The saga of the cities in 1930s literature

Abstract

The possibility that a cosmopolitan literature would express national identity is the issue raised by critic Álvaro Lins in a 1942 essay, where he questions the existence of urban literature in Brazil and instead organizes the discussion around the binomial privince/nation. Local territorialization would be the most authentic and legitimate manner of expressing national identity. Beginning with a categorization of modernist literary criticism in Brazil, Álvaro Lins' position is contextualized, in order to then examine the representation of the city in 1930s fiction, including the work of Marques Rebelo and Jorge Amado, who during this period depicts and dramatizes the city of Salvador.