O nacionalismo exagerado de policarpo Quaresma: idealismo, identidade e frustração no romance de Lima Barreto

Abstract

This work analyzes the novel Triste Fim de Policarpo Quaresma (1915), by Lima Barreto (1881-1922), based on qualitative research, using an analytical and critical reading of the literary work. In dialogue with the studies of Antonio Candido, Artur Monteiro Leitão Júnior (2011) and Valdemar Valente Júnior (2020), the exaggerated nationalism of the protagonist is investigated as an expression of the political, social, and identity contradictions of the Brazilian First Republic. The analysis shows how Policarpo's idealism, based on the valorization of the national language, culture, and agriculture, clashes with a reality marked by authoritarianism, social exclusion, and the inefficiency of public institutions. The character's trajectory functions as a metaphor for the limits of individual projects of transformation in a political context not very open to structural changes. Throughout the study, it is observed that the novel uses irony and memory as resources for social criticism, highlighting the distance between the official discourse of progress and lived experience. It is concluded that Lima Barreto's work remains relevant by problematizing the construction of national identity and reaffirming the role of literature as an instrument of critical reflection on Brazilian society