{"id":545167,"date":"2025-03-20T19:14:11","date_gmt":"2025-03-20T22:14:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/?p=545167"},"modified":"2025-03-20T19:14:11","modified_gmt":"2025-03-20T22:14:11","slug":"dalton-trevisan-almost-a-centenarian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/dalton-trevisan-almost-a-centenarian\/","title":{"rendered":"Dalton Trevisan almost a centenarian"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Mayara Ferr\u00e3o<\/span>In the preface of the 1974 edition of the classic O vampiro de Curitiba<\/em> (The Vampire of Curitiba<\/em>) (Civiliza\u00e7\u00e3o Brasileira), one of his best-known works, Dalton Trevisan described his preference for short narratives as follows: \u201cThere is a stigma that after the short story you should write a novella, and then a novel. My pathway will be from the short story to the sonnet, and from there to the haiku.\u201d Considered one of Brazilian literature\u2019s foremost living authors, the writer from Paran\u00e1 State capital Curitiba turned 99 on June 14, with a prolific career of almost 80 years and over 700 short stories. \u201cThe work of Dalton Trevisan modernized and experimented with the short story format, taking it to the limit of succinctness and power of suggestion. In a few lines, oftentimes in a single phrase, he is capable of portraying life in a provincial town to the reader \u2014 a complex literary question, a conjugal tragedy,\u201d says H\u00e9lio de Seixas Guimar\u00e3es, professor of Brazilian literature at the School of Philosophy, Languages and Literature and Humanities at the University of S\u00e3o Paulo (FFLCH-USP).<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my book, he is to the twentieth-century Brazilian short story what Machado de Assis [1839\u20131908] is to that of the nineteenth. Both created ways of condensing enormous issues and extremely complex situations into short narratives,\u201d continues Guimar\u00e3es, who, with Fernando Paix\u00e3o, of USP\u2019s Institute of Brazilian Studies (IEB), arranged the book Dalton Trevisan: Uma literatura nada exemplar <\/em>(Dalton Trevisan: Literature not at all exemplary) (2024). Put together in partnership between IEB-USP and publisher Tinta-da-China Brasil, the compilation brings together eight essays by literary researchers and critics such as Eliane Robert Moraes, of USP, and Arnaldo Franco Junior, of S\u00e3o Paulo State University (UNESP), S\u00e3o Jos\u00e9 do Rio Preto campus. The collection also includes a flash fiction work by Minas Gerais\u2013born writer Andr\u00e9 Sant\u2019Anna, and an interview with Berta Waldman, of USP\u2019s Department of Oriental Letters, a pioneer in studies on the author, who started his research at the end of the 1970s.<\/p>\n

The near-centenarian, born in Curitiba in 1925, has been receiving a series of tributes for his birthday, including the reissue of his works by publisher Record. Among the rereleased titles is Cemit\u00e9rio de elefantes <\/em>(Elephant cemetery) (1964), texts by Argentine poet C\u00e9sar Aira and S\u00e3o Paulo State native Mar\u00e7al Aquino, with the cover illustration by Curitiba graphic artist Poty Lazzarotto (see<\/em> Pesquisa FAPESP issue n\u00ba 340<\/em><\/a>), who nurtured a 40-year partnership with Trevisan. There are reflections on Macho n\u00e3o ganha flor <\/em>(Machos don\u2019t get flowers) (2006) from editor and poet Augusto Massi, of USP, and translator and author Caetano W. Galindo, of the Federal University of Paran\u00e1 (UFPR).<\/p>\n

Trevisan gained more fame in the literary world with the magazine Joaquim<\/em>, created with educator Erasmo Pilotto (1910\u20131992) and editor Ant\u00f4nio P. Walger, in 1946, \u201cto shake the conservative foundations that underpinned the culture of Parana,\u201d as explained by historian Fabricio Souza, of Amazonas State University (UEA), who analyzed the publication in an article in Revista Brasileira de Hist\u00f3ria <\/em>(Brazilian history magazine) in 2022. \u201cSet in the post World War II era, the magazine promoted a space through which writers could reexamine the relationships between art, society, and human existence,\u201d observes the researcher, author of PhD thesis \u201cA matan\u00e7a dos mortos sagrados: Mem\u00f3ria, literatura e hist\u00f3ria na obra de Dalton Trevisan\u201d (The killing of the sacred dead: Memory, literature and history in the work of Dalton Trevisan), defended at USP in 2019. \u201cIn Curitiba, the resumption of modernist iconoclasm had a clear aim: to destroy a tradition that would have made it impossible for the city to experience modernism similar to that which developed in S\u00e3o Paulo.\u201d In this regard, according to Souza, Trevisan published a series of manifests to desecrate leading figures, such as symbolist Emiliano Pernetta (1866\u20131921), a native of Paran\u00e1 State, and to eradicate the local culture in a rhetorical bid to restart it from scratch.<\/p>\n

The publication was also responsible for the author\u2019s entry into Brazilian editorial and literary circles. \u201cThis editorial initiative, for example, allowed Dalton Trevisan to maintain a close exchange of correspondence with Carlos Drummond de Andrade [1902\u20131987],\u201d relates Souza. \u201cIt\u2019s evident from these messages that the Paran\u00e1 native sent texts for the modernist poet to read and suggest possible alterations. Another point worthy of note is the undertaking that Trevisan, Pilotto, and Walger, of Joaquim<\/em>, entered into with Drummond: not to close down the magazine before issue number 20. And that\u2019s what happened. The publication closed its doors with issue 21.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many of Trevisan\u2019s stories are inspired by his time as a police reporter<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Known for his interminable rewriting of his short stories, Trevisan has carried on refining them, even at an advanced age. \u201cThis practice is a procedure that reiterates certain values and ways of thinking about the story, and making it literary. This is proven by his rewriting\u2014characterized by an unceasing quest to condense, to the point of cutting out episodes and characters from several texts,\u201d says Leandro Valentin, a PhD in languages & literature at the S\u00e3o Jos\u00e9 do Rio Preto campus of S\u00e3o Paulo State University (UNESP). \u201cBy seeking to make the text as economical as possible, in this rewriting Trevisan frequently uses ellipsis of the subject in his clauses, and omits verbs, conjunctions, and other linking elements, giving emphasis to noun phrases. As literary critics have observed, this reductionism speaks of a desire for silence. The least said, the better,\u201d adds the researcher, whose thesis on Brazilian short-story writers between 1950 and 1970, including Trevisan\u2014defended in 2020\u2014was supported by FAPESP.<\/p>\n

This rewriting also shows up in the recurrence of certain characters who appear with the same name, such as Jo\u00e3o & Maria (historically Brazil\u2019s most common given names). According to Valentin, this characteristic is used in repetition as a base literary procedure in Trevisan\u2019s poetic style. \u201cIn addition to emphasizing the intertextual dialogue in his own work, the repetition points to a literary endeavour operating with combinations of a certain set of dramatic situations and characters,\u201d comments the researcher. \u201cAdditionally, the reiterated repetition of such common names in Brazilian culture moderates the identity of the characters, making them stereotypical, more so for always being drawn within narratives that broach the subject of conjugal conflict. This highlights the sameness of human life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trevisan was honored four times with the Jabuti Award in the short stories and chronicles category, one of which for Novelas nada exemplares <\/em>(Novels not at all exemplary) (Livraria Jos\u00e9 Olympio Editora, 1959), the author\u2019s third published book. He had already written Sonata ao luar <\/em>(Moonlight sonata), released independently in 1945, and Sete anos de pastor <\/em>(Seven years a pastor) (Edi\u00e7\u00f5es Joaquim, 1948). Other titles included Cemit\u00e9rio de elefantes <\/em>(Elephant cemetery) (Civiliza\u00e7\u00e3o Brasileira, 1964), Ah, \u00e9? <\/em>(Oh, yeah?) (Record, 1994) and Desgracida <\/em>(Disgraced) (Record, 2010). As well as the Jabuti, Trevisan has received some of the most notable Portuguese language prizes, such as the Portugal Telecom Literature Award (today known as Oceanos), in 2003; The National Library Foundation Literary Prize in 2008 and 2015; the Cam\u00f5es, and the Machado de Assis awards, both in 2012.<\/p>\n

Another Curitiba
\n<\/strong>\u201cOn every corner of Curitiba, a Rask\u00f3lnikov greets you, hand on hatchet under his jacket,\u201d wrote the author in one of his microstories in 234<\/em> (Record, 1997), a nod to the lead figure of Crime and punishment<\/em> by Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoyevski\u00a0(1821\u20131881). \u201cThe Dalton Trevisan short stories gained fame in Brazilian literature for their themes of violence, hatred, solitude, and desire in a decadent world. With minimal, sometimes unremarkable episodes, his stories bring out the complexity of the human dramas that emerge from integration of everyday relationships,\u201d says Valentin.<\/p>\n

That violent, provincial, and terrible Curitiba, home to the marginalized, populated by drunks, prostitutes, murderers, and sexual predators, is a constant theme in many of Trevisan\u2019s compositions, and can be seen clearly in stories such as \u201cUma vela para Dario\u201d (\u201cA candle for Dario\u201d), \u201cCemit\u00e9rio de elefantes\u201d (\u201cElephant cemetery\u201d), and the celebrated \u201cO vampiro de Curitiba\u201d (\u201cThe vampire of Curitiba\u201d), published in the 1965 book of the same name. In the story, Nelsinho, obsessed with sex, roams the streets of Paran\u00e1\u2019s capital in search of women to satisfy his desires. He appears in other short narratives, such as \u201cA noite da paix\u00e3o\u201d (\u201cNight of passion\u201d), the last short in the same work, in which he finds himself in the place of the \u201cvictim\u201d on having sex with a toothless prostitute. This character became so famous that his image came to be confused with Trevisan himself, whose reclusive, interview-averse lifestyle only served to increase the mythical air surrounding him. His fictitious creations, though, are very much inspired by the time he spent working as a police reporter after graduating in law.<\/p>\n

\"\"Mayara Ferr\u00e3o<\/span><\/p>\n

The vampire, then, is intrinsically linked to the city of Curitiba \u2014 also true for the author himself, who treats this urban backdrop differently than normally seen in literature. \u201cIt is very common in literature or recollective writing for the city of birth to be portrayed as a comforting place, evoking nostalgia. This is not, however, what happens in the works of James Joyce [1882\u20131941] and Dalton Trevisan,\u201d comments Priscila Giacomassi, Portuguese and English language professor at the Federal Institute of Paran\u00e1 (IFPR), and PhD in literary studies at the state\u2019s Federal University (UFPR). Last year, in USP\u2019s The Brazilian Journal of Irish Studies (ABEI Journal)<\/em>, she published an article comparing the city of Dublin in the works of Irishman Joyce to Trevisan\u2019s Curitiba. According to the researcher, in the fictional universe of these writers, both cities are inhospitable, suffocating localities, from which the characters repeatedly yearn to escape. \u201cThese are not just settings\u2014they take on a much greater role, like a dreadful \u2018persona\u2019 who imprisons their inhabitants and charts their fate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Giacomassi says that in these two places, the characters seek to escape from reality marked by frustration, decadence, and paralysis. \u201cNevertheless, escape turns out to be unfeasible. The impossibility of leaving the city\u2019s physical space invariably has them transmuting this need through other types of evasion, such as dreams, reverie, and, most notably, drink.\u201d<\/p>\n

Just as the city is painted in a more raw, less idealized manner, so old age is also addressed from the same standpoint. This was the PhD research theme for M\u00e1rcia Tavares, of the Federal University of Campina Grande (UFCG). In her thesis, defended at the Federal University of Para\u00edba (UFPB) in 2002, Tavares analyzed how this aspect appears in more than 60 Trevisan stories; she has been investigating the matter since then. \u201cIt\u2019s not a sanctified old age, appealing to the memory; the author\u2019s senior years are dry, hard, violent, solitary. Few of the short stories portray children being close to their parents. The males in this phase still imagine that they are vampires, and will seduce women, while the latter, not infrequently, iterate a recurring phrase: \u2018As soon as he dies [the husband], I\u2019ll start to live,\u201d exemplifies the researcher.<\/p>\n

In this sense it is a period of later years that intensifies the brutality and cruelty of youth. This is evident in stories in the compilation A guerra conjugal <\/em>(The conjugal war) (Civiliza\u00e7\u00e3o Brasileira, 1969), starring Jo\u00e3o and Maria, who represent the various facets and phases of a marital relationship. In \u201cBatalha de bilhetes\u201d (\u201cBattle of notes\u201d), for example, despite living in the same residence, an elderly couple communicates only by way of notes, demonstrating affective alienation and solitude. \u201cThe characters at this stage of life have not accumulated wisdom. It\u2019s as if their woes are only accentuated. There is no redemption for these people,\u201d says Tavares.<\/p>\n

The researcher highlights other aspects which, until her work, were not addressed in Brazilian literature on the theme: the restricted mobility of older folk in urban spaces, and the lack of collectivity in the stories with the elderly as main characters, marked by an individualist life and confined to their homes, with few outside contacts.<\/p>\n

For Guimar\u00e3es, of USP, Trevisan is Brazil\u2019s most prominent living author, not only for the inventiveness and experimental slant of his body of work, but also for his attentive take on the world and on Brazil over a literary lifespan of more than eight decades. \u201cMuch is made of Dalton Trevisan\u2019s repetition, but little is said of how varied his writing is, and how he has reshaped his work over the years. This is output that goes from the lyrical to the obscene; from the comical to the tragic; from the poignant to the farcical; astutely and gracefully chronicling the twists and turns of life,\u201d says the researcher. \u201cAnd these twists and turns lead as much to changes as to repetitions of the fundamental issues that affect us, which his writing captures in an unmistakable style.\u201d<\/p>\n

The story above was published with the title “Master storyteller<\/strong>” in issue 342 of august\/2024.<\/p>\n

Project
\n<\/strong>From periodicals to books:<\/em> The boom of the Brazilian short story between the 1950s and 1970s<\/em> (n\u00ba 16\/20464-0<\/u><\/a>); Grant Mechanism<\/strong> Doctoral (PhD) Fellowship; Supervisor<\/strong> Arnaldo Franco Junior (UNESP); Beneficiary<\/strong> Leandro Henrique Aparecido Valentin; Investment <\/strong>R$172,417.14.<\/p>\n

Scientific articles
\n<\/strong>GIACOMASSI, P. C. Devouring hometowns: James Joyce\u2019s Dublin and Dalton Trevisan\u2019s Curitiba<\/a>. Abei Journal<\/strong>, USP. Vol. 25, no. 1, pp. 99\u2013115. June 2023.
\nSOUZA, F. Vanguarda e tradi\u00e7\u00e3o no manifesto da revista Joaquim<\/a>. Revista Brasileira de Hist\u00f3ria<\/strong>. Vol. 42, no. 90, May\u2013Aug. pp. 167\u201388. 2022.
\nTAVARES, M. O territ\u00f3rio da velhice em Dalton Trevisan<\/a>. Anu\u00e1rio da Literatura<\/strong>, UFSC. Vol. 26, pp. 01-21. 2021.<\/p>\n

Book
\n<\/strong>GUIMAR\u00c3ES, H. S & PAIX\u00c3O, F. (org.). Dalton Trevisan: Uma literatura nada exemplar<\/strong><\/a>. S\u00e3o Paulo: Tinta-da-China Brasil\/IEB-USP, 2024.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of the greats of Brazilian short stories, the writer’s work has been republished and analyzed from the perspective of issues such as old age and violence","protected":false},"author":757,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","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":[245],"coauthors":[5026],"class_list":["post-545167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-humanities","tag-literature"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545167","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\/757"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=545167"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545167\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":547513,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545167\/revisions\/547513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=545167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=545167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=545167"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=545167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}