Brandão, Ignácio de Loyola (1936–)

Ignácio de Loyola Brandão (b. 31 July 1936), Brazilian author. Brandão's writing career began at the age of sixteen, when he was a movie reviewer for a newspaper in Araraquara, his hometown, in the hinterland of the state of São Paulo. Soon after his twenty-first birthday, he moved to the state capital, where he became a journalist. The peculiarities and problems of urban life made a profound impression on him, and for the next eight years he witnessed the people's increasing mistrust in the government, and the resulting turmoil that led to a military coup in 1964. Being a reporter, Brandão had firsthand knowledge of the turbulence of the metropolis, intensified by a period of extreme violence between police and militants following the coup. This environment pervades his fiction. His first book, Depois do sol (1965, After the Sun), a collection of short stories, was followed by Bebel que a cidade comeu (1968, Bebel, Swallowed Up by the City). Both books portray the social and psychological crises of 1960s Brazil, resulting from political oppression and economic unrest. Brandão eventually abandoned his career as a journalist and devoted himself to his fiction, though his novels and short stories retain a journalistic feel, revealing the author's analytical mind and stylistic irreverence, which often extends to graphic layouts emulating newspapers. His criticism of the government led to censorship of his novel Zero, which was banned from publication in Brazil for six years (1969–1975). He became, then, the first Brazilian writer to resort to publication abroad; Zero was printed in Italy (1974) before its publication in Portuguese. The first English-language translation was published in the United States in 1984. Brandão also wrote travelogues, including Cuba de Fidel: viagem à ilha proibida (1978, Fidel's Cuba: Voyage to a Forbidden Island) and O verde violentou o muro: visões e alucinações alemãs (1984, The Greenery that Shook the Wall: German Visions and Hallucinations). Brandão is a prolific writer whose work has evolved with the times; he remains faithful to his primary vision of a world unredeemable in its unfairness and cruelty.

See alsoBrazil, Revolutions: Revolution of 1964; Literature: Brazil.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Erilde Melillo Reale, Il Doppio Segno di Zero (1976) and Raccontes in un Romanzo (1979).

Emilio Rodrígues Monegal, "Writing Fiction Under the Censor's Eyes," in World Literature Today (1979).

Ute Hermanns, Mithos and Realität im Roman Zero (1984).

Larry Rother, "Life Under the Mili-Tech," review of Não Verás País Nenhum, New York Times, 29 September 1985.

Candace Slater, "Brazilian Literature: Zero," Review 32 (January-May 1994).

Additional Bibliography

Besa, Pedro Pirres. Loyola Brandão: A televisão na literatura. Juiz de Fora, Brazil: Editora da Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora, 1988.

Bollinger, Rosemarie. "Tres escritores brasileños." Cuadernos hispanoamericanos 439 (Jan 1987): 85-98.

Krabbenhoft, Kenneth. "Ignació de Loyola Brandão and the Fiction of Cognitive Estrangement." Luso-Brazilian Review 24 (Summer 1987): 35-45.

Martins, Juca. São Paulo capital. São Paulo: Instituto Moreira Salles, 1988.

                                        Regina Igel