Osman Lins
Osman da Costa Lins (5 July 1924 – 8 July 1978) was a Brazilian novelist and short story writer. He is considered to be one of the leading innovators of Brazilian literature in the mid 20th century.
Contents
Biography
Osman Lins was born in Vitória de Santo Antão, Pernambuco, the son of a tailor and a housewife, who died shortly after his birth. His mother's absence was compensated for by a very affectionate family circle, led by his paternal grandmother. At the age of 16, he moved to Recife, where he studied finance. In the late 1940s, Lins married Maria do Carmo, with whom he would have three daughters. He graduated from the University of Recife in 1946 with a degree in economics and finance, and held a position as clerk at the Bank of Brazil from 1943 until 1970.
In 1950 he won a literary competition with his short story "The Echo", but his fiction debut came with the publication of his first novel, The Visitor, in 1955. Two years later he published the collection "The Gestures" and then the novel The Faithful and the Stone. He joined the editorial board of the magazine Memorandum, organ of the Bank of Brazil Athletic Association, and became a regular contributor to the Literary Supplement of the Diário de Pernambuco, publishing short stories. His first play to be staged was Lisbela and the Prisoner, which was successfully adapted for the cinema in 2003. In the early 1960s, Osman Lins lived in Europe on a scholarship from the French Alliance. Back in Brazil, he moved to São Paulo.
In 1964, already separated from his first wife, he married the writer Julieta de Godoy Ladeira. In 1967, he began publishing regularly in the São Paulo newspaper A Gazeta.
In 1970 he became a university lecturer in Marília, teaching Brazilian literature. He also obtained a doctorate in Letters with a thesis on the writer Lima Barreto. In 1973 Lins published the enigmatic novel Avalovara,[lower-alpha 1] considered one of his major works and translated into several languages. A few years later, he resigned from the University, disenchanted with the quality of Brazilian education.
At the beginning of 1978, the first symptoms of the illness that would lead to his death appeared. On the other hand, that same year he published his last book, Casos especiais de Osman Lins (Special Cases of Osman Lins), composed of three novellas: "The Island in Space", "Who was Shirley Temple?" and "Funeral March", adapted to television and broadcasted by Globo between 1975 and 1977.
Osman Lins' literary project is intertwined with his biography, and events that marked his personal history recur in his work. One of these events, and perhaps the most important, was the loss of his mother shortly after his birth.
His last novel was The Queen of Greek Prisons, published in 1976. Osman Lins collaborated with various press organisations and wrote television scripts. The author of a vast body of work recognised by critics, he has received several awards, including the Monteiro Lobato Prize and the Coelho Neto Prize from the Brazilian Academy of Letters.
Osman Lins died aged 54 as a result of generalised cancer, caused by a late diagnosis of melanoma.[1]
The writer's personal archive was donated by his widow to two Brazilian institutions: the Rui Barbosa House Foundation (Rio de Janeiro) and the Institute of Brazilian Studies at the University of São Paulo (São Paulo).
In the city of Vitória de Santo Antão, the Osman Lins University Centre was built in honour of the writer.
See also
Works
- O Visitante (1955; novel)
- Os Gestos (1957; short stories)
- O Fiel e a Pedra (1961; novel)
- Marinheiro de Primeira Viagem (1963)
- Lisbela e o Prisioneiro (1964; play)
- Nove, Novena (1966; novellas)
- Um Mundo Estagnado (1966; essay)
- Capa-Verde e o Natal (1967; play)
- Guerra do Cansa-Cavalo (196; play)
- Guerra Sem Testemunha — o Escritor, sua Condição e a Realidade Social (1969; essay)
- Avalovara (1973; novel)
- Santa, Automóvel e o Soldado (1975; play)
- Lima Barreto e o Espaço Romanesco (1976; essay)
- A Rainha dos Cárceres da Grécia (1976; novel)
- Do Ideal e da Glória. Problemas Inculturais Brasileiros (1977; articles)
- O Diabo na Noite de Natal (1977; children's literature)
- Missa do Galo, Variações Sobre o Mesmo Tema, Organização e Participação (1977)
- Casos Especiais de Osman Lins (1978; novellas)
- Evangelho na Taba. Problemas inculturais brasileiros II (1979; articles; with introduction by Julieta de Godoy Ladeira)
- Domingo de Páscoa (1978; novella)
Notes
Footnotes
- ↑ His novel Avalovara (1973) is a work of narrative engineering, built from a Latin palindrome (sator arepo tenet opera rotas), within a spiral, from which all the chapters of the book are developed.
Citations
- ↑ Yano, Célio (14 de agosto de 2013). "Um Domingo Enfim Eternizado. Última Novela de Osman Lins, Escrita em 1978, é agora publicada em livro," Revista CH. Instituto Ciência Hoje.
References
- Almeida, Hugo (2004). Osman Lins: O Sopro na Argila. São Paulo: Nankin.
- Ramos, Darcy Attanazio Taboada (2007). Uma leitura poético-filosófica de 'Marinheiro de primeira viagem', de Osman Lins. São Paulo: USP.
- Ramos, Darcy Attanazio Taboada (2015). Potencialidades do ensaio: convergências poéticas e conceituais (Guerra sem testemunhas, de Osman Lins). São Paulo: USP.
