The MariAntonia Center at USP will host, starting on June 21, the exhibition Alfredo Bosi: between criticism and utopia, organized in partnership with the Institute of Advanced Studies (IEA-USP). Curated by Viviana Bosi, professor of literature and daughter of Alfredo and Ecléa Bosi, the exhibition uses the collection of the cultural historian, professor, and literary critic to illuminate aspects of a trajectory marked by strong ethical commitments in personal, academic, and activist life.
On the 21st, at 6 pm, a round table will mark the opening of the exhibition. Alcides Villaça (FFLCH-USP), Pedro Meira Monteiro (Princeton University, USA), and Augusto Massi (FFLCH-USP), three former students, advisees, and friends of Bosi, now professors of Brazilian literature, will participate. In addition to them, the director and vice-director of IEA, Guilherme Ary Plonski and Roseli de Deus Lopes, and the director and vice-director of the MariAntonia Center at USP, José Lira and Ana Castro, will also participate. The mediation will be done by Viviana Bosi. After the speeches, there will be a reception to celebrate the exhibition’s inauguration.
“We are happy to share with all interested parties aspects of this life dedicated to revealing the beauty and power of literature for understanding historical processes, always alongside a persistent and generous quest for everything that could contribute to social justice and the common good, notably in relation to public education, human rights, respect for nature, and the most socially unprotected,” emphasizes Viviana.
The choice of the Rui Barbosa building of the MariAntonia Center as the location for the exhibition is not fortuitous. It was at this address that, between 1955 and 1959, Alfredo Bosi attended the course in neolatin letters at the former Faculty of Philosophy, Sciences, and Letters of USP, where he had his first contact with authors fundamental to the formation of his critical method. It was also in the historic building that, back in Brazil after completing a scholarship in Florence, Italy, the critic began to teach Italian literature during the 1960s, a period in which the military coup of 1964 and the events of 1968 led him to delve into national literature in search of moments of insubordination to domination discourses. The Concise History of Brazilian Literature (1970), written at the request of the poet, translator, and at the time editor José Paulo Paes, is the result of this investigation.
These are some of the passages of Alfredo Bosi’s journey that visitors will be able to learn about in the exhibition, which brings personal documents, photos from the family album, letters exchanged with personalities such as the also critic and professor Antonio Candido and the poet Carlos Drummond de Andrade, manuscripts and typescripts with studies and lesson planning, as well as objects from his personal and professional use, such as a typewriter.
The exhibition also offers bound and facsimile reproductions for handling. Among them is the illustrated adaptation made by Paulo and Cecília de Salles Oliveira to the essay “The Works of the Hand,” published in The Being and Time of Poetry (1977).
Divided into five axes, starting with the critic’s childhood and youth, the exhibition addresses Alfredo Bosi’s formation and work as a literature teacher in secondary education and at USP, where he taught for over 40 years, as well as his activism with entities such as the Center for the Defense of Human Rights D. Paulo Evaristo, in Cotia, the Commission of Justice and Peace of São Paulo, and the Worker’s Pastoral of Vila Yolanda, in Osasco, SP, in the 1970s. Meeting with the workers on weekends at the invitation of Father Domingos Barbé, “Alfredinho,” as he was known by the attendees for his affectionate manner, read works with them such as Barren Lives, by Graciliano Ramos, eliciting reflections and stimulating the construction of organized groups of workers.
In his work at the Institute of Advanced Studies, where he was director (1998-2001), vice-director (1987-1997 and 2002-2006), and editor of the magazine for over three decades (1989 – 2019), the exhibition highlights the professor’s desire to contribute with research for the creation of transformative public policies, increasing the points of contact between the university and society.
Central to the exhibition, the axis dedicated to the author’s critical thinking highlights, through the presentation of some of his main works, questions that have accompanied him since early in his studies, such as the complex relationship between subjective expression and historical experience in literature. Taken from one of the last poems by the Italian Giacomo Leopardi, the image of the broom flower, a species that grows on the slopes of Vesuvius, was chosen by Alfredo Bosi to speak of the resistance that often manifests itself in poetry. Decades after the 1977 essay in which the image is presented by the author, a broom was planted in the house where he lived with his wife, the psychology professor and writer Ecléa Bosi. This lifelong passion that emerges in the exhibition through an unpublished statement by Alfredo Bosi, given to the Brazilian Academy of Letters in 2003.
“It is a simple homage to a person of the dimension of Professor Alfredo Bosi,” says Roseli de Deus Lopes, vice-director of IEA and coordinator of the exhibition. “He is one of those who light up paths, that’s why the exhibition is important: so that we can share with other people who did not have the opportunity to know him some elements of his personal and academic life, and his political stance. It is a great satisfaction to be able to provide this moment of inspiration for those who visit the exhibition.”
Text: Ananda Silva de Almeida and Leandra Rajczuk Martins
Service:
Exhibition Alfredo Bosi between criticism and utopia
Opening March 21 from 7 pm
Where MariAntonia Center at USP – Rui Barbosa Building
Rua Maria Antônia 294 – Vila Buarque – São Paulo, SP (near Higienópolis and Santa Cecília metro stations)
When March 21 to May 26, 2024
Visiting hours Tuesday to Sunday and holidays, from 10 am to 6 pm
How much Free
Information (11) 3123-5202
Schedule:
Opening round table of the exhibition “Alfredo Bosi: between criticism and utopia”
Thursday, March 21, 2024 – 6 pm
Opening:
Ana Castro, vice-director of the MariAntonia Center at USP
Guilherme Ary Plonski, director of IEA-USP
José Lira, director of the MariAntonia Center at USP
Roseli de Deus Lopes, vice-director of IEA-USP
Speakers:
Alcides Villaça (FFLCH-USP)
Pedro Meira Monteiro (Princeton University, USA)
Augusto Massi (FFLCH-USP)
Moderator:
Viviana Bosi (FFLCH-USP)