To Love, intransitive verb - Hardcover
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About To Love, Intransitive Verb
Mário de Andrade's To Love, Intransitive Verb captures Brazil during a transformative decade. Set in the 1920s, this novel explores the collision between old moralities and new republican values as the nation shifted from agrarianism to urbanization. Through the story of a wealthy Brazilian teenager and his young German tutor, Andrade examines social mobility, cultural sophistication, and the evolving meaning of love itself.
The Story
A Brazilian teen from a privileged family meets a German woman working abroad, carrying emotional scars from the Great War. Hired as his teacher for language, literature, and music, their relationship evolves beyond conventional boundaries. As she navigates the boisterous complexity of Brazilian culture, both teacher and student discover that love defies simple categorization—is it transitive, connecting subject and object, or intransitive, an emotion experienced in solitude?
Bilingual Portuguese-English Edition
This edition presents the original Portuguese text alongside Ana Lessa-Schmidt's English translation, preserving Andrade's innovative Modernist style. Readers can experience the linguistic experimentation that made this work revolutionary, with side-by-side text allowing appreciation of both the original and its careful English interpretation.
Mário de Andrade and Brazilian Modernism
Mário de Andrade stands as a pivotal figure in Brazilian literature. His experimental use of language and penetrating insights into Brazilian identity helped ignite the nation's Modernist movement. To Love, Intransitive Verb demonstrates his ability to blend social commentary with intimate character study, creating a work that transformed both Brazilian culture and literature.
Themes and Cultural Context
The novel addresses cross-cultural encounters, generational differences, and the search for national identity during a period of rapid change. Set against the backdrop of 1920s Brazil reaching toward European sophistication while forging its own cultural path, Andrade's work remains relevant for understanding Latin American modernism and the complexities of cultural transformation.
Brazil in the 1920s was going through many transformations. A new republic was shedding old moralities. Agrarianism was urbanizing. Social mobility was cutting across classes. A nation in search of a new culture was reaching out to the sophistication of Europe.
In this setting, Mário de Andrade tells the story of a Brazilian teen and a young German woman. He was born into a wealthy family; she was trying to make a living away from her country, carrying the emotional baggage of the Great War in the Old World. He was a student, she a teacher. But her lessons would soon go beyond language, literature, and music.
She'd also learn a little something herself. Brazilian culture, in those heady boisterous years, was complicated. Love was taking on new meaning. Could love be a transitive verb, uniting subject and object? Or would it best be left intransitive, a subject all alone with an emotion?
Mário de Andrade's unique use of language and his insights into life contributed to an upheaval in not only in Brazilian culture but in Brazilian literature, inspiring the nation's Modernist movement. This bilingual edition presents the original Portuguese alongside Ana Lessa-Schmidt's careful and creative English interpretation of Andrade's Modernist style.
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About To Love, Intransitive Verb
Mário de Andrade's To Love, Intransitive Verb captures Brazil during a transformative decade. Set in the 1920s, this novel explores the collision between old moralities and new republican values as the nation shifted from agrarianism to urbanization. Through the story of a wealthy Brazilian teenager and his young German tutor, Andrade examines social mobility, cultural sophistication, and the evolving meaning of love itself.
The Story
A Brazilian teen from a privileged family meets a German woman working abroad, carrying emotional scars from the Great War. Hired as his teacher for language, literature, and music, their relationship evolves beyond conventional boundaries. As she navigates the boisterous complexity of Brazilian culture, both teacher and student discover that love defies simple categorization—is it transitive, connecting subject and object, or intransitive, an emotion experienced in solitude?
Bilingual Portuguese-English Edition
This edition presents the original Portuguese text alongside Ana Lessa-Schmidt's English translation, preserving Andrade's innovative Modernist style. Readers can experience the linguistic experimentation that made this work revolutionary, with side-by-side text allowing appreciation of both the original and its careful English interpretation.
Mário de Andrade and Brazilian Modernism
Mário de Andrade stands as a pivotal figure in Brazilian literature. His experimental use of language and penetrating insights into Brazilian identity helped ignite the nation's Modernist movement. To Love, Intransitive Verb demonstrates his ability to blend social commentary with intimate character study, creating a work that transformed both Brazilian culture and literature.
Themes and Cultural Context
The novel addresses cross-cultural encounters, generational differences, and the search for national identity during a period of rapid change. Set against the backdrop of 1920s Brazil reaching toward European sophistication while forging its own cultural path, Andrade's work remains relevant for understanding Latin American modernism and the complexities of cultural transformation.
Brazil in the 1920s was going through many transformations. A new republic was shedding old moralities. Agrarianism was urbanizing. Social mobility was cutting across classes. A nation in search of a new culture was reaching out to the sophistication of Europe.
In this setting, Mário de Andrade tells the story of a Brazilian teen and a young German woman. He was born into a wealthy family; she was trying to make a living away from her country, carrying the emotional baggage of the Great War in the Old World. He was a student, she a teacher. But her lessons would soon go beyond language, literature, and music.
She'd also learn a little something herself. Brazilian culture, in those heady boisterous years, was complicated. Love was taking on new meaning. Could love be a transitive verb, uniting subject and object? Or would it best be left intransitive, a subject all alone with an emotion?
Mário de Andrade's unique use of language and his insights into life contributed to an upheaval in not only in Brazilian culture but in Brazilian literature, inspiring the nation's Modernist movement. This bilingual edition presents the original Portuguese alongside Ana Lessa-Schmidt's careful and creative English interpretation of Andrade's Modernist style.