José de Alencar Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
José de Alencar (1829-1877) was a Brazilian novelist. Born in Fortaleza, Alencar was son of an important senator. After earning a bacharelor in Law he traveled to Rio de Janeiro, and started to work for some newspapers (Correio Mercantil and Diário do Rio de Janeiro) there. His first two romances, "Cinco Minutos" (1856) and "A Viuvinha" (1857), were published in these newspapers.Following the partial success of the first writtings, Alencar publishes "O Guarani" (1857), acquiring nationwide fame. "O Guarani" was the first of a trilogy about the brazilian natives - the other two are "Iracema" (1865) and "Ubirajara" (1874). In those books the native is dressed as his european counterpart, the medieval knight. Since Brazil hadn´t a past (as the european descendents thought), the solution for create a national mythology was to adapt the european manners to tropical values.
The big project of Alencar was, in fact, to affirm in all fields the indepedence of Brazil. A nationalist, Alencar was even misunderstood by his contemporaries when advocating the use of a national language (despite the common use of Portuguese language without changes), for example. He also defended the nationalism by many other ways and in many other fields.
In 1860 Alencar entered on politics (delegate from Rio de Janeiro on Brazil´s congress). In 1877 he was called to be a minister of imperator Dom Pedro II. But soon after, in the same year, he was diagnosed tuberculous, and died in Rio after an unsuccessful attemp to cure himself at Europe.
Main works: Cinco Minutos (1856), A Viuvinha (1857), O Guarani (1857), As Minas de Prata (1862), Lucíola (1862), Diva (1864), Iracema (1865), O Gaúcho (1870), A Pata da Gazela (1870), Sonhos d'Ouro (1872), Til (1872), A Guerra dos Mascates (1873), Ubirajara (1874), Senhora (1875), O Sertanejo (1875), Encarnação (1877 - postmortem edition).
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