O romance (re)conta a história: ensaio sobre Ana em Veneza, de João Silvério Trevisan, e os paradigmas de identidade nacional brasileira

Abstract

The present work proposed a reading of Ana em Veneza (1994), a novel written by João Silvério Trevisan. Our main purpose was to analyze the reinterpretations that this novel provides regarding some of the paradigms of national identity conveyed among works consecrated in the studies of the 20th century on Brazilian culture and literature. These paradigms consist of concepts such as miscegenation, for example, as well as literary works such as O guarani (1857) and Macunaíma (1928), but also musical compositions such as Choro nº 10 (1926). The character of this research is bibliographic, analytical, interpretive and theoretical-critical. Thereby, during our activity of analysis and interpretation, we resorted to the existing bibliography about Ana em Veneza, in particular, to the study by Antônio Roberto Esteves, O romance histórico brasileiro contemporâneo (1975-2000) (2010), and the researches by Rebeca Alves (2018) and Helano Jader (2011). Furthermore, we accessed other studies, articles and interviews useful to understand some specificities of the novel genre, as well as the historicalliterary context of modernism and romanticism, to which the plot of Ana em Veneza turns. During the work with the concept of miscegenation and its link to the Brazilian national identity, we resorted to the interpretations found in books such as América Latina: males de origem (1903), by Manuel Bonfim, and Casa-grande & senzala (1933), in addition to the studies by Kabengele Munanga, Rediscutindo a mestiçagem no Brasil: identidade nacional versus identidade negra (1999), and by Demétrio Magnoli, Uma gota de sangue: história do pensamento racial (2009). As a tool to understand a little better the reflections on culture and national identity with which the novel dialogues, we aim at the historical and critical perspective provided by Dante Moreira Leite, O caráter nacional brasileiro (1959), and the study of Renato Ortiz, Cultura brasileira e identidade nacional (1985). As a result, we observe that the novel makes a critical rereading of the paradigms of Brazilian national identity linked to the historical period comprised by romanticism and modernism. However, this does not necessarily imply fitting it into postmodernist and multiculturalist ideologies.