Antonio Candido [Hardcover]

Antonio Candido (Author), Howard S. Becker (Editor, Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 20, 1995

Here Howard Becker makes available for an English- speaking audience a collection of the provocative work of Antonio Candido, one of the leading men of letters in Brazil. Trained as a sociologist, Candido conceives of literature as a social project and is equally at home in textual analyses, discussions of literary theory, and sociological, anthropological, and historical argument. It would be impossible to overstate his impact on the intellectual life of his own country, and on Latin American scholars who can read Portuguese, but he is little known in the rest of the world. In literary, women's, and cultural studies, as well as in sociology, this book contributes a sophisticated and unusual perspective that will dazzle readers unfamiliar with Candido's work.Emphasizing the breadth of Candido's interests, the essays include those on European literature (Dumas, Conrad, Kafka, and Cavafy, for example), on Brazilian literature (Machado de Assis and others), on Brazilian cultural life and politics, and on general problems of criticism (the relations between sociology and criticism, and the problem of literature in underdeveloped countries). Of particular interest is a long piece on Teresina Carini Rocchi, an Italian immigrant to Brazil, who was a lifelong socialist.

Editorial Reviews

Review

This book is a welcome contribution to Brazilian and Latin American literature. Becker's fluid translation skillfully communicates the clarity and subtlety of the Portuguese original. (Choice ) --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Review

Antonio Candido is one of Brazil's most important literary scholars. I should place his best essays on a par with Erich Auerbach's work on Baudelaire's Fleurs du Mal in Scenes from the Drama of European Literature or some of the chapters in Mimesis. An even closer parallel would be some of the critical essays of Octavio Paz. Like Auerbach and Paz, Candido is an intellectual with a wide range of interests, rather than an academic whose speculations remain within the limits of his discipline. Like them, too, he writes clearly in a style accessible to a general reader. The essays selected here give a good idea both of the kind of problems Candido addresses and of his characteristic approach to them. (Thomas R. Hart, University of Oregon ) --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr (March 20, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0691036292
• ISBN-13: 978-0691036298
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 6.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,726,755 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Brazilian Master, July 25, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Antonio Candido (Paperback)

Prof. Antonio Candido de Mello e Souza will turn 80 next year. A former professor from Universidade de Sao Paulo and a visiting scholar in many other universities in the USA and Europe, Antonio Candido is considered one of the most important (if not, the "hotest" name) in the literary critics field in Brazil. His works have been translated into English, French and Spanish quite often and altought retired now he keeps writing and mainly advising auhors and students.I'm myself a small example of one of the ones that has been the pleasure and satisfaction to work under this advises. "Literatura e sociedade", the original title of this book is considered one of his most consistent works ever. If interested in a deep and serious analyses of Brazilian literature, the title is a MUST READ!