From magazine to book: Brandão entre o mar e o amor (1941), collaborative fiction and realism in the 1930 generation

Abstract

In the begging of 1940’s, Brandão entre o mar e o amor (Brandão between sea and love) was published in the magazine Diretrizes. It obeyed limits imposed by the censorship of Brazilian government at the time, which sought to subordinate publications to the conveniences of the country’s external alliances in the first years of the Second World War. The novel was a combination of a fictional and journalistic project, allied to an advertising initiative. It was supposed to engage readers and seduce them by the participation of well-known realistic Brazilian writers such as Jorge Amado, José Lins do Rego, Graciliano Ramos, Aníbal Machado e Rachel de Queiroz. Despite being signed by notorious writers of the 1930 Generation, the result was a lot of inconsistencies in the plot, and several formal contrasts among the chapters, showing incompatible political and aesthetics positions within the group. On the other hand, the lack of unity in this work also exposes the marks of a literature thought to be read first in periodicals, not in books.