NACIONALISMOS, EXÍLIOS E VIAGENS: DAVID VIÑAS E ROBERTO SCHWARZ

Abstract

This essay undertakes a comparative reading of two course syllabi taught by literary critics David Viñas, in Argentina, and Roberto Schwarz, in Brazil. Both courses were offered in the 1980’s, in the aftermath of the professors’ return from exile under the military dictatorships that shaped each national context. The comparison shows that Schwarz articulates literary nationality through the categories of ideology and displacement, whereas Viñas approaches the formation of national literature through the concept of violación. The essay also foregrounds the place of the dramatic arts in both critical projects, given the political force they attributed to the relation between literature and dramatic writing, as well as the broader public reach that theater and related forms could achieve at the time in contrast to literature. It argues, ultimately, that in both cases the category of the “national” is inseparable from a logic of theatricality through which capitalism staged, and gave form to, a certain idea of modernity.