The idealization of a national literature from the literary criticism of Jose Verissimo

Abstract

José Veríssimo was an important Brazilian literary critic, from the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, and through his essays and works, he had the role of reshaping the literary criticism made in his century. With its references to the generation of 1870, described as “new generation” by Sílvio Romero, it traces paths for Brazilian education and for national literature, understanding it as an important instrument of social transformation. The literature that Veríssimo conceives is one that represents the country through its Brazilianness. Allied to the effervescent independence movements in the 19th century, the construction of a country independent from Portugal and its references, makes evident to the critic the need to use literature to leverage the national spirit. In this sense, through a struggle for originality and independence, especially from Portugal through a republic, or from the fields of ideas through positivism and evolutionism, a social movement appears in Brazil, with supporters such as Machado de Assis and Tobias Barreto, to, through criticism and education, build a new Brazil.