Lima Barreto between “the partnership of mutual praise” and literary criticism: history and literature in Brazil of the First Republic

Abstract

The article presents results of research on the uses that the writer Lima Barreto made of his readings throughout his trajectory in Rio de Janeiro at the 20th century. Based on the inventory of books in his library and comments made on what he read, I analyze how he developed his activity as a literary critic, giving meaning to literature and criticism itself, including through debate. For that, I examine some texts published in the Rio de Janeiro press of the period, correspondences and the books themselves that were the object of the criticism in question. The writer oscilates between the weight of personal relationships and the search for procedures capable of guiding the daily exercise of this activity, in which, in general, his concerns with the historical, social and political aspects involved in literary production.