José de Alencar
| José de Alencar | |
|---|---|
José de Alencar, c. 1870
|
|
| Born | José Martiniano de Alencar May 1, 1829 Fortaleza, Empire of Brazil |
| Died | December 12, 1877 (aged 48) Rio de Janeiro, Empire of Brazil |
| Pen name | Erasmo Ig |
| Occupation | Lawyer, politician, orator, novelist, dramatist |
| Nationality | Brazilian |
| Alma mater | University of São Paulo |
| Literary movement | Romanticism |
| Notable works | O Guarani, Senhora, Lucíola, Iracema, Ubirajara |
| Spouse | Georgina Augusta Cochrane |
| Children | Augusto de Alencar, Mário de Alencar |
| Relatives | José Martiniano Pereira de Alencar, Leonel Martiniano de Alencar |
José Martiniano de Alencar (May 1, 1829 – December 12, 1877) was a Brazilian lawyer, politician, orator, novelist and dramatist. He is considered to be one of the most famous and influential Brazilian Romantic novelists of the 19th century, and a major exponent of the literary tradition known as "Indianism". Sometimes he signed his works with the pen name Erasmo.
He is patron of the 23rd chair of the Brazilian Academy of Letters.
José Martiniano de Alencar was born in what is today the bairro of Messejana, Fortaleza, Ceará, on May 1, 1829, to former priest (and later politician) José Martiniano Pereira de Alencar and his cousin Ana Josefina de Alencar. Moving to São Paulo in 1844, he graduated in Law at the Faculdade de Direito da Universidade de São Paulo in 1850 and started his career in law in Rio de Janeiro. Invited by his friend Francisco Otaviano, he became a collaborator for the journal Correio Mercantil. He also wrote many chronicles for the Diário do Rio de Janeiro and the Jornal do Commercio. Alencar would compile all the chronicles he wrote for these newspapers in 1874, under the name Ao Correr da Pena.
It was in the Diário do Rio de Janeiro, during the year of 1856, that Alencar gained notoriety, writing the Cartas sobre A Confederação dos Tamoios, under the pseudonym Ig. In them, he bitterly criticized the homonymous poem by Gonçalves de Magalhães. Even the Brazilian Emperor Pedro II, who esteemed Magalhães very much, participated in this polemic, albeit under a pseudonym. Also in 1856, he wrote and published under feuilleton form his first romance, Cinco Minutos, that received critical acclaim. In the following year, his breakthrough novel, O Guarani, was released; it would be adapted into a famous opera by Brazilian composer Antônio Carlos Gomes 13 years later. O Guarani would be first novel of what is informally called Alencar's "Indianist Trilogy" – a series of three novels by Alencar that focused on the foundations of the Brazilian nation, and on its indigenous peoples and culture. The other two novels, Iracema and Ubirajara, would be published on 1865 and 1874, respectively. Although called a trilogy, the three books are unrelated in its plots.
...
Wikipedia