Provincial sketches and masks of modernity: an interpretation of the Gilberto Freyre’s correspondence with Manuel Bandeira, José Lins do Rego and Rodrigo Melo Franco de Andrade

Abstract

This article aims to interpret the Gilberto Freyre’s epistolography taking as a basis the concept of persona or mask. Different personae are articulated in the correspondence of the essayist dialoguing with the more grave writing of José Lins do Rego, which come near to the paroxysm and the personal and the collective tragedy, as well as with the more humorous literary forms that are present in the letters exchanged with Manuel Bandeira and Rodrigo Melo Franco de Andrade. Then, ambiguous facets of Gilberto Freyre’s work will be seen, and one will reflect on aspects of the alternative or provincial modernity that are subjacent to them. Hence it will be possible to observe how these paradoxes, which constitute the Freyre’s social essay, are linked to the contradictory images that also mark his epistolary practice.