Writing, Public Opinion, and National Identity in the Crônicas of Olavo Bilac

WRITING, PUBLIC OPINION, AND NATIONAL IDENTITY IN THE CRÔNICAS OF OLAVO BILAC by Steve Sloan Texas Christian University OLAVO Bilac (1865-1918) is most often remembered as a Parnassian poet.1 While continuing to write poetry after his success with Poesias (1888), he began to acquire a separate identity as a cronista, a transition that implied much more than a change in format. Among other adjustments, Bilac would have to use a more direct language, speak to a sometimes different though overlapping reading public, reflect more on matters of a political nature and less on aesthetics , and rethink his role as a writer in society. From 1890 to 1908, he published a vast amount of crônicas in many different newspapers, most notably the Gazeta de Notícias, where he replaced Machado de Assis as the newspaper ’s primary cronista in 1897.2 Despite the Modernists’ later attack on his poetry , Bilac has, over the years, regained his noteworthy status in the history of Brazilian literature. Yet, his crônicas have gone largely unnoticed by critics.3 While these writings are by nature fragmented, dispersed, and sometimes contradictory to each other, as a whole they constitute a peculiarly constructed body of works that reflects the efforts of nearly twenty years of exploring different perspectives and forms of expression in order to shape public opinion in belle époque Rio de Janeiro. The two-fold objective of this study is to demonstrate the ways in which Bilac utilized the genre of the crônica as a socially committed writer intent on engaging his readers and challenging them to think critically and, secondly, to attempt to piece together the fragments of a lifelong project of shaping a national identity in a recently established republic. 79 I. ENGAGING THE READER Bilac’s occasional references to poetry in his crônicas often bring attention to the fact that he has very intentionally chosen not to write poetry. In “Infância macambúzia,”4 he suggests that the crônica is a more suitable genre than poetry to talk about modern times without falling into melancholic nostalgia: “Alguns acontecimentos desta semana me deram uma certa melancolia – que bem poderia ser contada em verso, se eu ainda tivesse tempo e paciência para andar à caça de rimas. Prefiro cantá-la em prosa corrente, para não estragar imagens e ritmos com o comentário de vulgares saudades” (Vossa 329). On the surface, one could conclude that the choice to use the crônica rather than the poem is merely one of stylistic preference. Upon closer analysis, however, one notices another layer of discourse in which Bilac comments on the literary traditions he has inherited. As winter comes to an end, he feels the urge to praise the coming of spring. This impulse, he argues, comes from a European literary tradition that was imposed on Brazil, a tradition that makes little sense in the tropics, where the changing of seasons differs greatly from northern and Mediterranean climates. “Mas por associação de idéias, e por uma influência da nossa educação literária bebida em fontes da Europa, não podemos deixar de sentir, ao ler nos almanaques a boa nova da chegada da estação das flores, uma certa revolução do espírito. É uma convenção” (Vossa 329-30). Bilac took many trips to Europe and was especially drawn to Paris, the model for the literary projects of Bilac’s generation (Broca 91-101). But here Bilac questions the literary tradition he has inherited from Europe, demonstrating a longing for new forms of expression grounded in local rather than foreign experiences. Not coincidentally, he makes these comments through the crônica, a genre that has its origins in the French feuilleton tradition, but that evolved into its current form by way of nineteenth-century Latin American newspapers. The discourse on the literary traditions inherited from Europe is left undeveloped in “Infância macambúzia.” It remains just under the surface, but intersects with Bilac’s comments on nostalgia. The sensation Bilac wants to communicate is not so much the desire to avoid nostalgia but rather the lack of true nostalgia he feels...