ABSTRACT
Taking as our departure point the meeting between Lima Barreto and Sérgio Buarque de Holanda in 1922 in Rio de Janeiro, we analyze aesthetic and political debates held during the so-called First Republic (1889-1930). To do so, we avoid any artificial divide between modernists and non-modernists. Some of the topics covered in this article are: class relations, literary trends, urban spaces and public values, and the dilemma faced by a democracy that both authors saw as inherently oligarchical. We also focus on Buarque de Holanda's criticism in the first (1936) edition of Roots of Brazil, and we analyze pieces of literary criticism he published much later. The encounter of the two intellectuals allows us to better understand how they were both skeptical about republican values, which they felt had never prevailed in Brazil. Such a skepticism crosses their work, whether it's fictional or historiographic.
Keywords:
Sérgio Buarque de Holanda; Lima Barreto; Modernisms; Republic