Rise and fall in the era of modernizing impetus: a comparative reading of São Bernardo, by Graciliano Ramos, and Absalom, Absalom!, by William Faulkner

Abstract

The article proposes a comparative reading of the novels São Bernardo (1934), by Graciliano Ramos and Absalom, Absalom! (1936), by William Faulkner. In our analysis, we evidence the connection of the two narratives to the advance of the capitalist modernizing impetus in Brazil and in the United States. This modernity, however, proves to be essentially problematic. First, we consider formal distinctions between the two novels in terms of language and narrative focus. Afterwards, we draw approximations, from the historical context of modernization and the protagonists: Paulo Honório and Thomas Sutpen. Therefore, our study discusses the aspects of the conjuncture of the 1930s that may have caused the development of two novels – one Brazilian and the other North American – susceptible to comparison.