Postmodernism and Brazilian Fiction of the Eighties

Author(s): Adolfo Marin-Minguillon

Source: Latin American Literary Review, Vol. 18, No. 35 (Jan. - Jun., 1990), pp. 18-31
Published by: Latin American Literary Review
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POSTMODERNISM

AND BRAZILIAN

FICTION

OF THE EIGHTIES
ADOLFO MARIN-MINGUILLON
A new specter is haunting the world: the specter of post
modernism. In the fields of society, philosophy and the arts, a great
is being produced in order to characterize this
deal of polemicizing
The

phenomenon.

prefix

"post",

to the

added

term

"modern",

sug

gests the birth of a new historical period. There must have been,
then, some kind of rupture thatmarks the end of an era (modernity)
and the beginning of the new times (postmodernity). The dis
starts
agreement
that the different

here.

It's about
taken
positions

this idea of rupture

(or non-rupture)
on the problem
gravitate.

In these pages I present a brief discussion

and critique of the

on the
theoretical
elaborations
important
All
further
considerations
of
the
ernism.
problem

most

issue of postmod
on them
touches

inescapably. So does the treatment of postmodernism with which the

Brazilian critic Jos? Miguel Wisnik characterizes the popular culture
in his

productions

I use

and which

country,

as a cultural

and

social

contextualization of the kind of literature with which this paper is

concerned. Then I side with Matei Calinescu in the discussion of
literary

which,
artistic
Tetraneto

in order

postmodernism

as a working

hypothesis,

to arrive

at general

in the Brazilian
fiction
achievement
del-Rei
[The Great-Great-Great-Grandson

and Em Liberdade

Haroldo Maranh?o

characterization

I apply to two novels

of

of highly

the

eighties:
of the King],

[Free] by Silviano Santiago.

by

theorist
of the post
the first
For Jean Baudrillard,
perhaps
an
If
meant
is
well
assumed.
the
modern
rupture
modernity
society,
market
etc.),
economy,
(mechanization,
technology,
"explosion"
is characterized
("de-differen
by an "implosion"
postmodernity

tiation") that brings about the end of firmly established categories

such as the Real, Meaning, History, Revolution and the Social. The

factor
during

that

the

dominates

modernity,

but

social

now

order

is not

"re-production"?reproduction

as
production,
of models

through simulations and simulacra. A series of models promoted

from the media (from health manuals to religious practices and
political attitudes) precede reality, reproduce it, and end up con
stituting the society as a "hyperreality" (that which is already
reproduced).

Traditional
obsolete.

Now,

The

Real,

thus,

has

theories of conflict

come

to an end

(Simulations

146).

and social change have become

in an era of hyperconformity,

the masses

"only want

some sign, they idolize any content so long as it resolves itself into a

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Postmodernism

and Brazilian

Fiction

19

of the Eighties

(In the Shadow 10). This supposes the

spectacular
sequence"
of
and
of the Social itself.
Revolution
liquidation
Inmodernity, the acquisition of Meaning implied the discovery
of the hidden dimension behind the appearances (i.e., Marx's and
Freud's

of suspicion").
"hermeneutics
consists
of a proliferation

contrary,

information and media

is explicit,

The postmodern
of forms,
signs,

visible,

and

"ob-scene",

the
of

bombarding

(In the Shadow 25-26, passim).

transparent,

on

world,

Everything
end

present:

of

Meaning and of History. The rupture, for Baudrillard, would consist

in the shift from themodern "mode of production" to the postmodern
"mode of disappearance."
ease in the new condition,

what

has been

remains

lost, but, rather, accepts what

to play

is

to feel
theorist seems
a critical
not propose

The French
as he does

with

the pieces....That

Nihilism" 38).
In the domain of philosophy

at
of

totally
search

is left: "All that

is post-modern"

and knowledge,

("On

another French

a historical
Jean Fran?ois
advocates
that
Lyotard,
rupture
to the "postmodern
the door
condition."
For him,
the great
opens
main
value
of the conscience
of the new epoch would
be the plu
ralistic
of knowledge.
The master
narratives
fragmentation
(grand
r?cits) of the past?e.g.,
Marxism,
etc.,?
Liberalism,
Hegelianism,
thinker,

that have
credibility

legitimized modern knowledge,

(37). The postmodern condition

and embraces

theory,

the

"language

game"

have now lost their

rejects any totalizing

principle

as an epistemo

logical approach within each of the spheres of knowledge. Science,

etc., constitute different cultural fragments
history, philosophy,

a series of "language moves",

where
are
practised?argument/counter-argument,

based

on paralogy
and dissent,
etc.,
reply/counter-reply,

according to certain rules previously accepted and that can finally be

canceled (60ff). Although deprived of the connotations of uni
in
versality and Utopian emancipation with which knowledge,

modernity,

was

invested,

known

in a world

in the post-modern

knowledge,

is still possible. For Baudrillard,

of simulations.

condition,

in contrast, little or nothing can be

The very subject of postmodernism

the
may exemplify
Lyotardian idea of "language games." So far, the different positions
taken

around

are nothing

the problem

but

"moves"

in the debate.

Another participant in it, J?rgen Habermas, considers the issue more

serious

than

a mere

game.

In

total

to Lyotard,

opposition

the

German philosopher asserts that the Utopian project of modernity

has not failed; it is only unfinished. And it still has emancipatory
potential:

social

rationality,

justice,

morality,

etc.,

are

universal

truths that, since the Enlightment, are to become "the property of

everyday praxis" (9). Habermas considers the postmodern ideology

as

an

antimodern

poststructuralism

neoconservatism
(e. g.,

Foucault,

from
the French
stemming
that has succumbed
to
Derrida)

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20

Latin American

the present

times

without

the necessary

criticism

Literary Review

that

the situation

demands (14-15).
The fourth participant in the debate, Fredric Jameson, tries to
delineate a necessary epistemological foundation in order to propose
a totalizing
social
that accounts
for
theory
the concept
of he postmodern
him,
periodizes

which

is characterized

by a new economic

the new
For
times.
the present moment,

order (postindustrial

consumer
mass media
etc.) correlated
capitalism,
society,
society,
new social
with
and cultural
forms
Post
("Postmodernism"
112-3).
comes
to reinforce
modern
culture
"the logic
of consumer
cap
italism"
to modernism:
its own
and possesses
traits with
respect
of boundaries,
dehistorization,
implosion
pastiche,
fragmentation,
etc. As a result, postmodern
art has lost the subversiveness
and the

strong subjectivity of high modernism; it has become conformist and

mere combinatory play ("Postmodernism" 124-5).
For Andrew Britton, Baudrillard
is nothing more than a
as
to
and
he
fails
such,
visionary
develop "an intelligible strategy
of cultural/political resistance" to the social conditions he describes.
Visionaries
"are unable to do so because the social conditions they
are wrong"

describe

weak dilettantism

(17).

Britton

rejects

(like postmodernism

Jameson's

as

argument

itself: everything goes) and

a much-needed
critical
of capitalism
in order
proposes
analysis
to illuminate
a more
to achieve
For
effective
ways
democracy.1
as it has been used so far, is
the concept
of the postmodern,
Britton,
no more
than "conscious
and charlatanism"
(17).
casuistry

A postmodern

elaborated.

Abstract

theory, for Douglas

and unilateral,

Kellner,

Baudrillard's

still remains to be
theory

an

assumes

absolute rupture for which there is no definition or justification.

Moreover, Baudrillard tends to accept as finished states what appear
to be trends of the current social situation (Kellner 248). Lyotard
finds himself in a contradictory position, for the very concept of the
postmodern condition requires a grand r?cit that interprets it. In fact,
the latter accepts theories of postindustrial society that intend to be
totalizing (Kellner 253-255). Habermas' attack on theories of post
modernism and defense of modernity fails to answer the "strongest
critiques" by the former (e. g., Foucault, Derrida, Baudrillard,
and the
Lyotard, etc.) upon the latter, that is, the Enlightenment
"universalist heritage of philosophy and reason" (Kellner 265). It is
Jameson

who

periodize

tries

the present

to most

comprehensively

condition,

although

characterize

and

he does not provide

to the current
transition
from earlier
of capitalism
detailed
stages
late capitalism.
his
of
Furthermore,
application
previous
paradigms

to contemporary society should be carefully revised in the light of

actual cultural and social changes.2 In sum, although Kellner
the challenges of postmodern theories, he prefers to
recognizes

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and Brazilian

Postmodernism

21

of the Eighties

Fiction

a theory
as well

in transition",
and proposes
"of a society
speak
tualizes
the new social
and cultural
conditions

that concep
as the links

with the past (267-8).

The Brazilian critics Sergio Paulo Rouanet and Jos? Guilherme
in order
to defend
sides with Habermas
the eman
of
No
occurred.
has
Post-mod
rupture
project
modernity.
an illusion
is a false
of rupture
that does not
conscience,
take

Merquior
cipatory
ernism

to reality

correspond

who

(as stated by Rouanet,

the

proposes

or it is an
of a resistant
neomodern
conscience
[51-53]),
of
whose
derivation
great universal
epigonal,
spurious
modernity,
in an
Truth,
Reason?became,
says Merquior
values?Meaning,
obvious
"mere ad hoc functions
attack on Lyotard,
of language
play
formation

that can be transformed ad infinitum" (Merquior 27).3

In my
each of the four
opinion,
however
partially,
symptomatic

tains,

theoretical

con

elaborations
the present

of

aspects

times.

Although the Baudrillardian mode of disappearance may be con

sidered more science fiction than social theory, it is true that the
current

high

functions

technology

as

control

social

can

that

re

produce (and does, in fact) behavior patterns through media

manipulation and modulation. But Baudrillard seems to legitimize
the

as he does

system,

screen

of

not

penetrate

the essence

does not analyze

simulations.

the

beyond

hidden behind

Jameson

takes

that

up

task,

He

appearances.

the immense
and

social
at the

looks

material conditions of society?political

economy. Although he
might be somewhat of a reductionist, he locates the postmodern
society within a capitalist development, whereas Baudrillard's high
seems
to have come out of the emptiness.
society
Jameson's
of the new period
global,
totalizing
interpretation
contradicts
thesis. But
the Lyotardian
a
favors
Lyotard's
pluralism
tech

proliferation of voices that act as a defense against the monopoly of

discourse exercised by the political or cultural power (white, male,
eurocentric).

the emergence

Therefore,

of

the discourse

of

"others"

(female, black, third-world) is positive and questions postmodern

nihilism ? la Baudrillard.4 Nevertheless,
that is not incompatible

with

a grand

theory

of contemporary

conditions.

The bottom line here is to determine whether all these charac

teristics and features constitute a new epoch or simply reflect an
intensification of previous factors already contained in modernity,
such

as

media

consumerism,

have now become dominant.

this

intensification

And undoubtedly,

will

lead

modulation,

etc.,

that

to a rupture,

or not,

remains

to be seen.

a global theory that examines and conceptualizes

the nature of the phenomena

is strongly
dialectical
way,
a
sense
like
Jameson's
(in

the (post)modern

manipulation,

I support the second option. Whether

world.5

at stake, in the most

and
comprehensive
needed.
This will help to orient ourselves
in the maelstrom
of
"cognitive
mapping")

It might

reveal whether we are going

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22

Literary Review

Latin American
of an era or just

the end
through
of the system.

has been said until now applies to highly

What
societies.

the recurrent

of

any

through

But,

obviously,

different

of

manifestations

crises

industrialized
those

tenden

cies can be traced in all countries that integrate the capitalist world.
In

the case

of Brazil,

Wisnik's

paper

about

the presence

of post

in the popular culture of that Latin American

modernism

Habermas
and Jameson.
echoes
Baudrillard,
Lyotard,
of Brazil
The present moment
(after the dictatorship,

country
the frus

trations of the right-wing campaign and the failure of the Cruzado

Plan) characterizes itself by "an emptiness of hope that seems to
reduplicate...that

black

that
"modernity
overcome"
(3).

was

Baudrillard

hole...that

defines

as the end

of

the social" (Wisnik 1). The author of the paper points out ironically
never

but

completed,

it has

already

been

After the failure of the avant-garde totalizing project in the

sixties (the Utopian emancipation project devised by the high culture

to be
and
confrontation
de Campos
polemics.

of mass

out
the space
carried
through
Schwarz
of Roberto
against
on a Brazilian
reflects,
level,
denounces
Schwarz
complacency

the
culture),
and Haroldo

Augusto
the Habermas/Lyotard
in a post-utopian
present

that celebrates a "pluralism of possible poetics" (position sustained

by Haroldo de Campos and supported by Augusto in his famous

"P?s-tudo"
poem
Jameson's
terms)
utopian

poetry,

because
it has succumbed
(in
[Post-everything]),
to the "cultural
This post
of
late
logic
capitalism."
to consumerism
for Schwarz,
falls prey
and accepts

its lack of historical perspective as a positive

On

an intellectual

level,

as we

that mark the cultural crisis of modernity

On a socio-economic
level, however,
in
But
modern"
many
aspects.
phase

trait (Wisnik 5-6).

see, Brazil

shows

the symptoms

in postindustrial

societies.

the country
is still in a "sub
as a third-world
country
subject

to the demands of multinational

capitalism, Brazil contains a
of
simulacrum
is, the most superficial and
(that
powerful industry
visible feature of postindustrial societies). The consumption of the
new

dissimulates

the country's

backwardness

and,

at the same

time,

simulates modernity. The result is a shocking social pastiche of

postmodern and pre-modern forms (Wisnik 8).
The indicators of the postmodern proliferate abundantly in the
of mass
domain
a generalized
been

anything goes,
mere

culture?TV,
invasion

of

and that swings

music,
film,
video,
a pastiche-parody

etc. There
has
in which
form

from honest artistic intentions

Wisnik
commercialism.
Therefore,
as
For
totally spurious.
postmodernism
who
Caetano
Veloso,
participated
singer

to

not consider
popular
and
the song-writer
instance,
in the avant-gardist
expe

rience of the sixties (which also employed

does

the mass media), draws a

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and Brazilian

Postmodernism
rich

nuances

of parodie

gamut

Fiction

23

of the Eighties

that

includes

popular

culture

confluence.

the art/commodity

from

through an interplay

He interprets the cultural relativism of Brazil

etc), modern

carnival,

(Afro-religions,

culture (the critique of language in the song lyrics), and postmodern

culture (entertainment and culture industry [Wisnik 15-16).
Brazilian postmodern journalism finds its best expression and
definition in the Folha de S?o Paulo, the most influential newspaper
uses a pastiche
of
which
in the country,
a Baudrillardian
in
It practices,
fashion.
in which
without
substance,
pearance

and
music,
gossip
a discourse
of ap
is transparent,
everything
thought,
sense,

"obscene" and patent (Wisnik 18). This nihilistic, cynical and hardly
side

constructive

of postmodernism

acquires

its most

load

negative

in the political field where the politics of the image starts to

dominate the politics of the discourse. In 1984, an intelligent and
articulated Henrique Cardoso lost the S?o Paulo municipal elections
to J?nio Quadros's histrionic acting (Wisnik 19). The simulations
theory seems to be working well in this case, but it would not
explain the success of the Left in the November 1988 elections for
mayor in S?o Paulo City itself, and that is another reason to question
the French theorist's nihilism. Wisnik does not let himself be carried
away by postmodern nihilism. He does not lose sight of the actual
complexity
proliferating

modern

But he also foresees

that, if it keeps
of the post
the use of the concept

of present
reality.
as it does
now,

in terms of superficial

reality under a stereotype

The question,
banality.

appearance may

end up hiding a

existence
and
legitimizes
is to resist
however,
it, Wisnik
that

art as mere
to
seems

say (20).
far as aesthetics

As

Calinescu

is concerned,

has

a most

given

comprehensive (and positive) view of the concept of postmodernism.

It thus reveals similarities to
For him, it is a face of modernity.
modernism,

in its opposition

"particularly

to the principle

of author

ity" (312), and maintains relations with the other faces of modernity
of unity), kitsch
such as decadence
(eclecticism,
questioning
and
and
(commercial
avant-garde (use of collage and
popular code)
For
Calinescu, postmodernism is not a new reality
montage [312]).
that presupposes
one can
which

a previous
ask certain

rupture.
questions

it is "a perspective
from
Rather,
and its several
about modernity

incarnations" (279). Thus, the specific characteristic of this face of

modernity is its questioning nature: "among the faces of modernity,
is perhaps the most quizzical: self-skeptical yet
postmodernism
curious, unbelieving yet searching, benevolent yet ironic" (279).
Conceived

in this manner,

from both Merquior's

Jameson's

postmodern

dismissal

characterization

of

art places

itself

far

away

of it as epigonal and spurious and

it as

commodified

and

conformist.

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24

Literary Review

Latin American

art of high quality

considers
however,
Calinescu,
only a postmodern
works.
and does not deal with more mediocre
In the case of Brazilian
literature, whose modernism
(equivalent
to the European
for sev
has had such a strong
impact
avant-garde)

eral decades, Calinescu's

of models;

of subversion

niques

Ramos?an
and both

author
exhibit

is extremely valid for The Great

position

and Free.
Both works
of the King
uses modernist
modernism.
Grandson

Great-Great-Grandson
links with
inescapable

Free

is a text ? la Graciliano

to modernism's
nature
per

who belongs
a questioning

have
tech

second generation?
se. Maranh?o's
text

questions the relation between history and fiction; questions colonial

history and the authenticity of its chronicles. Silviano Santiago,
other

among

things

to be discussed

uses

below,

a subtle

simulacrum

to the limit of biography,

technique that takes his work

essay, and

novel.

As mentioned,
In Brazilian
and High
Sant'Anna,

works.

Calinescu does not pay attention to lower quality

as Amazona,
such novels
fiction,
resort
Rubem
Fonseca,
Art, by

by Sergio
to a pastiche

recipe of plots, topics and narrative forms that sells well without any
to
These
novels
would
artistic
achievement.
further
correspond
art. This
of postmodern
characterization
Jameson's
and Merquior's
reflects
the
literature
shows
that in its contemporary
also, Brazil
on
the
issue.
international
postmodern
polemics
as
on the aesthetic
sector
that can be denominated
Focusing

high postmodernism?final

can be said,

object of this paper?it

abandons
modernist
and
that postmodernism
Calinescu,
along
and
for
the
of
innovative
nature,
renovation,
opts
avant-garde
logic
enters
with
the old and the
reconstructive
"into a lively
dialogue
a point
reached
The
(276).
experimentation
avant-gardist
past"
with

beyond which it was impossible to advance any further. The de

struction of forms and contents of the aesthetic tradition led to the

white
the white
canvass,
"consists
of recognizing

silence.
page,
that the past,

The
since

alternative
postmodern
be destroyed,
it cannot

because its destruction leads to silence, must be revisited: but with

irony, not innocently" (Eco 66-67). The rediscovery of the past is
submitted to questioning through irony, parody and other devices.
This is immediately applicable to Grandson, which constitutes a
per excellence,
parody
tual reconstruction
critique.
The
struction

and Free,
that carries

whose
questioning
a certain
dose
of

uses
of parody,
satire,
irony,
in a double
result
of the past,

becomes
perversion

etc.,
play,
for
feature

in

the

literary

a tex
and

recon
texts:

complexity (because of the different levels of codification articulated

by the parodie game) and enjoyment. Such a codification has the
to reach a wide
capacity
work
into
postmodern

spectrum
a potential

of readers. This fact may

The most
best
seller.

turn the
obvious

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25

of the Eighties

Fiction

and Brazilian

Postmodernism

example is Eco's novel The Name of the Rose (Calinescu 284). Such
a commercial
success
of the dichotomy
leads to the reexamination
for
and avant garde
"between works
consumption
popular
designed
one
works
because
etc.),"
provocative,
experimental,
(unpopular,
can find "elements
in works
of revolution
and contestation
that lend

to facile consumption

themselves
...certain

works,

which

seem

to realize that

and it [is] possible

still enrage

and

provocative

the public,

do not really contest anything" (Eco 64).

Although Maranh?o's Grandson is far from being a best-seller,
the book contains a plurality of coding that allows readers to enjoy
the text from the most superficial level to the most sophisticated
parodie

Santiago's

key.

more

Free,

successful

three editions already in circulation,

market-wise,

with

testifies to the compatibility

success.
literature
and commercial
good
tation
takes over
the artistic
intention,
to the other. Complexity
postmodernism

But when
one shifts
loses out

of

the market
temp
from one side of
to consumerism.

This complexity, which draws a line between the two trends of

is determined
literature,
postmodern
by a multi-codification
"allusion
and allusive
citation,
commentary,
playfully
invented
deliberate
reference,
recasting,
transposition,

the mixing

based
distorted

on
or

anachronism,

of two or more historical or stylistic modes"

(Calinescu

aesthetics?versus
minimalism?
285). The postmodern
avant-garde
as "quotationist"
or "citationist"
thus can be described
(285). Grand
son is a perfect
on
of such a quotationist
text, and, although
example

a different

level, Free

is, as well. Postmodernist

art and literature

and boundaries

blur among
are, therefore,
genres.
hybrid
products,
or "undecidability"
This
leads to "indeterminacy"
of form and con
on an equal
other
the "treatment
tent, achieved
by, among
things,

footing of fact and fiction, reality and myth, truth and lying, original
and imitation" (Calinescu 303).
Now

I will apply this previous characterization of high literary

to the two Brazilian

postmodernism
what extent
they can be considered
The Great-Great-Great-Grandson

historical past of the colonization

that effect,

Maranh?o

"re-writes"

in order to determine
novels
works.
postmodernist
the King
revises
of

to
the

of Brazil by the Portuguese. To

the chronicles

of

the conquest

in

order to parody (and subvert) the ideology of the discovery and

conquest of the Brazilian territory. By ways of a "simulated" text (he
writes

"as if",

"in the guise

of"

another

text,

the chronicles),

the

author redefines the discourse of the colonial empire in order to

identify himself with the "other." The duality true/false of the dis

course

is contrasted

by means

letters that the protagonist

Brazil

to his

Lisbon

lover.

of a structural

element

of

(D. Jer?nimo d'Albuquerque)

These

letters

re-write,

the text:

the

sends from

for Europe,

falsified version of the facts that took place in the New World. The

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26
author's

is to playfully

purpose

unravel

Latin American

Literary Review

the falsehood

of

the colonial

myth.

Maranh?o still takes the parodie game higher as he establishes

ambiguity (undecidability) among the relation history/fiction/legend.

Nevertheless,
chronicles),

text

the author's
between
"difference"
exists.

and

the

Grandson,

text (the
"original"
as a simulated
text,

does not efface the original but refers back to it; it communicates
at the same time. The
model
and its alteration
sense.
in
innocent
Calinescu's
parody,

Another

his

own

level is the text itself. The protagonist

parodie

that never

in a text

adventures

existed.

the

is the non

difference

Moreover,

reads
author

ship is questioned: who writes?

[D, Jer?nimo] was reading some pieces of paper,

O Torto

had

whose
manuscript
reliable
chronicler,

to an educated
of D.
Jer?nimo

been entrusted
the chronicler

and
de

Albuquerque! Will it be necessary to say to those who

inattentively deal with printed matters that the Torto was
a non-existent
31 )
(Maranh?o

reading
facts....
Grandson

also

chronicler

other

parodies

literary

about

works.

non-occurred

Maranh?o

destroys

the

romantic myth of indigenous life. The young Indian woman who

eventually marries D. Jer?nimo is far from being the pure heroine as
in Alencar's
Iracema.
The man-eating
natives
also parody
idealized
the bon sauvage
myth.
to another
this book
is a "ci
element,
postmodernist
Switching
a
at
text
in
of the
The
"Author's
Note"
the
end
tationist"
high degree.
verses
"In the text, I grafted
and passages
of Fr. Amador
book reads:
de Matos,
Vaz
de Caminha,
Cam?es,
Arrais,
Bocage,
Gregorio
Antero
Castelo
de
Francisco
de Mont'Alverne,
Branco,
Quental,
E?a

de Queir?z, Machado
Fernando

Pessoa,

de Assis,

Guimaraes

Francisco Otaviano,
Manuel

Rosa,

Bandeira,

Olavo Bilau,
Drummond

de

Andrade, Cabrai de Melo Neto, Mario Faustino and L?do Ivo." This
book thus becomes a gigantic system of literary referentiality, a text
universe

that

raises

the

central

of postmodernism:

question

literature be other than self-referential?" We

representation:

"Can

literature

be

said

"Can

arrive at the problem of

to be

'representation

of

reality' when reality itself turns out to be shot with fiction through
and through?" (Calinescu 299)
of postmod
with
the precursors
emerged
as Borges,
With
their
and Beckett.
Nabokov
tran
and
representation
they problematized
theme.
For example,
the great
representational

Those
questions
such
ernism?writers
respective
scended

poetics,
as
reality

with his poetics of perplexity, Borges' world view appears "as

a labyrinth of possibilities,
parallel times, alternative past and

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have

all of which

futures,

27

of the Eighties

Fiction

and Brazilian

Postmodernism

to fictional

claims

equal

representation"

(Calinescu 300).
to
in Latin American
of the need
because
However,
countries,
this
the
somehow
situation,
represent
tough socio-political-economic
Garc?a M?rquez,
is not generalized.
from
Vargas
reality
separation
have
for instance,
Llosa
and Carlos
Fuentes,
engag?
produced
to a certain degree.
In Brazil,
writers
have not lost contact
literature

with reality, either, whether the historical reality (Grandson), or the

most immediate one (Free).
Nevertheless, Maranh?o still makes valid the question about
In his text
literature
of postmodernism.
the good
represents
is another protagonist.
And
the whole
book has a
universe,
language
referent:
the chronicles.
But, on the other hand, the author
totalizing

what

takes all of the parts up to the level of critical parody of a historical

to reinforce
in order
process
since Brazilian
modernism.

national

identity?a

frequent

theme

Maranh?o has been able to combine perfectly the enjoyment of

as articulated in his
his text with the complexity of multicodification
book:
humor;

the protagonist's
the adventure

sense of
treated with an excellent
the
feat
of
the
e.,
(i.
prose,
juxta

adventures,
of language

position of various speeches in different levels of discourse, and the

colonial language that subverts the model); the different levels of
the intertextual

parody;

etc.

mosaic,

Finally, modernism

still lingers on in Grandson.

Besides

the

of

subversion
the author's
techniques
already mentioned,
a modernist
retains
aftertaste.
He experiments
with
language
new words,
uses
with
their
invents
words,
rare,
sounds,
plays
ones.
con
anachronistic
The
it. The
context,
however,
justifies
to parody
frontation
is utilized
the formal
rules
colonized/colonizer
of Portuguese
and he incorporates
grammar,
indigenous
expressions
for the sound's
sake.
practice
use of

If Maranh?o
Silviano

spreads differentiation
on

Santiago,
can

contrary,

to such a degree

undecidability
exercise

the

differentiate

the

takes

"lost" manuscripts
print.

of

the poetics

of

textual

that only a deep hermeneutical

"original"?that

the copy. The author's game consists

function

all along his text,

keys

does

not

exist?from

in the reproduction of some

a real writer?Graciliano

Ramos.

Silviano's

thus is that of the editor who prepares texts to be sent to

This

manuscript

contains

an

autobiographic

fragment?it

belongs in the tradition of memorialism that has been so frequently

practiced in Brazilian literature. Santiago prepares a credible hy
pothesis as his literary alibi: Em Liberdade [Free] could not co-exist
with Memorias do Car cere [Memoirs from Jail]?Ramos'
authentic
of the obvious intrinsic relationship between both
text?because
works.

The

ambiguous

status

of Free,

therefore,

starts

form

the very

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28

Latin American

as a false-authentic
of Ramos' Memorias.
entiality
Given
this framework,

outset

text

to

subject

Santiago's

the

Literary Review

in dispens

consists

proposal

refer

ever-present

ing with himself in order to take the position of the "other", and, as a
to become

result,

the

simulacrum

other.

that

of

as

And

such

simulacrum, the entire Free is a huge citation. This game of textual

undecidability runs parallel with the ind?termination of genres. In
this

there

sense,

has

a postmodern

been

of

implosion

boundaries.

essay
Santiago's book mixes biography (or pseudo-auto-biography),
(as a study about an author and his relation with society) and novel
(the book appears as fiction). In the sense that it is a biography, the
book thoroughly
(and, at times, perversely)
presents Ramos,
as
that
he
had
about
the
well as his most
himself,
concept
including
trivial thoughts. Simultaneously,
the book develops through Ramos
an

discourse

essay-like

about

the writer's

moment

socio-political

(the dictatorship in the thirties) and the commitment of intellectuals.

In this sense, the book unfolds the individual/society
relationship
pointed out by Theodor W. Adorno in the quote that opens the nar
rative (Santiago 19).
Santiago's approach to the past is clearly not neutral or inno
cent. His simulacrum is not an end in itself, but an intelligent device
in order to subtly criticize a status quo that goes beyond the thirties.
Santiago's purpose could be contained in this paragraph:
To

present...the

persistence

of

authoritarian

in

regimes

Brazil. The uncomfortable

situation of the intellectuals
whenever they publicly manifest their desire for a less un
just society. (205)
Santiago

makes

good

use

of Ramos'

as a writer;

circumstance

the

former revises the writing/reading relations in society and redefines

them in function of a resistance and contestation to the system:
The newspaper

reader does not want

when
reading....This
ature.
Fascism
is not only

reader
a strong

has

to make

a fascist

and

vision

authoritarian,

any effort
of

liter

usually

militaristic, government which reproduces the economic

forces of the ruling class....Man lets himself be invaded by
that do not represent his energy and
behavior models
transform

him

into a uniformed

being....

An authentic reading is a struggle between

....The

fictional

conflict

is...a

copy

of

subjectivities

the reading

conflict.

find in
Fiction can exist only when there is conflict....To
fiction what one expected to find...is the fascist way. (117)

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29

of the Eighties

Fiction

and Brazilian

Postmodernism

some
can see here
of the postmodern
kind
of critique
as
Human
for San
Baudrillard.
described
emancipation,
by
society,
as
text
critical
Writers,
producers,
passes
reading.
through
tiago,
to contribute
to that emancipatory
task:
have the responsibility
One

Novel writers occupy,

therefore, a most difficult position

within

time

society....Any

that

they

see

that

a norm

is

being generated and followed by a considerable number of

citizens, it is then that they come to the fore, carrying their
critical weapons! (117)
And as a justification of his own project, Santiago asserts: "This
critique [in fiction] does not appear in an explicit way. It would be
to write

then,

preferable,

an essay"

(117).

essay and fiction to contribute with his book to

Santiago mixes

This book
is a clear example
of what
social commitment.
to as "a postmodernism
of resistance"
refers
(xii). Free
as does grandson.
Other
Brazilian
cultural
codes,
post
Amazona
Art
and High
novels?like
the already mentioned
of those codes.
the exploitation

the writer's
Hal Foster
questions
modern
?pursue

Calinescu's positive position concerning postmodernism does

not impede our seeing the other side of it as denounced by Jameson,
and

Merquior,

others.

But

the

latters'

refusal

to recognize

the exis

tence of a high postmodernism

takes them to adopt exceedingly
A great deal of reflection
and
attitudes.
pessimistic
quasi-apocalyptic
is still necessary in order to delve into the authentic nature of this
new specter
that is haunting
the world. Meanwhile,
of The Great-Great-Great-Grandson
of the King

others, be a proof that high postmodernism

the substance

that Fine Arts

always

let the examples

and Free,
among

exists?and

still retains

has had.

University of Texas at Austin

NOTES
i Britton
Prison-House

to believe
that the author of such works as The
ever
as
"could
have written a piece as muddled,
of Language
as
as
as
and
that
eclectic
dis
question-begging
lengthy
inconsequential,
"
cussion on 'the cultural logic of late capitalism'
(11). In his article, Jameson
draws on Mandel's
Late Capitalism
and Adorno's
"culture industry" in The
Dialectic
Within
this theoretical framework,
"Mr. Jameson
of Enlightenment.
but he throws in everything
else" (Britton 11). Jameson
spares us Nietzsche,
finds

it hard

includes,
Lacan,
among others,
Sontag, Burke, Kant, Freud, Williams,
Mann,
Sartre, and "then dole out the resulting cognitive
soup as a theory"
this postmodern
(Britton 11). Against
indigestion,"
"epidemic of discursive
as the best method
to Marxism
faithful
"for analysing
Britton
remains

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30 Latin American

Literary Review

capitalist society in concrete detail and (therefore) for devising practical ways
to an authentic democracy
to eliminate
which
the structural impediments
embodies"
(17).
capitalism
2Whereas
to hold onto fundamental
wants
Jameson
distinctions
Kellner
between
social classes, base/superstructure,
etc.,
Left/Right,
prefers
to "analyze postmodernism
in terms of a theory of techno-capitalism
that
would present the current social order in the capitalist countries as synthesis
and capitalism
that is characterized
of new technologies
by new technical,
to
social and cultural forms combining with capitalist relations of productions
create the social matrix of our times. This move points to continuities with
and the need to revive, update,
the social theories of the past (i. e., Marxism)
in the light of contemporary
con
theories
expand and develop
previous
ditions" (267).
3All translations from
texts are mine.
Portuguese
4 For a
of
resistance
that embraces
the discourse
of
postmodernism
see
others from the Lyotardian
Owens.
fragmentation,
5 Such
the task of individuals,
involves
artists and
cognitive mapping
orientation
and a theoretical model
theorists in providing
of how society is
structured. See Jameson's "Cognitive Mapping."

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Baudrillard,
et al. New York: Semiotext(e),
1983.
Trans. Paul Foss et al. New York: Semiotext(e),
1983.
-Simulations.
-"On
On the Beach. 6 (1984): 38-9.
Nihilism."
"The Myth of Postmodernism:
The Bourgeois
Britton, Andrew.
Intelligence
in the Age of Reagan." CineAction
Summer 1988: 3-17.
Durham: Duke University
Press,
Calinescu, Matei. Five Faces of Modernity.
1987.
to "The Name
Eco, Umberto.
Postscript
of the Rose". Trans. William
New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich,
Weaver.
1984.
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Fonseca,
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Row,
in Postmodern
Port
Culture.
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Townsend:
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Bay Press, 1983.

A Preface."

Habermas,
J?rgen.
Fredric.
Jameson,
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"Modernity?An
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ix-xvi.

Incomplete Project." Ed. Foster.

and Consumer
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2-3
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and Brazilian

Fiction

of the Eighties

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Condition:
Report on Knowledge.
Lyotard, Jean Fran?ois. The Postmodern
of
and Massumi.
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University
Minneapolis:
Press 1984.
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del-Rei. Rio de Janeiro: Francisco Alves,
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Jos? Miguel.
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pop
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ular)."

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Popular Productions
published paper, 1988.

in the Aesthetics
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Popular

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Un

Culture)].

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