A COSTUREIRA E O CANGACEIRO: IDENTIDADE BRASILEIRA, RESGATE HISTÓRICO E ECOS REGIONALISTAS NO ROMANCE DE FRANCES DE PONTES PEEBLES

Abstract

In 2009, the novel A Costureira e o Cangaceiro by Frances de Pontes Peebles was published in Brazil. The work in question was originally written in English. Frances de Pontes Peebles is the daughter of a Pernambuco mother and an American father. This study aims to analyze the novel by linking it to the tradition of Brazilian literature, more specifically, to contemporary literary regionalism. What guides the reading of the work is its connection to issues of belonging and national identity, the fictionalization of Brazil's political history since the 1930 Revolution, the collective memory of cangaço, and the drought of 1932. To this end, in the fields of historiography and Brazilian literary criticism, I refer to names such as Antônio Cândido, Fernando Cerisara Gil, Luís Bueno, and Tânia Pellegrini, addressing the relevance of the novel in relation to the foundations of national literature. In the realm of History and culture, I explore the emergence of cangaço as a means of livelihood, its endemic and epidemic forms in the northeastern hinterland, as well as the popular cultural manifestations linked to the mythology that today surrounds cangaceirismo, making it an expression of identity from the Brazilian hinterland. I observe how the novel makes extensive use of material for a plausible composition of the spaces of the countryside and the city in northeastern Brazil, coherently encompassing its cultural traditions and its History. Keywords: National identity. Popular culture. Regionalism.