O filósofo do absurdo nos trópicos: a recepção inicial da obra de Albert Camus no Brasil a partir dos periódicos nacionais da década de 1940

Abstract

This work analyzes the initial reception of the work of Albert Camus in Brazil from the texts about his writing that circulated in several national periodicals, mainly from the Southeast region, during the 1940s. This cut comes mainly from the absence of Camus’ works translations into Portuguese language until the 1950s and his trip to Brazil in 1949 and implies respect for the chronology of his work, restricted to the set of texts and concepts developed in the aforementioned period of analysis. Thus, the texts and articles published in national periodicals during the 1940s allow us to identify some initial readings and interpretations of Camusian thought, as well as provide an overview of the way it was presented and disseminated in the country, making possible the establishment of a genealogy of reception. This work is based on two sets of concepts: the first of them, tributary of the formulations of Michel de Certeau and Roger Chartier, focuses on the conception of reading, taken as a fundamental practice in the construction of the meanings of writing. Discards in this way the perspective of a permanent or immanent sense of the text, while recognizing in its materiality limits to the reader’s creation. This implies to considerer the preponderance, in the interpretation of the work, of the reader’s universe. The second set limits to the relationship between the concepts of author, work and time, especially from the questions proposed by Michel Foucault and Jacques Rancière, problematizing them based on the practical readings. This paper aims, therefore, to answer a set of own questions, tributary of this theoretical-methodological perspective, namely: who are the readers and interpreters of the Camusian writing, and that consequently publish their readings in the analyzed periodicals? What are these readings / interpretations? What elements condition these appropriations and make them possible? How are the main categories of your work read and interpreted? What is the attitude of these readers / interpreters before this writing? In this way, we observe attentively, in a first moment, the interpretations, images, metaphors and allegories attributed to the concept of absurdity, which runs through most of the readings. In a second moment, we look to the ethical implications attributed by the readers to the Camusian script and, in particular, to the concept of absurdity, evidencing, above all, their relationship with the postwar period and the perception of a crisis of values. Finally, this work analyzes from the readings the construction and functioning of the relationship between the concepts of work, author and time, evaluating its implications in the construction of the writing meaning