Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Two confessional novels: a comparison of São Bernardo with La Familia de Pascual Duarte

2009; UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DE SANTA MARIA; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.5902/1679849x74599

1679-849X

M. W. Stannard,

Literary and Philosophical Studies

This paper analyzes and compares a Brazilian neo-naturalist novel with one written in Spain. Despite the geographic and cultural distance between the authors, Graciliano Ramos and Camilo José Cela, and the striking differences in their backgrounds, there are remarkable similarities in their novels that reflect the aftermath of civil war and dislocation of society that both authors suffered. The narrative structure and literary antecedents of both novels are explored. Gracilianos’ interpretation of the genre includes regionalism and romanticism, while Cela’s is colored by tremendismo. In both there are significant departures from the Naturalism of Zola.