Gullar, Ferreira 1930–

views updated

Gullar, Ferreira 1930–

PERSONAL: Born Joseé Ribamar Ferreira, September 10, 1930, in São do Maranhão, Brazil.

ADDRESSES: Agent—c/o Author Mail, University Press of America, 4501 Forbes Blvd., Ste. 200, Lanham, MD 20706.

CAREER: Poet, playwright, journalist, and artist. Fundação Cultural de Brasilia, president, beginning 1961. Also worked as a disc jockey, c. 1950s.

AWARDS, HONORS: Prince Claus Award, 2002.

WRITINGS:

POETRY

João Boa-Morte, Editôra Universitária 1962.

Ribamar-I, 1965, reprinted, Livaria São José (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), 1968.

Por você, por mim, Edição Sped (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), 1967.

Dentro da noite veloz: poemas, Civilização Brasileira (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), 1975.

A luta corporal: poemas, Civilização Brasileira (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), 1975, commemorative edition, J. Olympio Editora (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), 1994.

Poema sujo, Civilização Brasileira (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), 1976, translated as Sullied Poem, Associated Faculty Press (Millwood, NY), 1988, translated by Leland Guyer as Dirty Poem, University Press of America (Lanham, MD), 1990.

Antologia poética, Fontana (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), 1976.

Uma luz do chão, Avenir Editora (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), 1978.

Na vertigem do dia: poemas, Civilização Brasileira (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), 1980.

Toda poesia (1950–1980), Civilização Brasileira (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), 1980, revised and updated edition published as Toda poesia (1950–1987), J. Olympio Editora (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), 1991, second revised and updated edition published as Toda poesia (1950–1999), 2000.

Os melhores poemas de Ferreira Gullar, selected by Alfredo Bosi, Global Editora (São Paulo, Brazil), 1983.

Barulhos, 1980–87, J. Olympio Editora (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), 1987.

Poemas, Tierra Brasileña (Lima, Peru), 1987.

Poemas escolhidos, selected and with a preface by Walmir Ayala, Ediouro Grupo Coquetel (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), 1989.

O formigueiro, Edição Europa (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), 1991.

Muitas vozes: poemas, José Olympio (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), 1999.

Also author of Poemas, (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), 1958.

OTHER

Cultura post em questão, Editôra Civilização Brasileira (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), 1965.

A luta corporal e novos poemas (biography), J. Alvaro (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), 1966, fifth edition, J. Olympio Editora (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), 2000.

(With Antônio Carlos Fontoura and Armando Costa) A saída? Onde fica a saída? (play), Grupo Opinião (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), 1967.

(With Alfredo Dias Gomes) Dr. Getúlio, sua vida e sua glória (play), Civilização Brasileira (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), 1968, published as Vargas; ou, Dr. Getúlio, sua vida e sua glória, 1983.

Vanguarda e subdesenvolvimento; ensaios sôbre arte (title means "The Vanguard and Underdevelopment"), Civilização Brasileira (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), 1969, third edition, 1984.

(With Mário Pedrosa) Arte basileira hoje; [situação e perspectives], Paz e Terra (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), 1973.

(With Augusto dos Anjos) Toda a poesia, Paz e Terra (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), 1976.

(With Bernard Hermann and Vinicius de Moraes) Rio de Janeiro, Éditions du Pacifique (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), 1976.

(With Roberto Pontual) Visão da terra: arte agora, Antonio Henrique Amaral, Antonio Maia, Emanoel Araujo, Francisco Brennand, Frans Krajcberg, Gilvan Samico, Glauco Rodriques, Humberto Espindola, Ione Saldanha, Márcio Sampaio, Millôr Fernandes, Rubem Valentim, Atelier de Arte Ediçaões (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), 1977.

Um rubi no umbigo: peça teatral em dois atos (play), Civilização Brasileira (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), 1978.

(Selector and translator, with Santiago Kovadloff) Hombre común y otros poemias: antologia bilingüe, Calicanto Editorial (Buenos Aires, Argentina), 1979.

(With Thomaz Ianelli Olivio Tavares de Araújo, and Roberto Pontual) Thomaz: oleos e aquarelas: 18 de julho a 14 de agosto 1979 (exhibition catalogue), Museu de Arte Contemporanea do Parana (Parana, Brazil), 1979.

(With Bruno Giorgi, Marcos Antônio Marcondes, and Rômulo Fialdini) Bruno Giorgi, Art Editora (São Paulo, Brazil), 1980.

(With Newton Rezende) Newton Rezende, Galeria Binino (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), 1980.

(With Mário Pedrosa and Lygia Clark) Lygia Clark: textos de Ferreira Bullar, Mário Pedrosa, Lygia Clark, Edição FunArte (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), 1980.

(With Beth Brait) Ferreira Gullar, Abril Educação (São Paulo, Brazil), 1980.

Sobre arte, Avenir Editora (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), 1982.

Etapas da arte contemporânea: do cubismo ao neoconcretismo, Nobel (São Paulo, Brazil), 1985.

(With Sérgio Gonzaga and Lucio Stein) A pintura pintura de Thomaz Ianelli, Gráficos Brunner (São Paulo, Brazil), 1985.

Crime na flora, ou Ordem e progresso, J. Olympio Editora (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), 1986.

Indagações de hoje (speech, letters, and diary selections), J. Olympio Editora (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), 1989.

A estranha vida banal, J. Olympio Editora (Rio de Janeiro), 1989.

(With Louis-Charles Sirjacq) Le pays des éléphants = O pais dos elefantes, L'Avant-scène (Paris, France), 1989.

Arumentação contra a morte da arte (essays and criticism), Editora Revan (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), 1993.

Nise da Silveira: uma psiquiatra rebelde (biography), Relume Dumará (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), 1996.

(With Denize Torbes) Punhais e pássaros, Impressões do Brasil (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), 1996.

(With Grilo) Cidades inventadas (fiction), J. Olympio Editora (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), 1997.

Rabo de foguete: os años de exílio (memoir), Editora Revan (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), 1998.

(With Angela Lago) Um gato chamado gatinho, Salamandra (São Paulo, Brazil), 2000.

Contributor to periodicals, including Diogenes.

Author's works have been published in several languages, including Spanish, German, and English.

SIDELIGHTS: Ferreira Gullar is a one-time political exile and a successful Brazilian poet and playwright. The author first gained widespread notice in South America with his volume of experimental poetry titled A luta corporal: poemas. Although Gullar has gone to reach celebrity status in Brazil and South America, he has remained relatively unknown elsewhere. "Gullar's entire life and work constitute important documents of much of the modern social and artistic history of Brazil," wrote Leland Guyer in his introduction to Dirty Poem, the English translation of Gullar's most famous work, Poema sujo. Guyer also noted that Guillar's one-time exile "contributed greatly to the extensive and elaborately configured recollection that is Poema sujo," adding, "Few works, if any in recent decades have had as much literary impact in Brazil as this work."

According to Guyer, this time writing in Selecta: Journal of the Pacific Northwest Council on Foreign Languages, Gullar called Dirty Poem his "last will and testament." The poem is an evocation of Gullar's youth in 1940's Brazil and was written by Gullar while the poet was a political exile in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Although the free-verse poem reflects much of the author's impressions from his young days in Brazil, such as his father reading detective novels and the presence of American soldiers in Brazil during World War II, it is also a discourse on Brazilian society in general and on social injustice.

In a review of the English translation, World Literature Today contributor Richard A. Preto-Rodas noted that the author "transcends ideology to create a hauntingly sincere remembrance of things past, warts and all." Commenting on the author's ability to evoke his childhood world, Preto-Rodas went on to write, "The reader is enveloped in a sensuous world where bright sunlight gives way to velvety darkness, where the sounds of songbirds rustling in overarching trees meld with the taste of fried cracklings." In a review of the Spanish version of the poem in World Literature Today, Klaus Müller-Bergh called the work "the most important lyric statement made in the country during the past ten years." Modern Language Journal contributor Larry D. Miller wrote that the poem "is a very personal statement," but he added, "Yet, this poetry, concerned with the meaning of life, with living it fully and with defining and maintaining a sense of one's origins, has a universal message that speaks across barriers of language and culture."

In his collection of poetry titled Antologia poética, Gullar starts with more classically rhymed poems and then moves on to free rhythms and verse. Writing again in World Literature Today, Müller-Bergh called the author "one of the most provocative and authentic new voices from Brazil." He went on to comment on a poem in the volume about the sad life of a civil servant and reflected on the poet's approach to writing, noting, "Gullar's concluding esthetic could not be more explicit: in addition to form and artifice, poetry is above all a passionate, revolutionary statement." In a review of the collection of poems titled Na vertigem do dia: poemas, World Literature Today contributor Wilson Martins commented the poet's focus on "the poetry of social themes and inspiration, in which he is one of the best, if not the best, in Brazil." Martins also asserted that the author has revealed a "broader understanding of the human condition without giving up his right and duty to be the voice of the voiceless."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Gullar, Ferreira, Dirty Poem, translated by Leland Guyer, University Press of America (Lanham, MD), 1990.

Gullar, Ferreira, Rabo de foguete: os años de exílio, Editora Revan (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), 1998.

PERIODICALS

Modern Language Journal, November, 1978, Larry D. Miller, review of Poema sujo, pp. 358-359.

Revista Canadiene de Estudios Hispanico, fall, 1989, Ricardo da Silveira Lobo Sternberg, "Memory and History in Ferreira Gullar's Poema sujo," pp. 131-143.

Selecta: Journal of the Pacific Northwest Council on Foreign Languages, Volume 8, 1987, Leland R. Guyer, "Poema sujo; Last Will and Testament."

Texto Critico Xalapa, Volume 11, 1978, Richard Roux, "Um Cara Cara a Cara," pp. 220-239.

World Literature Today, autumn, 1977, Klaus Müller-Bergh, review of Poema sujo, pp. 605-606; summer, 1978, Klaus Müller-Bergh, review of Antologia poética, pp. 449-450; summer, 1981, Wilson Martins, review of Na vertigem do dia, p. 443; autumn, 1991, Richard A. Preto-Rodas, review of Dirty Poem, pp. 685-686.