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Ronaldo Correia de Brito’s Galileia and the Brazilian Regionalist Tradition

Ashley Brock

Abstract

Galileia (2008), de Ronaldo Correia de Brito, ilustra uma versão contemporânea do sertão e tem sido aclamada por trazer o romance regionalista para o séc. XXI, modernizando-o. Este artigo afasta-se da leitura dada às inovações de Brito, essencialmente em termos de ruptura, e olha para a novela, ao invés disso, como um prolongamento e reflexão crítica sobre a tradição regionalista brasileira. Salientando a sua intertextualidade—em particular—com Grande sertão: veredas, considero que Galileia expõe o desejo vão e ambivalente de repudiar a herança regional como parte integrante da sensibilidade regionalista. Concluo que, ao reformular a ruptura—por si mesma, uma forma de repetição—e examinar o papel da narrativa em reforçar e reinventar uma herança pesada, Galileia serve de pedra de toque para debates contemporâneos acerca do Regionalismo Crítico, e a natureza performativa da pertença no mundo moderno.

Resumo

Ronaldo Correia de Brito’s Galileia (2008), which depicts a contemporary version of the sertão, has been celebrated for modernizing the regionalist novel for the twenty-first century. This article pushes back against reading Brito’s innovations primarily in terms of rupture and reads Brito’s novel, instead, as a continuous extension of and critical reflection on the Brazilian regionalist tradition. Stressing its intertextuality with Grande sertão: veredas in particular, I argue that Galileia lays bare the ambivalent and vain desire to repudiate one’s regional heritage as an integral part of the regionalist sensibility. I conclude that by recasting rupture as itself a form of repetition and examining the role of narrative in reinforcing as well as reinventing cumbersome inheritances, Galileia serves as a touchstone in contemporary debates about Critical Regionalism and the performative nature of belonging and at-home-ness in the modern world.

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