The dedication and the garçonnière: Ambivalences of some images of Brazilian Modernism

Abstract

Taking as its scope the first decades of the 20^th century in the Brazilian cultural milieu, in the intellectual circuit recognized as forming and consolidating literary modernity, this essay investigates ambivalences present in the way the notion of margin manifests itself in critical and historiographical discourse. Some images of Brazilian modernism are analyzed, especially images concerning Oswald de Andrade. In the first two parts, the essay focuses on a scene ‒ the dedication written by Oswald in a book he gifted the Campos brothers Augusto e Haroldo ‒ and on a space ‒ Oswald’s garçonnière in São Paulo, where the collective diary O perfeito cozinheiro das almas deste mundo was produced ‒, both of which are emblematic of Brazilian modernism. The final part presents a survey of other possibilities and questions for critical exploration.

Keywords:
Brazilian Modernism; garçonnière; dedication; ambivalence; O perfeito cozinheiro das almas deste mundo