O Naturalism had its presence marked in the same year that realism took shape in Brazil, in the year 1881, in the same period it appears the main work of Naturalismo, O mulato, by Aluisio de Azevedo. The movement can be considered a sister school of realism, the difference is that naturalism is the radicalization of reality, that is, it shows what there is the most exaggerated in the described environment, the worst that one can have in a person, the so-called social wounds, a true social denunciation.
Index
As mentioned, naturalism had its first nuances in Brazil with the writer Aluisio de Azevedo, with his works marked by the raw and real reality of events in the current society of the time, such as O tenement, Mulato, and Casa de Pensão, besides him other important writers appeared, such as Julio Ribeiro, Adolfo Caminha, Domingos Olimpio, Inglês de Sousa and Manuel de Oliveira Paiva and Raul Pompéia, it is important to emphasize that in the case of this last mentioned writer, it is a case of special, because his novel, “O Ateneu”, represents characteristics with both movements, naturalist and realist, and even impressionist, that is, a great mix of movements.
See a small excerpt from the book O Ateneu:
“You're going to find the world,” my father told me at the door of the Athenaeum. “Courage to fight!”
Afterwards I experienced the truth of this warning, which stripped me, in a gesture, of the illusions of an exotically educated child in the warm greenhouse that is the regime of domestic love different from what is found outside, so different that the poem of maternal care seems to be a sentimental artifice, with the unique advantage of making the creature more sensitive to the rough impression of the first teaching, sudden tempering of vitality in the influence of a new climate strict. “We remember, however, with hypocritical nostalgia, the happy times; as if the same uncertainty of today, under another aspect, had not followed us in the past and the string of disappointments that outrage us did not come from far away”.
The naturalistic narrative enters into a deep social analysis, this analysis starts from marginalized groups, aiming at the collective, this collective can be seen in Aluisio's works, such as Cortiço and Casa de Pensão, and also in Raul's O Athenaeum.
As we can see, there are several points of coincidence between the realist and naturalist novels, but both follow different paths.
Naturalism presents experimental novels, that is, the formulation of rules, this formulation of rules is based on the scientific character, let's analyze other important characteristics of the naturalism:
Determinism: Determinism is a philosophical current thinking that emphasizes that man is determined by 3 forces which he cannot reacting, the environment, the race and the moment, highlights the idea that man is not a being possessor of wills and choices, he is only taken by the destiny.
Instinctive Animal Man: It is the clash between instinct versus reason, man, like all animals, at the time of their choices are taken by reactions called instinctual, mainly in the various existing sexual behaviors, which at the time, the bourgeoisie repressed and repulsed any type of homosexual behavior, shown both in the work O Ateneu, in the male part, and in the Feminine part, O tenement.
Scientific objectivism and impersonality: In this regard, naturalist works are based on the idea of the objectivity of the events and impersonalities of the characters, considering the facts.
In addition to these characteristics, we can note in naturalism the use of a simple and direct language, detailed description, language colloquial, objective portrait of society, and the use of other philosophical currents, such as evolutionism, scientism and positivism.
Naturalist Works:
Excerpt: The Mulatto: (Fragment from Chapter VI)
“Ana Rosa, in fact, for some time now, used to visit Raimundo's room during the resident's absence. He would enter surreptitiously, close the tabs on the window, and, as he knew that the resident didn't show up at that hour, he would start to fuss with the books, the rummaging in the open drawers, trying on the locks, reading the business cards and all the little pieces of written paper that fall into the hands. Whenever she found a handkerchief already served, on the floor or tossed on the dresser, she grabbed it and sniffed it greedily, as she did the head hats and the pillow on the bed. This gossip made her fall into a voluptuous and sickening enervation, which made her body shiver with fever”.
Naturalist Works:
Excerpt: The Good Creole
“On the same day he went to the fortress, and as soon as the vessel left the pier on a strong impulse, the new seaman felt for the first time the whole soul vibrates in an extraordinary way, as if the delicious freshness of a fluid had been injected into the blood of an African mysterious. Freedom entered her through her eyes, through her ears, through her nostrils, through all her pores, in short, as the very soul of light, sound, odor and all things ethereal… Everything that surrounded him: the flatness of the water singing in the bow of the longboat, the immaculate blue of the sky, the distant profile of the mountains, ships swaying between islands, and the immobile house of the city that lay behind—the same companions paddling the same row, as if they were one arm—and, above all, my God!, above all the wide and bright environment of the bay: finally, the whole landscape communicated to her a feeling of freedom and life so strong that she even wanted to cry, but to cry frankly, openly, in the presence of others, as if he were going mad... That magnificent scene had been etched on his retina for all the existence; I would never forget it, oh, never again! He, the slave, the "runaway black" felt himself truly a man, like other men, happy to be one, great as nature, throughout the virile strength of his youth, and he was sorry, he was very sorry for those who stayed on the “farm” working, without earning money, since dawn… you know God!
naturalist work
Excerpt: Luzia Man
“In building the chain, there was work for everyone. The weakest, weakened by age or suffering, carried sand and water; those who could no longer bear the fatigue of walking softened vines to tie scaffolding; others less steep kneaded lime; the young men, still robust, men of strong temper, superior to inclement, sober and brave, glistened with sweat crushing stone, hauling material to the masons, or driving on their backs, from afar, from the woods of the foothills of the mountain, thick woods adorned with green palms, with fresh and bright green pear branches, in festive contrast with the parched and dry place. desolate. And they got through the task, soft or rough, some moaning, others singing alacres, in an expansion of relief, of reborn hope, old women songs, pious unforgettable ballads, or contemplating with nostalgic sadness, the impassive sky, always limpid and blue, dazzling of light".
Naturalist Works:
Excerpt: THE MEAT
"Lenita almost went mad with pain: the unforeseen event, sudden and terrible vacuum that was created around her, the superiority and culture of his spirit that shelters from banal consolations, everything contributed to accentuate his Suffering. Days and days the unfortunate girl went without leaving her room, refusing to receive visitors, unconsciously taking, at the request of her famula, some light food. At last she reacted against the pain pale, very pale in her mourning clothes, she appeared to her father's friends, received the tedious condolences of the style, he tried by all means to give himself to the solitary life that opened to him a very sad life, herma of affections, peopled with memories painful. He tried to give convenient direction to the business of the house, and wrote to Colonel Barbosa, warning him that he was temporarily withdrawing to his farm.”
naturalistic works
Excerpt: THE MISSIONARY
"The existence until that date - the date of the letter - had been very paltry, worthy of being marked with a white stone, as if they mark the happy days of life, as he had heard from Professor Aníbal at the wedding dinner of the unhappy Joaquim Feliciano. Father had not met, a washerwoman had been a mother, sadly linked to a sergeant of the Manaus police force, disorderly and drunk. Macario had grown up amidst his mother's repulses and the formidable beatings with which the sergeant pampered him to get revenge on the tavern sailor, fed up with spinning his drink. She had rarely been able to satisfy her hunger, if not thanks to the generosity of some customer in whose house she used to carry out the laundry; because in the washerwoman's house the pirarucu was little and bad, the flour was rare, the luxury fruits of the rich…”
realistic works
Excerpt: The goddaughter
“From the height of the parapet to Das Dores, daydreaming, as if she were leaning over a fortified castle, in despair, towards a knight with a cape and a wide, collapsed sombrero. She had played a lot with such a figure, from the lid of an oblong cunt where my mother kept her chapstick. The mustache and the pear of the conversation, which seemed to have entered through the gate like the Father Rector, were to see Cousin Vicente's type. Das Dores forgot this time to avert Satan's temptation. He reached the end of the rosary and started again. He spoke the holy words with a sigh. It was in fact Cousin Vicente, an artillery officer, whom imagination had brought into the russian of the Father Rector. Das Dores was astonished that she had kept his features so well, in ways she could even feel his breath, to hear the timbre of her speech, and to suffer on her face a strong impression of crying, of longing, of love, perhaps!
Other articles:
Manuel Bandeira
Subscribe to our email list and receive interesting information and updates in your email inbox
Thanks for signing up.
