Questão 17 - UESB 1º dia 2024

O texto seguinte servirá de base para responder à questão.

 

Book Review: Torto Arado

 

Itamar Vieira Júnior's searing novel has captivated Brazil's literary scene.

 

SÃO PAULO − In 1888, Brazil became the last country to abolish slavery in the Americas. But for many of those who had been considered possessions, emancipation brought little change. More than 130 years later, some in the remote, semi-arid hinterland of Brazil's northeast live under arrangements that seem a holdover from the era of slavery, without access to education, a permanent home, or ownership of the land they have worked for generations.

 

This region, known as the sertão , is the setting for Torto Arado, the bestselling 2018 novel by geographer-turned-writer Itamar Vieira Júnior. The land is a conspicuous presence on every page of the book, whose title translates to Crooked Plow. Dust covers the characters' bodies and few belongings after a day of hard labor in the fields. Mud is used to build the walls of their temporary huts. The earth fills their mouths, takes their dead children, and is their only means of survival.

 

The world is already taking note of Vieira Júnior. Torto Arado also won a prize in Italy, and publishing rights have been sold in nine countries. The U.S. National Endowment for the Arts awarded a grant to Montclair State University Professor Johnny Lorenz to translate the novel into English, and a production company has acquired the rights to make a series or film for a streaming service.

 

Humble origins make Vieira Júnior's international success appear still more impressive. While studying at the Federal University of Bahia, supported by a scholarship for low-income Black students, he worked as a clerk at a grocery store and pharmacy before taking a post as a researcher at the national land reform agency. Vieira Júnior then spent 15 years crisscrossing the vast states of Bahia and Maranhão, spending long periods among rural laborers. These travels provided the material for Torto Arado, written discreetly over several decades. 

FONTANA, Camila. Book Review: Torto Arado. Americas Quarterly, Culture, 19 out. 2021.

Disponível em: . Acesso em: 19 nov. 2023. (Adaptado).

What contributed to Itamar Vieira Júnior's inspiration for his novel "Torto Arado"?