short story writer and diplomat, widely regarded as one of the greatest writers of Brazilian literature.
Rosa published four books of short story in his lifetime, all of them revolving about life in the sertão, but addressing themes of universal literature and of existential nature. Rosa only wrote one novel, Grande Sertão: Veredas (known in English as The Devil to Pay in the Backlands), a revolutionary text for its blend of archaic and colloquial prose and frequent use of neologisms, taking inspiration from the spoken language of the Brazilian backlands. For its profoundly philosophical themes, the critic Antonio Candido described the books as a "metaphysical novel". It is often considered to be the Brazilian equivalent of James Joyce's Ulysses. In a 2002 poll by the Bokklubben World Library, "Grande Sertão: Veredas" was named among the best 100 books of all time.
Guimarães Rosa was born in Cordisburgo in the state of Minas Gerais, the first of six children of Florduardo Pinto Rosa (nicknamed "seu Fulô") and Francisca Guimarães Rosa ("Chiquitinha"). He was self-taught in many areas and studied several languages from childhood, starting with French before he was seven years old. He later recalled,
"I speak: Portuguese, German, French, English, Spanish, Italian, Esperanto, some Russian; I read: Swedish, Dutch, Latin and Greek (but with the dictionary right next to me); I understand some German dialects; I studied the grammar of: Hungarian, Arabic, Sanskrit, Lithuanian, Polish, Tupi, Hebrew, Japanese, Czech, Finnish, Danish; I dabbled in others. But all at a very basic level. And I think that studying the spirit and the mechanism of other languages helps greatly to the more deeply understand the national language [of Brazil]. In general, however, I studied for pleasure, desire, distraction".
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