Hugo de Carvalho Ramos: uma obra no intervalo entre a tradição e a modernidade

Abstract

This study presents the work of Hugo de Carvalho Ramos, a Brazilian writer from Goiás, and his engagement in discussions regarding to our nationality, which were intensified in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Ramos is a highlighted author among the Brazilian regionalist writers, thus his work differs from the orthodox standard literary practice, tending to the exotic and picturesque. His production is recognized by specialized critics, such as Alfredo Bosi, as belonging to what is known as programmatic regionalism, without the vicious way of “local color”, by deepening the realistic line in understanding the interior regions. In fact, Carvalho Ramos wrote under the rigor of direct observation of reality, but considering the human element as the main reason in his production, speaking up and criticizing the problems caused by inequality and social injustice, faced by the poor men who lived in the inner regions of Brazil, giving a voice to the sertão (backwoods) and sertanejo (backcountry) through their creative perspectives. Therefore, this author is best known for his literary work, the short stories book entitled Tropas e Boiadas, but his work was not limited to that title. Moreover, he wrote poetic texts, vast personal correspondence, critical and theoretical essays in which the intellectual spirit concerned with the reality of the country is revealed. It is in this part of his work, along with the storybook, that we may find support to face this study proposed: to investigate the problematization undertaken by the author regarding to the national reality, articulating his ideas with the aesthetic-cultural experiences that motivated the spirit of national modernity. This work proposal intends to prove that Ramos is an author who worked looking for the conjugation between tradition and innovation, between the archaic and the modern, what allows his work to be seen as an interval work during a Brazilian historic period of transiton from the regional to modernity.