João Guimarães Rosa

Paulo Moreira (Yale University)

Ed. by Ben Bollig, University of Oxford
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 5.1.2: Brazilian Writing and Culture.
Vol. editors: Ben Bollig (University of Oxford), Cara Levey (University College Cork), Carolina Orloff (Independent Scholar - Europe)

Dates

Born 27 Jun 1908
Died 19 Nov 1967
Activity 1929-1967

Places

Born in Brazil
Active in Brazil

Activities

Primary

Diplomat
Novelist
Story-writer

Resources

Rosa's Works

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João Guimarães Rosa is undoubtedly one of the most important fiction writers in Brazil, on a par with Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis. Most of his oeuvre consists of short narratives that range from three-page short stories to 100-page novellas, all meticulously arranged in four collections and two posthumous volumes also planned by the author himself. Nevertheless, the greatest acclaim would come from Guimarães Rosa’s only novel,

Grande Sertão: Veredas

[

The Devil to Pay in the Backlands

], considered one of the best Latin American novels of all time.

Guimarães Rosa’s prose was, for its time, both stylistically and linguistically innovative. The author mixed the vernacular and the erudite in search of a truly unique brand of modernist experimentation that frequently included the use

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2708 words

Citation: Moreira, Paulo. "João Guimarães Rosa". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 05 August 2013 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=12914, accessed 21 November 2024.]