Angústia, by Graciliano Ramos: the José Olympio collection and the restitution of the text of the novel

Abstract

The works of Graciliano Ramos entered the public domain on January 1, 2024. Since then, the publisher Todavia has begun publishing the Graciliano Ramos collection, with the aim of bringing to readers, in editions that are finally guided by the restitution of the author's last inspiration, the titles published during the writer's lifetime, as well as unpublished works. To date, two novels have been published (Angústia and Vidas secas), as well as the children's book Os filhos da coruja (2024), resulting from a handwritten poem that has never been printed before. In view of this initiative, this article aims to address the work of establishing the text of Angústia (2024), for which a basic critical edition was produced, considering not only biographical and chronological factors, but also the comparison of a wide myriad of versions (twelve in total) produced before the death of the author from Alagoas in March 1953. Among this material, many modern manuscripts stand out: typographic proofs, working copies and typescripts that originally belonged to the archive of Livraria José Olympio Editora and are today under the custody of both the Archive of the Instituto de Estudos Brasileiros and the Biblioteca Brasiliana Guita and José Mindlin, both institutions of the University of São Paulo