Coelho Neto, Henrique (1864–1934)

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Coelho Neto, Henrique (1864–1934)

Henrique Coelho Neto (b. 21 February 1864; d. 28 November 1934), Brazilian writer. Born in Caxias, in the state of Maranhão, he was a prolific novelist as well as a journalist, essayist, short-story writer, and playwright. Some of his chief novels are Miragem and O rei fantasma, both published in 1895, Inverno em flor (1897) and A capital federal (1893). His principal work, Turbilhão, was published in 1906. He is best known for his narratives, in which he employed many innovative literary techniques for which Brazilian letters would become known following the introduction of its modernist movement to the world during Modern Art Week, held in São Paulo in 1922. His work, however, is classified as premodernist, for it exhibits many Parnassian and symbolist characteristics. He also proposed a return to Brazilian nationalistic themes and sentiments. In fact, according to critics, Coelho Neto spoke vehemently against the modernist direction Brazilian letters was taking during the last years of his life. Coelho Neto also had an active political career. He was a public lecturer, and in 1909 he was elected as a federal deputy. He was subsequently reelected to two more legislatures. In addition, he occupied several diplomatic and other government posts. In 1926, he was elected president of the Brazilian Academy of Letters.

See alsoLiterature: Brazil .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Claude Hulet, Brazilian Literature, vol. 2 (1974).

Assis Brasil, O livro de ouro da literatura brasileira (1980).

Lemuel A. Johnson, "The Romance Bárbaro as an Agent of Disappearance: Henrique Coelho Neto's Rei Negro and Its Conventions," in Voices from Under: Black Narrative in Latin America and the Caribbean, edited by William Luis (1984).