Translated from the Portuguese by Katrina Dodson
With a contribution by Katrina Dodson and John Keene
Here at last is an exciting new edition of the Brazilian modernist epic Macunaíma: The Hero with No Character, by Mário de Andrade. This landmark 1928 novel follows the adventures of the shapeshifting Macunaíma and his brothers as they leave their Amazon home for a whirlwind tour of Brazil, cramming four centuries and a continental expanse into a single mythic plane. Having lost a magic amulet, the hero and his brothers journey to São Paulo to retrieve the talisman that has fallen into the hands of an Italo-Peruvian captain of industry (who is also a cannibal giant). Written over six delirious days—the fruit of years of study—Macunaíma magically synthesizes dialect, folklore, anthropology, mythology, flora, fauna, and pop culture to examine Brazilian identity. This brilliant translation by Katrina Dodson has been many years in the making and includes an extensive section of notes, providing essential context for this magnificent work.
BIO
Mário de Andrade (born Oct. 9, 1893, São Paulo, Brazil—died Feb. 25, 1945, São Paulo), writer whose chief importance was his introduction of a highly individual prose style that attempted to reflect colloquial Brazilian speech rather than “correct” Portuguese. He was also important in Brazil’s Modernist movement.
Educated at the conservatory in São Paulo, Andrade helped organize what proved to be a key event in the future artistic life of Brazil, the Semana de Arte Moderna (“Week of Modern Art”), held in São Paulo in February 1922. His own contribution to the event, a reading of poems drawn from his Paulicéia Desvairada (1922; Hallucinated City), was greeted by catcalls, but it has since been recognized as the single most significant influence on modern Brazilian poetry.
Andrade’s diverse interests and wide knowledge ranged among all the arts and found expression in several. As director of the Department of Culture of São Paulo from 1935 until his death, he organized research into Brazilian folklore and folk music. His own novels reflect his concern for folk themes; Macunaíma (1928) is written in his highly idiomatic style in an attempt to recreate actual Brazilian speech.
REVIEWS
To describe Macunaíma as sui generis would hardly scratch the surface. -- Ratik Asokan, 4Columns
Macunaíma is a self-consciously nation-founding novel that reads like a thick broth of painful historical truth, quoted myth, and irreducible pleasures. Rarely is so much pleasure given and pain revealed by overlapping languages. -- Arto Lindsay
An explosion of language… The obvious comparison for English speakers would be Ulysses, as an encyclopedia of styles, of language forms. -- Fredric Jameson
[P] New Directions Publishing Corporation / April 04, 2023
0.74" H x 7.92" L x 5.26" W (0.68 lbs) 224 pages