The writing work: a study of the literary writing process through Caio Fernando Abreu’s letters

Abstract

The intimate genres - the diary, autobiography and the letter - are gaining more and more space among readers, because, among other things, they promote a real illusion. As a result, these texts have gained enough space in publishing, becoming more and more visible in bookstores. The same applies to the letters of literary authors who have aroused great interest in the literary criticism in understanding the fundamentals of this form of expression and its relationship to literary creation. Undeniably, one must recognize that the letters of great writers often transcend the mere daily report, revealing a great poetic and informational content to be analyzed in order to understand the process of literary creation. In such cases, the correspondence of great writers is not only because his autobiographical historical or cultural values, but also because it is an autonomous form of expression that is capable of express multiple reflection on the literature and the writing process. Assuming that personal experience and literary experience appear concomitantly in Caio Fernando Abreu’s letters, this article analyzes the author’s poetic letters from metalinguistic reflections on the nature of literary writing and the writer’s work. Thus, by studying Caio Fernando Abreu’s correspondence, this article draws the view of the function of literature that of this gaúcho writer had, the writer’s image and the writing process. With this study we intend to demonstrate that the letters are a rich material that can be used to understand the author’s literary universe.