{"id":247095,"date":"2017-10-09T18:41:50","date_gmt":"2017-10-09T21:41:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/?p=247095\/"},"modified":"2017-10-19T19:09:13","modified_gmt":"2017-10-19T21:09:13","slug":"joao-antonios-journalism-and-fiction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/joao-antonios-journalism-and-fiction\/","title":{"rendered":"Jo\u00e3o Ant\u00f4nio\u2019s journalism and fiction"},"content":{"rendered":"
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AG\u00caNCIA ESTADO<\/span><\/a> Ferreira playing billiards in a bar in 1975: a scene similar to one which his characters would have frequentedAG\u00caNCIA ESTADO<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

After fading into obscurity in the last years of his life as a result of both his own reclusion and the loss of interest in his books in cultural spheres, S\u00e3o Paulo-based writer Jo\u00e3o Ant\u00f4nio Ferreira Filho (1937-1996), known locally as Jo\u00e3o Ant\u00f4nio, has been rediscovered by academic scholars. Some of the more recent studies have focused on the author\u2019s period of near ostracism, in which he dedicated himself more to journalism than to fiction. For his postdoctoral study titled \u201cCorpo a corpo com o Brasil: Os dilemas da identidade nacional em Jo\u00e3o Ant\u00f4nio\u201d (Confrontations with Brazil: Jo\u00e3o Ant\u00f4nio\u2019s Dilemmas of National Identity), completed at the Center for Education and Humanities of the Federal University of S\u00e3o Carlos (UFSCAR), researcher J\u00falio Cezar Bastoni da Silva conducted a broad survey of the writer’s journalistic work.<\/p>\n

Bastoni delved deeper into the author’s literary project, which had been studied to an extent in the past, and considered the presence of journalistic work as inspiration for fiction\u2014not only to provide content, but also to bring the author closer to the diction used by his characters. Ferreira grew up poor in the Presidente Altino neighborhood of the city of Osasco, which at the time had not yet been incorporated into the city of S\u00e3o Paulo. As a writer, he found success in 1963 at 26 years of age with his first book, a collection of short stories titled Malagueta, Perus e Bacana\u00e7o <\/em>(Malagueta, Perus, and Bacana\u00e7o), the title story of which is centered around the lives of three billiard players. He maintained his prestige with Le\u00e3o de ch\u00e1cara <\/em>(The Bouncer) in 1975 and remained well known through the mid-1980s.<\/p>\n

His involvement in the press began around the time when he published his first book. He began working as a reporter in the mid-1960s for publications such as the Jornal do Brasil<\/em>, a daily Brazilian newspaper, and the Brazilian magazines Claudia,<\/em> Realidade<\/em>, and Manchete.<\/em> In Realidade <\/em>in 1968, he published what is considered to be his first work of journalistic fiction: \u201cUm dia no cais\u201d (A Day at the Wharf), which was later published under the shortened title \u201cCais\u201d (Wharf) in his book Malha\u00e7\u00e3o do Judas carioca <\/em>(The Lynching of Judas from Rio) in 1975. As Bastoni explains, the magazine began using the term \u201cstory-report\u201d to describe Ferreira\u2019s works. An even lesser-known aspect of Ferreira\u2019s work in the press is that, in addition to his regular contributions to newspapers such as O Globo<\/em>, Jornal do Brasil,<\/em> and Tribuna da Imprensa<\/em>, he also worked for the alternative press, publishing in newspapers such as O Pasquim<\/em>, Versus<\/em>, and Movimento<\/em>. As sources, Bastoni used the writer\u2019s personal archives, which today are held in the Center for Research Support and Documentation at the School of Languages & Literature and Science of S\u00e3o Paulo State University (UNESP) at Assis, as well as the Ana Lag\u00f4a Archives of UFSCAR. He also relied on local publications from cities such as Campina Grande, Curitiba, and Porto Alegre.<\/p>\n

According to author Bruno Zeni, Ferreira\u2019s phase in which the borders between fiction and journalism became more porous coincides with his literary maturity. One of the factors that support this idea can be found in the recently released book Sinuca de malandro: Fic\u00e7\u00e3o e autobiografia em Jo\u00e3o Ant\u00f4nio<\/em> (The Criminal\u2019s Billiards: Fiction and autobiography in Jo\u00e3o Ant\u00f4nio\u2019s work), published by EDUSP and the result of the doctoral dissertation defended in 2012 at the School of Philosophy, Languages and Literature, and Humanities of the University of S\u00e3o Paulo (FFLCH-USP). Zeni sought out paternal figures in all of Ferreira\u2019s works after noting that \u201cthe protagonists\u2019 relationships with their fathers are always problematic.\u201d In addition to Ferreira\u2019s short stories, Zeni also explored the letters held in the UNESP archives, as well as the research by writer Rodrigo Lacerda, titled \u201cJo\u00e3o Ant\u00f4nio: Uma biografia liter\u00e1ria: Os anos de forma\u00e7\u00e3o\u201d (Jo\u00e3o Ant\u00f4nio: A literary biography: The formative years), with which the latter obtained his doctorate from the FFLCH-USP in 2004, and which included interviews with Ferreira’s family members and with some of his most frequent acquaintances.<\/p>\n

Zeni argues that when the figure of the father appears clearly in Ferreira\u2019s short stories, it corresponds to protagonists as resolute as they are violent. On the other hand, when the stories emphasize the lack of a father figure, the tone is often melancholic, and the characters lack a sense of direction\u2014a mark of the writer\u2019s later period. Zeni interprets this change as a loss of the writer’s need to compete with a father figure. \u201cIt was very good for his literature when he made that shift in the tone of his fiction; where he went is unparalleled, both in his work and in the Brazilian literary tradition.\u201d For the researcher, the work ceased to be in the form of story-reports, since \u201cthe journalistic information disappeared, making way for a combination of personal accounts, reflections, historical essays, period pieces, and characters of less-important profiles.\u201d He adds, \u201cJo\u00e3o Ant\u00f4nio himself did not realize that he had created a new method, one which still needs to be studied more deeply.\u201d<\/p>\n

Resuming his analysis of Ferreira\u2019s journalistic production and fictional literature, Bastoni noticed the presence of a search for authentic expression across all of Ferreira\u2019s works\u2014a sort of literary \u201csubstance\u201d\u2014that would represent Brazilian identity. \u201cFrom his first book until Dama do encantado<\/em> (The Lady of the Encantado District) and Sete vezes rua <\/em>(Seven Times on the Street), both of which were written in the year of his death, Jo\u00e3o Ant\u00f4nio portrayed national identity as being linked to the representation of Brazil\u2019s lower social classes, which he referred to as \u2018the people\u2019 or \u2018the masses,\u2019\u201d Bastoni reports.<\/p>\n

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public domain <\/span><\/a> Lima Barreto was a sort of \u201cliterary father\u201d for the S\u00e3o Paulo-based authorpublic domain <\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

The researcher identifies the existence of an \u201cintegration between national artistic production and intellectual interest in lower social classes as a constant of the romanticism of political art in the 1960s.\u201d Ferreira’s works continued the focus on this literary substratum, but they were also “a step ahead in Brazilian popular culture in the 1960s.\u201d This decade was represented by playwrights such as Gianfrancesco Guarnieri (1934-2006) and Oduvaldo Vianna Filho (1936-1974), as well as by poet Ferreira Gullar (1930-2016) and novelist Antonio Callado (1917-1997).<\/p>\n

Many of the works by these writers include characters who are politically aware and engaged from a revolutionary perspective. Meanwhile, Ferreira\u2019s works do not share the commitment to militancy. In place of organized workers, his characters are small-time criminals, billiard players, gamblers, crooks, homeless people, prostitutes, and street urchins.<\/p>\n

Ferreira\u2019s stories are also not included in the popular style that marked the next stage of Brazilian literary production. \u201cHe represents a sort of transition between the national or popular culture that was the fruit of the nationalist policies under Get\u00falio Vargas or Jo\u00e3o Goulart and the wave of urban violence that followed,\u201d explains the researcher, referring to the \u201cviolent literature\u201d of Rubem Fonseca. \u201cNew narratives represented a Brazil at an impasse, marked by the lack of resolutions for the problem of inequality.\u201d For Bastoni, Ferreira\u2019s work exemplifies one of the transformations seen in Brazilian literature in the late twentieth century: the moment in which national identity stopped being a priority.<\/p>\n

Though Bastoni’s analysis puts Ferreira’s literature in a seemingly isolated place, the writer himself evoked the company of authors such as Ign\u00e1cio de Loyola Brand\u00e3o and Ant\u00f4nio Torres, both of whom he cites in \u201cCorpo-a-corpo com a vida\u201d (Confrontations with Life), an essay that rounds out the Malha\u00e7\u00e3o do Judas carioca<\/em> collection and which is a type of manifesto that the researcher used as a guide to revive the writer\u2019s project. According to Bastoni, the essay \u201cprovides evidence of continuity between his literary and journalistic works,\u201d so much so that Ferreira makes references to American authors Truman Capote and Norman Mailer, proponents of New Journalism, a genre which relies on fiction techniques to produce journalistic reporting. “What interested him about these authors was the clear relationship between reality and literature, despite the fact that Jo\u00e3o Ant\u00f4nio\u2019s writings do not fit into New Journalism in terms of their themes or structures.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Folhapress<\/span><\/a> Jo\u00e3o Ant\u00f4nio Ferreira Filho in 1964: the combination of journalism and literatureFolhapress<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

According to Bastoni, the essay argues that literature should be an experience shared between the author and the object. \u201cIn other words,\u201d Bastoni writes, \u201cthe goal was to prevent a gap between intellectuals and the lower classes.\u201d In his opinion, it was an esthetic purpose mixed with an ethical goal\u2014one of intervening in reality by way of denouncement.<\/p>\n

To achieve this, Ferreira sought to put a Brazilian touch on his writings, one which would be articulated in the speech of marginalized characters. Bastoni compares this aspect of Ferreira’s style to the use of countryside diction by Brazilian author Jo\u00e3o Guimar\u00e3es Rosa (1908-1967), a similarity noted previously by Antonio Candido. \u201cIt’s not just a question of using urban slang and expressions; it\u2019s a style with a particular syntax,\u201d says the researcher. He continues, \u201cthe mutual exchange of ideas between journalism and literature\u201d is most clearly noted in his books published after 1975, which was when his essay-manifesto was released. From then on, a hybrid of the genres prevailed in which \u201cthe text oscillates from description and narration to digression.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, the book Abra\u00e7ado ao meu rancor<\/em> (Embracing my Rancor), published in 1986, reflects a profound change in his view of the world. \u201cThere\u2019s a very present sense of failure in the work,\u201d Bastoni says. These were the failure of hope for the emancipation of the Brazilian people after the end of the military dictatorship, the failure of the idea of a unifying Brazilian identity, and the failure of the writer\u2019s own literary projects. Ferreira admits to no longer recognizing the city of S\u00e3o Paulo of his youth, nor the types of characters to whom he’d always dedicated himself. He complains of the \u201cbrutality of capitalist exploitation of Brazil,\u201d of the emergence of powerful criminal organizations that resemble nothing of the small-time dealers he displayed in his fiction.<\/p>\n

Albeit through another lens\u2014one of the recreation of the writer’s life experiences, including the repercussions of his writings\u2014Rodrigo Lacerda sees Ferreira\u2019s work as being divided into three periods. In the first, the language is drier and sparser, and the urban proletariat make up the thematic universe of the stories. In the second period, Ferreira is influenced by regionalism akin to the influence experienced by Guimar\u00e3es Rosa, and this influence gives him the foundation to recreate his characters\u2019 language with \u201cmore abundant\u201d diction, \u201ccreating a musicality that wasn’t there before.\u201d The third period was marked by his combination of journalism and literature. For Lacerda, the writer reached \u201ca literary and financial balance\u201d when he realized that it wasn’t possible to live off of literature alone. \u201cHe therefore preferred to combine literature and journalism, because it was a way for him to publish writings in newspapers the way he wanted to.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to the presence of a biological father in Ferreira’s writings, there is also a type of literary father: the author Lima Barreto (1881-1922), to whom he dedicated all of his books, with the exception of the first edition of Malagueta, Perus e Bacana\u00e7o<\/em>. For Bastoni, this was a continuous relationship that was \u201cnot exactly formal, but one which was ethical and, in a sense, thematic.\u201d According to the researcher, \u201cJo\u00e3o Ant\u00f4nio saw Lima Barreto as a pioneer in the representation of the poor and marginalized Brazilians of the inner cities, and also as someone who had played an important role in the press in the first half of the twentieth century.\u201d Ferreira wrote a “parajournalistic biography\u201d (in Bastoni\u2019s words) titled Calv\u00e1rio e porres do pingente Afonso Henriques de Lima Barreto <\/em>(The Calvary and the Benders of Afonso Henriques de Lima Barreto), which will be republished for the first time since its release in 1977 by the publisher Editora 34. Lima Barreto will also be the main author celebrated at this year\u2019s International Literary Festival of Paraty (FLIP), which is likely to support this rediscovery of Jo\u00e3o Ant\u00f4nio Ferreira Filho.<\/p>\n

Projects<\/strong>
\n 1.<\/strong> Confrontations with Brazil: Jo\u00e3o Ant\u00f4nio\u2019s Dilemmas of National Identity (n\u00ba 14\/22950-3<\/a>); Grant Mechanism<\/strong> PhD Grant; Capes Agreement; Principal Investigator<\/strong> T\u00e2nia Pellegrini (UFSCAR); Grant<\/strong> Beneficiary<\/strong> J\u00falio Cezar Bastoni da Silva; Investment<\/strong> R$181,994.40.
\n2.<\/strong> Jo\u00e3o Ant\u00f4nio: A literary biography: The formative years (n\u00ba\u00a002\/08326-8<\/a>); Grant Mechanism<\/strong> Direct PhD Grant; Principal Investigator<\/strong> Joaquim Alves de Aguiar (USP); Grant Beneficiary<\/strong> Rodrigo Lacerda; Investment<\/strong> R$43,413.26.<\/p>\n

Scientific Articles<\/em>
\nSILVA, J. C. B. Estado da ral\u00e9: Da pobreza \u00e0 mis\u00e9ria na obra de Jo\u00e3o Ant\u00f4nio<\/a>. Literatura e Sociedade<\/strong>, V. 22, p. 78-88, 2016.
\nSILVA, J. C. B. A imprensa alternativa e o projeto liter\u00e1rio de Jo\u00e3o Ant\u00f4nio. Anais do VIII encontro do Cedap \u2013 Acervos de intelectuais: Desafios e perspectivas<\/strong>, p. 457-79, 2016.<\/p>\n

Book
\nZeni, B. Sinuca de malandro \u2013 Fic\u00e7\u00e3o e autobiografia em Jo\u00e3o Ant\u00f4nio<\/strong>. S\u00e3o Paulo: Edusp<\/strong>. 2017.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jo\u00e3o Ant\u00f4nio used his experience in the press to portray the lower classes","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[165],"tags":[220,245],"coauthors":[137],"class_list":["post-247095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-humanities","tag-communication","tag-literature"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/38"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247095"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247095\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247095"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=247095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}