Intimacy in Belmiro Borba, irony in Cyro dos Anjos

Abstract

Cyro dos Anjos’s fictional diary O Amanuense Belmiro was greatly praised by the best Brazilian criticism, but did not reach the deserved recognition. Since its publication (1937) until today, the masterpiece has been studied, which demonstrates property to remain current as well as available to new approaches, in harmony with academic or non-academic standards. This is also the clearest signal of its richness and complexity. In this article, the novel-diary is approached by some aspects which do not appear in its critical fortune, due to the unavailable bibliography, or authorial ability to dissimulate his resources. By a perspective that absorbs, but goes further than Foucault’s teachings about self writing, the article discusses four determinant topics concerning the aesthetic subject and the intimate book he produces. These topics are: literary asceticism, modern myth, irony and lyricism. Although such topics are not obviously connected, they integrate a logical whole, which overtakes the impasses about author/narrator identification.