“Nós não somos nada nesta vida” : identidade e atividade intelectual na obra de Lima Barreto

Abstract

The present study aims to analyze the Lima Barreto’s formation of identity, observing the construction of his discourse as a black intellectual in the most varied genres such as novels, short stories, chronicles, letters and his diary. The idea is to identify how as certain events unfolded in Lima Barreto's path, his perception of the world and his discourse also changed, an aspect that was mainly reflected in his fictional works. The research also conducts an examination of his relationship with the literary field, his view as a public servant, the way he interacted with family members and other intimate issues. As well as seeking to list the main characteristics of Lima Barreto's work, the most frequent themes and the main intellectuals with whom the writer of “Todos-os-Santos” dialogued, debated, exchanged ideas or eventually developed a very big repulsion. Finally, this study also pursuit to investigate how Lima Barreto understood the most popular ideas in major national and foreign intellectual circles, such as nationalism, criminal anthropology, phrenology and other related sciences, anarchism and how these ideas affected the reality of Brazil during the First Republic (1889 - 1930), in the writer's view. Observing how Lima Barreto sought to fit into this debate and what attitude he adopted towards these themes.