Nascimento Morais Filho e o modernismo no Maranhão

Abstract

The present doctoral thesis consists of a critical examination of the poetic work and literary trajectory of Maranhão writer Nascimento Morais Filho (1922-2009), while at the same time building, based on a historical and historiographical rescue, a new narrative on Modernism in Maranhão, with a focus on poetry. The author began his career in letters when he founded, along with several young intellectuals, the literary group Centro Cultural Gonçalves Dias, which sought, in essence, to move the capital São Luís and bring the brilliance of yesteryear to the Brazilian Athens. In 1945, Morais Filho became one of the exponents of modernist aesthetics in his state, which until that moment still did not understand very well the disruptive innovations triggered twenty years earlier by the Week of Modern Art. Proposing a new narrative of Modernism in Maranhão means researching the very history of this state in order to understand the cultural backwardness that was imposed on it, quite justified by an economic decadence and by an oligarchic political cycle. For this reason, the investigation of how Modernism entered Maranhão and consolidated itself in the state covers the period between 1936 and 1976, since it is in this period that changes can be observed in various areas of society, which will drive new ways of thinking and producing literature, especially the lyrical genre, the focus of this thesis. To compose the critical dialog directed to the poetic production of each historical period and the analysis of the selected poems of the poet in question, we sought the thoughts of Jean-Paul Sartre, Antonio Cândido, Carlos Felipe Moisés and Arlete Nogueira da Cruz. The work is divided into five parts, which correspond to the five chapters of the thesis. In the first part we rescue the life and work of Nascimento Morais Filho, as well as his critical reception, in order to note the size of his contribution to the Maranhão culture. In the second part, we begin the journey into the history of Maranhão based, from then on, on the studies of Benedito Buzar, Mário Meirelles, Carlos de Lima, Eloy Coelho Netto and Rossini Corrêa, at the same time as we comment on the literary production of this period. In the third section, we recount the trajectory of the Centro Cultural "Gonçalves Dias", demonstrating by means of historical documents how the beginning and the end of this association took place, besides examining its activities and publications. In the fourth part, we continue to scrutinize the history and literature of Maranhão without forgetting to critically analyze some poems belonging to two books by Morais Filho: Clamor da Hora Presente (1955) and Azulejos (1963). Finally, the fifth part is dedicated to understand the modernist achievements in the literary field in line with the historical issues pertinent to Maranhão, also analyzing some poems from Esfinge do Azul (1972), Nascimento Morais Filho's last authorial book