Rachers Gown and National Byword at the Tender Age of 20
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Rachers Gown and national byword at the tender age of 20. Every day she received letters, telegrams, HELOISA BUARQUE DE HOLLANDA and requests for her books. To see her own picture in newspapers and magazines was no Translation/versão para o inglês: longer a surprise. When she travelled she had CHRISTOPHER PETERSON a constant troupe of admirers among lhe local intellectuals. On one occasion, as proof of his admiration, Luiz da Câmara Cascudo Easy Fame recited poetry in her honor on board. "II was Rachel's first writing was symptomatic and as if I had been elected Queen of the Pa- definitive. Having moved from the coastal geant," she later recalled of her first romance. capital of Ceará, Fortaleza, to lhe "sertão" in While Rachel was not surprised with this January of '27 and already an avid reader of breathtaking recognition, lhe same was not the daily papers, she read the news about the true for her literary godfathers. In "Uma Reve- election of the new Student Queen, journalist lação - O Quinze", published in Novidades Suzana de Alencar Guimarães. lrritated over Literárias on August 18, 1930, Schmidt, who the Queen's "feminine", pseudolyrical style was credited with having "discovered" her, (including the nom de alume "Marquise"), she explains his enthusiasm over having unveiled took pen in hand and wrote to the editor, a great, previously unknown Brazilian writer. satirizing the contest and the winning candi- Yet he observes that in lhe book he sees date. The letter, signed with a pseudonym, "nothing that even remotely reminds one of was an instant success and set off a frantic lhe pretentiousness, f utility, and falseness of search for this "Rita de Queluz". However, as our feminine literature," and openly admits always, she had left a alue. The letter had that Rachel de Queiroz might be one nome been postmarked Estação de Junco, the no- covering up for another. me of her father's ranch, and Rachel de Quei- Graciliano Ramos expressed the same doubt roz was found out and immediately invited to when he wrote about Caminho de Pedras work at the newspaper O Ceará. Rachel's lot some years later. "O Quinze cropped up in the had been cast. mid-thirties and caused greater unease in re- At age 17, while already working at O Ceará, aders' souls than José Américo's novel, be- she published História de Um Nome, a serial cause it was a book written by a woman, and novel, wrote the play Minha prima Nazaré, what really troubled people was that it was by participated in literary journals, and tried her a young woman at that. Could it really have luck at poetry. In 1929 she wrote her first novel, been by a woman? I myself didn't believe it. O Quinze (years later translated into French by Having read the title and seen the photo- the Stock publishing house - L'année de la graph in the newspaper. I shook my head: grande sécheresse; German - Dasjahr '15; and There is no one with such a name. It's all just Japanese), which was a major success even a joke. A young girl like that writing a novel! beyond the loorders of her home state, Ceará. It must be a pen nome for some bearded Augusto Frederico Schmidt and Alceu Amoro- fellow." so Lima in Rio and Artur Mota in São Paulo A self-possessed Rachel paia no heed to the enthusiastically lauded her literary debut. anguish her work caused in male hearts. Rat- Rachel had at once become a public figure her, she sent lhe novel to a list of a hundred ESTUDOS FEMINISTAS 187 N 0/92 critics and writers, including the then-contro- historical obstacles raised to women's profes- versial Graça Aranha, who was defending sional recognition, particularly in the first half the new modernist winds then sweeping of the century, I chose her triumph over Article across the Brazilian arts in open defiance of 2 of the founding Statutes of the Brazilian Aca- the Brazilian Academy of Letters. demy of Letters, which determined that "only In March 1931, the Graça Aranha Foundation native Brazilians [brasileiros natos] can be awarded prizes for the first time: Murilo Men- members of the Academy." The orthodox in- des won the poetry class, Cícero Dias pain- terpretation of this sentence by members of ting, and Rachel de Queiroz the novel class. the Academy defied even the most elemen- At the time of his sudden death, Graça Ara- tary rules of grammar when it defined the nha was sitting reading O Quinze. Several plural "brasileiros" as not including the combi- years later in the Graça Aranha Museum, this nation of female Brazilians [brasileiras] and scene was reconstructed: O Quinze is open to male ones [brasileiros]. page 32, resting on the arm of the chair where the writer died. La Grammaire a Son Mystere (a neces- After Rachel won this prize, the novel was sary digression) hotly disputed by publishers who wanted to The controversy concerning the presence of print the second edition. Rachel chose Edito- women in the Brazilian Academy of Letters ra Nacional. Today, O Quinze, written when was nothing new, however. It is known that Rachel was 19, is in its 48th edition, has been during the preparatory meetings for the foun- read by over 100,000 people, and is unani- ding of the Academy, Lucio de Mendonça, mously considered a classic in the history of acknowledged to be the true founder, was in Brazilian literature. favor of having women in the membership, Rachel says of this instanta neous success: "The and he made his position explicit in an article book just exploded on the scene. But this was to the Estado de São Paulo. In addition, good, because I have always had my head Lopes de Almeida, a well-known, respected in the right place, I nevar let myself get carried novelist, was seriously considered for admit- away by ali that noise. I was a Communist, tance by the founders. BesidesJúlia Lopes de and deep down inside what I really wanted Almeida, another woman writer who was was to destroy that entire society, including considered for the Academy's list of founders the Editora Nacional." was Francisca Júlio'. However, the idea was Forty-eight years Jatar, on November 4, 1977, voted down by the conservative majority of Rachel de Queiroz, author of five novels, two participants in the preliminary meetings. Ins- plays, and eight books of short stories, with tead of Dona Júlia, then the first lady of our translations in English, French, German, Polish, literature, the Academy admitted her hus- and Japanese, having collaborated regularly band Filinto, who wrote verses of debatable with the press for 50 years and translated 47 value and who was not even a "nativa Brazi- books, was admitted to the Brazilian Aca- lian", but who displayed a criticai sense of demy of Letters to take seat number five, humor by taking the self-ascribed titia of "con- founded by Raimundo Correia. sort member"' . She was the first woman to be admitted to the They say that Dona Júlia, like her contempo- Academy. The world will nevar really know rary women writers, declined to protest either whether the huge national celebration that due to her extreme modesty or beca use she surrounded this event was because of wo- preferred such an honor to go to her husband. men's definitiva victory in breaking into one of A prudent stance, to say the least. At the time, the strictest bastions of Brazilian cultura or women were rarely allowed to enter concerts whether it was just one more of Rachel's "na- and other public events (and even then tural", offhand accomplishments. through the back door) as proven by the I think one can dare make some guesses as statutes of the Beethoven Club, where Ma- to which version is correct. chado de Assis WCIS a member of the board Among the several fields of observation that of directors. Women were ridiculed when they emerge in the enigmatic crossroads of Ra- went so for as to practice liberal professions, chel's singular professional career and the an example of which can be read in the play ANO O 1 88 2 9 SEM ESTRE As Doutoras, by male Academician França men'ssuffrage. The Brazilian Feminist Crusade Jr., presented in 1889. No doubt as a way of was founded in Recife to struggle for such acknowledging Dona Júlia's "expertise" as political rights, and it joined voices with the the "shadow behind seat number 3", after she Brazilian Federation for Feminine Progress, died the Academy went to great lengths to founded by Berta Lutz In Rio de Janeiro in pay tribute to hei "enormous literary merit". 1922. It was in this context that Academy Special sessions in praise and memory of Do- President Dr. Aloysio de Castro requested that na Júlia's work were part of the Academy's the Academy members take a position as to yearly activities until Filinto himself died in the criteria for judging Dona Amélia's admis- 1945. II was as if Dona JUlia's presence in seat sibility. Those in favor included Augusto de number 3 was considered visible and legiti- Lima, Adelmar Tavares, Luis Carlos, Affonso mate as long as it was occupied by the "con- Celso, Fernando Magalhães, João Ribeiro, sort member". Such yearly homage included Laudelino Freire, Magalhães de Azeredo, Fé- sorrowful references to "the prejudice that lix Pacheco (who publicly deciared his sup- kept her out of the Academy" 2 and to the port for female membership in the Academy), recitais by the "Clube das Vitórias Régias" [an and of course Clóvis Belilacqua, Amélia's hus- early 20th-century Brazilian women's literary band.