A noção de independência literária caboverdiana no romance Chiquinho, de Baltasar Lopes, a partir da influência do romance nordestino Vidas Secas, de Graciliano Ramos

Abstract

This Final Course Work aims to examine the thematic, social and narrative links between the novels Chiquinho, by Baltasar Lopes, and Vidas Secas, by Graciliano Ramos. Considered fundamental works in their respective literary contexts, both present, with sensitivity and, at the same time, critical criticism, realities marked by drought, hunger, arid soil, forced migration and family relationships. Although they were written by different authors — Baltasar Lopes, from Cape Verde, and Graciliano Ramos, from Brazil —, the narratives establish an in-depth dialogue that highlights, through literature, the life scenarios of historically silenced populations. Chiquinho, by Baltasar Lopes, is one of the novels that promoted Cape Verdean literary emancipation. Written in the 1940s, the work emerged during the Claridade, an important literary movement created in 1936 in Cape Verde by a group of intellectuals, including Baltasar Lopes himself. The novel is narrated in the first person, with the narrator character Chiquinho, who, in the first chapter, recalls his childhood in the village of Caleijão, on the island of São Nicolau, in a lyrical manner and from a child's perspective, without failing to share his experiences, such as the drought that ravages the archipelago, and the oral stories passed down by his elders. In the second chapter, Chiquinho moves to the city of Mindelo to attend high school, where he develops his critical thinking and poetic sensibility. In the third and final part of the work, as an adult, he returns to the village with a mature outlook, encountering a reality marked by drought, famine, emigration and death. At the same time, the relevance of the Brazilian regionalist work Vidas Secas, by Graciliano Ramos, stands out, which underpins this research due to its thematic and aesthetic affinity with Cape Verdean literature, especially with regard to the valorization of local identities. Brazil and Cape Verde are brothers overseas, especially when one considers Brazilian literature as a reference for political and cultural emancipation for Cape Verdean writers, notably those of the Claridoso movement.