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Orality's Revenge: Jubiabá and the Defiance of the "Lettered City"Author(s): Chris T. SchulenburgSource: Latin American Literary Review, Vol. 35, No. 70 (Jul. - Dec., 2007), pp. 43-56Published by: Latin American Literary ReviewStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20120000 .

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ORALITY'S REVENGE: JUBIAB? AND THE DEFIANCE OF THE

"LETTERED CITY"

CHRIS T SCHULENBURG UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-PLATTEVILLE

From the first moments of Europe's conquest of Latin America, politi cal thoughts and plans revealed a distinctly urban quality. According to the

critic ?ngel Rama, writing (in the form of laws, urban mappings, etc.) above

all else represented an essential manifestation of this hegemonic European

power. In his book The Lettered City, Rama suggests an intimate connec

tion between an exclusive, erudite, and mostly closed group of literate men

(the aforementioned "lettered city") and the incredible force wielded by the

written word. This group quickly encouraged a distinct separation between

itself and the overwhelming majority of the Latin American population which inhabited an illiterate, oral terrain. In the 1920's, a dramatic trans

formation of the traditional power dynamic occurred with the proliferation of newspapers, magazines, and schools in Latin American cities. However, a marked increase in the overall literary aptitude in Latin America did not

eliminate the centrality of non-written elements from its literature, and this

phenomenon of orality is frequently recognized in the case of Brazil's liter

ary history. ' Jorge Amado's novel Jubiab? offers an especially instructive

Brazilian case study containing these opposite tensions. The incorporation of Amado's protagonist Antonio Balduino's sambas into the repertoire of

urban mass media available in Salvador da Bahia at first seems to foresee a

certain loss of cultural independence that these sambas once enjoyed. Still, the epic ABC that Balduino receives on the novel's last page, and Amado's

novel in general, affirm the ongoing presence of the nation's oral tradition

in manifestations of "high culture" in Brazil.

The ambiguous place that orality occupies in the structural scheme of



44 Latin American Literary Review

writing itself is a concept that is impossible to divorce from the epic and

urban subtexts that permeate the novel Jubiab?. A study by Walter Ong insists

on the strong connection between the written word and its vocal articula

tion; indeed, the former never ceases to demonstrate important vestiges of

its oral history (8). In addition, it is necessary to consider the impact that

memory delivers upon its unprinted products. Formulas and rhythms are

two means of facilitating the remembrance of oral cultural creations, and

the subsequent passing of these oral representations from one generation to another alongside the presence of epic characters presents outstanding

figures capable of activating these organizational tools (Ong 35). Above all,

Ong signals this heroic and epic character as the oral cornerstone on which

automatic associations and related events are built (69). Oral cultures recall

their traditional discourses with these larger-than-life personalities in mind, but upon becoming literate societies, they are no longer obliged to restrict

themselves to these exceptional characters. Novels thus allow their writers

the freedom to employ ordinary personalities since the written story need

not depend upon the spectacular moments that anchor its oral counterpart. As noted by Ong: "The heroic and marvelous had served a specific function

in organizing knowledge in an oral world. With the control of information

and memory brought about by writing [...] you do not need a hero in the

old sense to mobilize knowledge in a story form" (Ong 70). In the narra

tive case of Jubiab?, therefore, the addition of the epic genre of the ABC

represents an especially curious and significant artistic decision.

According to Bobby J. Chamberlain, the form of the aforementioned

ABC is a poetic manifestation that is primarily linked with themes of an epic nature (20). Similarly, the protagonist Antonio Balduino in the novel Jubiab?

reflects these heroic preoccupations by both accomplishing monumental

deeds (he becomes a boxing champion and the emotional spark behind

a labor strike) and receiving prestigious honors (an ABC celebrating his

legendary feats).2 The various references to the oral character of the ABC

itself in the novel and the former's ability to preserve the community's memories of its popular heroes are strong signs of an oral culture that re

sists lettered attempts to banish discourses to a strictly written realm. For

example, regardless of the fact that Balduino's sambas sell well, the idea

of utilizing a written text to commemorate the ABC dedicated to his hero

Zumbi dos Palmares fails to receive the same attention from the poet and

capitalist Anisio Pereira: "Mas o poeta so quis os dois sambas, disse que o

ABC nao valia nada, que os versos estavam quebrados e outras coisas que Baldu?no nao entend?a" (Amado 255). Only certain oral themes are still

valued in Rama's poetic lettered city during the first decades of the twentieth

century. On the other hand, the overwhelmingly urban-centered Brazilian



Orality's Revenge: Jubiab? and the Defiance of the "Lettered City" 45

mass media was patently unable to exclude each and every trace of orality from its cultural products.

The twentieth century expansion of the Latin American metropolis was accompanied by an urban cultural explosion. Newspapers, journals, and by the 1920's, radio broadcasts largely originated in Latin America's

increasingly formidable cities. Sao Paulo, for one, was a central point of

cultural diffusion in Brazil beginning in 1922 with the high profile Modern

ist Week of Modern Art. Moreover, the founding of the University of S?o

Paulo proved to be a vivid symbol of the cultural capital accumulated by the

lettered city in Latin America as a whole: "The S?o Paulo leaders, removed

from political power, responded in 1934 with the creation of a centre of intel

lectual excellence, the University of S?o Paulo, destined to be the bastion of

resistance to the [Vargas] regime" (Sevcenko 98). Indeed, Brazil's lettered

elites utilized this urban university to more thoroughly entrench the value

of the written sign in communicating between themselves and increasingly, the rest of the world. Writing became not only a tool of the literate minority but also a nearly religious experience for the cultural, economic, poetic, and political power preserved in its letters: "The lettered city acted upon the order of signs, and the high priority of its function lent it a sacred aspect

[...] The order of signs appeared as the realm of the Spirit, and thanks to

them, human spirits could speak to one another" (Rama 17). In contrast, the example of Buenos Aires suggests that discourses such

as the newspaper stimulated a strong following among their often urban

consumers by embracing the latter's lingering oral tendencies: "These news

papers changed the language of journalism, incorporating the inflections of

spoken language, and above all they established a permanent bond with their

readers, who felt that they represented their culture and interests" (Sarlo

116). Therefore, as Latin America's cities increasingly build their cultural

existences around written discourses, they do not cease to incorporate oral

sources. While Western urban civilization will certainly avoid a return

to a purely oral culture, Ong identifies another oral moment ("secondary

orality") in both television and radio and the relations of consumption that

necessarily bind them with their audience: "This new orality has striking resemblances to the old in its participatory mystique, its fostering of a com

munal sense, its concentration on the present moment, and even its use of

formulas" (133-4). In his novel Jubiab?, alonside the inclusion of an epic

component, Amado continues to debate the hegemonic control that writing and literature of the lettered city imposes upon orality itself. In the final

analysis, the technological manifestation of the radio and the sambas sold

by Balduino cannot evade an implicit attack on written cultural products as an exclusive expression of a lettered voice.




The appearance of Amado's protagonist Antonio Balduino's sambas

on the radio in Salvador seems to declare the victory of writing over the

orality of Brazil's illiterate cultures. After all, Balduino neither reads nor

writes, and the loss of his sambas to the poet (as well as businessman) Anisio

Pereira and subsequently, to the city's radio waves celebrates the commercial

and communicative power that the written word wields in comparison to

the comparatively limited public of the samba singer. Also, the process of

socioeconomic and linguistic interchange that operates in the case of the

sale of these sambas obeys the general transformation of the oral sound in a

written word from a capitalist perspective. Instead of existing in a collective,

public sphere that the oral songs of a sambista occupies, the initial lettered

inscription of Balduino's poetic vocabulary reflects a general movement

toward consumption and individual property: "Print created a new sense of

the private ownership of words [...] Typography had made the word into a

commodity" (Ong 128-9). Yet, the idea of a written, fixed version of these

oral performances is violently resisted by the relation that exists between

Joana (a friend of Balduino) and these published sambas.

Joana's first reaction to the news of Balduino selling his sambas is

particularly telling: "'Vendeu como?'- ela nao sabia como se vendia um

samba [...] 'Mas para que ele queria?'" (Amado 92). From Joana's point of view, these poetic products possess a constitution that is fluid and rejects

singular ownership. They do not comprise an economic unit but rather an

aesthetic or emotional one. In addition, the published identity of the sambas'

author and his link to the media's mechanisms and the lettered city as a whole

illuminate another notable element of Joana's general posture toward the

loss of her friend's sambas. According to Salvador's newspapers, "O maior

sucesso deste carnaval foram os sambas do poeta Anisio Pereira" (Amado

92). Simultaneously, Pereira bought Balduino's creations and assumed

their authorship; Balduino loses his intellectual stake in these sambas in

one fell swoop. Nevertheless, within Salvador's illiterate masses, there is

no clear owner of these poetic products due to the pro visionary and fleet

ing character of the radio as a cultural medium. Although the words of the

samba reside comfortably in the community's memory, its "writer" does not

achieve a similar immortality: "[...] ela [Joana] cantava o seu samba. Foi a

?nica pessoa que cantou aquele samba sabendo quem em verdade o fizera"

(Amado 93). This last sentence is especially suggestive. After returning to its original oral state in Joana's voice, there are immediate doubts that

the informal singers of this samba will correctly identify the cultural work

with any specific artist at all. It is definitely possible for other members of

the public to know the name of the writer of this famous samba. Still, this

spoken context is where the oral/written/oral components of Balduino's




sambas ultimately come to rest, and for this reason, the often anonymous nature of cultural products in oral circles is bound to operate upon these

sambas once again. The elusive representation of Balduino's poetic texts on

the radio in Salvador immediately disputes the death of auditory components in Brazilian culture. The "secondary orality" that Ong associates with the

present mass media also underlines the dose of resistance and incessant

dialogue offered in what were formerly Balduino's discourses.

The multi-voiced and conflictive element of a novel's lexical choices

does not constitute a new concept for critics. This phenomenon is most

clearly articulated by M.M. Bakhtin, who attacks the idea that the word in

the novel is a closed, monolithic artifact. In fact, the most seemingly mini

mal expression in a novel encompasses a multitude of intentions and voices

that refuse to easily reveal their social origins: "For the novelist working in

prose, the object is always entangled in someone else's discourse about it, it

is already present with qualifications" (Bakhtin 330). In a more direct man

ner, oral cultures and the public expositions of their artistic products share

this same thirst for dialogue. As opposed to the often solitary experience that reading entails, the oral tale boasts an interactive relationship with its

audience. Thus, the excellence of a given oral culture depends on the instinc

tive reaction of its listeners: "Originality consists not in the introduction of

new materials but in fitting the traditional materials effectively into each

individual, unique situation and/or audience" (Ong 59). Antonio Balduino's

sambas lose certain oral independence when they first fill Salvador's radio

waves, but the lexical context of one of his sambas evinces the survival of

the same linguistic interchange that characterizes a collective song. In other

words, a hypothetical listener from the oral public is found in the written

version as well: "Vida de negro ? bem boa, mulata... tern festa todos os

dias [...] eu sou ? malandro, mulata ? voce minha desgra?a" (Amado 91). The sense of poetic ownership that a cultural manifestation of the lettered

city necessitates is not reached in this heavily multi-voiced transcription of

Balduino's samba. Also, the elusive nature of this "secondary orality" of

the radio allows its audience to enjoy a mainly auditory and unique cultural

experience of the once-written sambas of Balduino.

Another salient characteristic of the written word in the context of an

oral cultural product is its transitory, slippery nature. Despite the now stable,

graphically-inscribed state of Balduino's sambas as written by the poet from

Salvador, the electronic medium of the radio loses the permanence of its

visual manifestation since each line is only comprehended and relished after

its spoken vocabulary disappears: "Sound exists only when it is going out

of existence. It is not simply perishable but esentially evanescent, and it is

sensed as evanescent" (Ong 32). Therefore, Anisio Pereira's transcription




of the sambas seems to relegate Balduino's artistic ideas to the erudite, written prison house of the lettered city, but the temporary character of

radio waves returns these works to the realm of orality in the end. To wit, Balduino's performance and auto-analysis of one of his possibly marketable

sambas demonstrate the dialogic, artistic, and auditory elusivity that cannot

be separated from these poetic creations: "Pergunta:'Aonde vai parar essa

estrada, Maria?' E diz: 'As estrelas dos teus olhos est?o no c?u... o barulho

do teu riso est? no mar... voce est? na lanterna do saveiro.' Falava assim

o samba. Dizia mais que o negro Antonio Balduino amava somente duas

coisas : malandragem e Maria. Malandragem na lingua que ele f ala quer dizer

liberdade" (Amado 148). Once again, the aforementioned samba reveals a

profoundly verbal interchange in its personal, romantic tone, and this oral

quality will only be accentuated by a possible radio adaptation. However, Balduino's association of freedom with his linguistic "malandragem" is

also quite significant. Symbolically, as the malandro's craftiness allows him

to enjoy a life on the streets with minimal responsibilities and maximum

potential for movement, Antonio Balduino's sambas inevitably experience this same freedom on an oral scale. Truly, writing is unable to contain these

works in a solely lettered medium. Balduino's sambas encourage the oral

interchange and the different cultural significances bestowed upon them

by their listeners each and every time the sambas were played. In the end, this cultural movement of the sambas toward instruments of mass commu

nication and its continued oral survival are glimpsed in the current artistic

tendencies of contadores de cordel in Brazil as well.

Candace Slater offers an especially instructive definition of the lit

eratura de cordel which underscores the idea of the elusive nature of the

spoken word. Traditionally, this type of work consists of, "[...] stories in

verse dealing with a wide array of regional subjects [...] the cheaper paper booklets called folhetos [...] these vendors travelled from fair to fair, chant

ing verses for an often illiterate public who would buy the booklets to take

home to a literate friend or relative to re-perform" (Slater, "Literatura de

Cordel" 97). From the perspective of its illiterate audiences, the vocabulary of the literatura de cordel varied greatly; its specific elements were lost

after each oral representation, and could only be re-created in the presence

(and under the cultural control) of other literate individuals. Today, Slater

recognizes two basic changes in the artistic goals of this informal literature.

While storytellers presently utilize the media to diffuse their tales, the mes

sages themselves supplied by these creative products share concerns that

are more applied than aesthetic: "[...] this 'newstyle' cordel becomes a call

for action in which the poet seeks to mold rather than to reflect public opin ion" (Slater, "Literatura de Cordel" 102). Nevertheless, the oral character




of these electronically performed discourses once again points to a lack of

permanence due to the inherent uniqueness of the spoken word.

The increasingly mass media-driven transmission of Brazil's literatura

de cordel, its current role as social catalyst, and most importantly, the survival

of its oral foundation all find an interesting echo in yet another published samba in Jubiab?: "[...] ele [Balduino] vai cantando baixinho urn samba

intitulado "A Vitoria da Gr?ve" que apareceu no dia seguinte ao triunfo dos

operarios. Antonio Balduino vai cantando e se recordando dos acidentes

daqueles dois dias: 'Um sindicato de operarios se levantou em gr?ve para aumentar os seus salarios aderiu todas as classes para refor?ar'[...] Foi

vendido copiosamente na cidade, e no dia seguinte ao do t?rmino da gr?ve, era so o que se cantava ?as ruas onde os bondes novamente circulavam"

(Amado 326-7). This post-strike samba's mass-merchandised quality and the

drive to convince its listeners both parallel the literatura de cordel as does

its still overwhelming orality. Although it is sold on the streets of Salvador,

this samba's spread relies as much upon the memories of illiterate citizens

such as Antonio Balduino as it does upon its written version. Likewise, this

oral connection between the literatura de cordel and the sambas in Jubiab?

is strengthened by the cultural positions occupied by their respective per formers in comparison to the erudite members of the lettered city.

Another essential aspect of the literatura de cordel is its truly popular and anti-canonical nature (Slater, Stories on a String 2). In addition, Slater

underlines the spontaneous quality of these works that results from the

individual gifts of their original oral producers: "The influence of poet

improvisers known as cantadores or repentistas, famous throughout the

backlands for their on-the-spot compositions and spirited exchanges in verse,

may explain many of the cordel's relatively original features" (Stories on a

String 9). Certainly, Antonio Balduino does not represent a learned figure

(he earns his living as a boxer and factory worker, two manual professions), and the geographical position of his humble Morro do Capa-Negro itself

(found outside the city of Salvador da Bahia) suggests a symbolic distance

between this sambista and the learned members of the lettered city as well.3

The personal and collective experiences of Balduino's Morro neighborhood form the thematic nucleus of his sambas, and the singular originality of

these compositions depends on an informal mental wandering that paral lels the lack of order of the neighborhood's streets: "Muitas vezes, quando

[Balduino] andava pelas ruas da cidade nos seus passeios malandros, ele

come?ava a bater no chap?u de palha urna m?sica que in ventava e ia cantando

urna letra, tudo tirado da sua cabe?a" (Amado 90). In turn, the sale of many of Balduino's sambas to a poetic member of Brazil's lettered city and the

continued maintenance of these oral and popular Brazilian traditions found




in Balduino's artistic efforts require an inquiry into the ambiguous link

between Jorge Amado the writer and his Latin American contemporaries who occupied this exclusive, erudite literary circle.

The relations of power and domination which controlled the oral and

lettered cultures of the 1930's in Latin America (Jubiab? was published in

1931) were far more than suggestive in terms of their lettered preferences.

Indeed, Giorgio Marotti classifies this connection as a veritable form of

"escravid?o" that protects the cultural and political control exercised by Brazil's intelligentsia (348). The cultural and political elites of Latin America

truly could not count on the fleeting rapidity of oral language, and chose

to establish their authority upon a lettered foundation instead: "In Latin

America, the written word became the only binding one- in contradistinc

tion to the spoken word, which belonged to the realm of things precarious and uncertain" (Rama 6). Moreover, the region's poetic figures found it

necessary to obey these preconceptions in order to avoid an aesthetic as

sociation with the "barbarism" of orality. The comparatively recent critical

preoccupation with postmodernity and its exaltation of "marginal cultures"

in academia have opened new avenues to question these assertions, and oral

ity in particular seems to offer an especially promising theoretical field of

study in this regard (Slater, "New Directions" 103).4 As mentioned above, the canonical writer Amado, and Jubiab? in particular, must be considered

in any debate concerning the topic of orality in literature; the early date of

this novel's publication shows that its critical sensibilities are, in reality, avant la lettre.

Despite the general movement of the regional novel in the 1920's and

30's in Latin America (which produced La vor?gine, Do?a B?rbara, and

Don Segundo Sombra among others), Amado can be regarded as unique in

his capacity to join an erudite work of art with the local ambiance typical of "regular people" (Curran 112). Based on his strong socialistic inclina

tions, this personal and artistic attraction to workers' causes was inevitable.

However, the political dimension of Jorge Amado's aesthetic approach is

only one of many critical considerations to investigate in his creative ven

tures.5 This socialistic element lends an important thematic motivation to

the novel Jubiab?, moreover, and the multiple studies of its impact on the

totality of this work succeed in confirming its influence on the character of

Balduino above all.6 The majority of these critical studies and their treat

ment of Balduino are frequently governed by the binary elements which are

encouraged in this political approach. The city and the country, Salvador's

striking workers and their bosses, capitalism and socialism, and written and

oral cultural discourses are some of the opposing forces that battle within

analyses spawned by this novel. Yet, it is difficult for just one side of these



Orality's Revenge: Jubiab? and the Defiance of the ""Lettered City" 51

binary opposites to explain the vital state of cultural hybridity which its

protagonist inhabits.

According to N?stor Garc?a Canclini, a hybrid culture is located be

tween various kinds of borders (geographical, linguistic, etc.) instead of

belonging to only one sociopolitical or sociocultural category (15). Once

again, Antonio Balduino represents this condition before the advancement

of its formal definition. He often negotiates the physical "no man's land"

between the Morro and Salvador. As beggar and sambista, he survives

through capitalist exchanges but his role in the factory strike indicates a

socialist perspective as well.7 Finally, Balduino's sambas and in particular, the ABC, composed and subsequently published for his hero Zumbi dos

Palmares, dramatize the ambiguous position Balduino occupies between

the literary zone of the lettered city and the more illiterate neighborhoods of

popular orality: "Jubiab? arranjou com seu Jer?nimo do mercado que o ABC

sa?sse na Biblioteca do Povo (colet?nea das melhores poes?as sertanejas, trovas populares, historias, modinhas, recitativos, ora?oes, receitas ?teis,

anedotas, etc., ao pre?o de 200 r?is) [...] foi decorado pelos estivadores do

cais, pelos mestres de saveiros [...], pelos malandros da cidade, por todos

os negros" (Amado 255). At the same time, the ABC celebrating the heroic

life of Balduino and closing the novel only affirms this defiant mixture of

orality within a canonical Brazilian text.

The culminating ABC of Jubiab? dedicated to Antonio Balduino is

revealing for both its epic and symbolic consequences. As a written document,

this ABC enjoys the advantage of inscribing Balduino's famous deeds in a

more exactly reproducible medium than oral songs are capable of doing. Yet, the previous hopes held by Balduino regarding his future ABC uncover the

oral roots of the epic genre as well: "Por?m, um dia aquele h?rnern [Anisio

Pereira] ir? escrever o ABC de Antonio Balduino, um ABC heroico, onde

cantar?a as aventuras de um negro livre" (Amado 111). The writing of his

personal history certainly inhabits a central part of Balduino's dream. On

the other hand, the mode of sharing the ABC is still expressed in terms of

the verb "cantar." It is possible to capture Balduino's exceptional existence

in lettered form, but the transmission and consumption of this narrative

remain clearly oral activities in his imagination: "Negro valente e brig?o/ Desordeiro sem pureza/ mas bom de cora?ao" (Amado 331). Above all, the ideas of transformation and resistance in these lines appear to represent the most open defiance of the hegemonic power of (epic) writing. Violence

surely constitutes a basic and necessary characteristic of epic literature, and therefore, the element of chaos associated with Balduino's ABC is not

out of place. Conversely, the lack of "pureza" in this heroic figure under

mines the immaculate image of the epic protagonist. The hybrid condition




of Balduino's character has once again confused the classic poetic limits

of the epic hero. Not only is this sambista a transformative literary agent, but he is also a frightening one for the lettered elites. Balduino's ability to introduce various organic examples of orality in Brazil's written circles

will not disappear with his passing. However, the tragic death of Balduino

in his ABC seems to briefly attack this importance of orality by virtue of

the possible deadening effect of writing.

Increasingly, print succeeds in immobilizing the sonorous element

of words in favor of elevating their visual signifiers. Ong adds one more

cautionary note in the face of this Western infatuation with writing: "One

of the most startling paradoxes inherent in writing is its close association

with death. This association is suggested in Plato's charge that writing is

inhuman, thing-like, and that it destroys memory" (80). By the end of the

novel Jubiab?, it is understood that Antonio Balduino's ABC can only

originate from the death of this celebrated character. In fact, the last two

verses of this ABC give the public a tantalizing hint about their hero's dra

matic death: "morreu de morte matada/ mas ferido a trai?ao" (Amado 331). Could Balduino's death correspond to the "extinction of orality" that his

sambas seem to suffer on Salvador's radio waves? Yet, the loss of orality that appears to be located in Balduino's ABC cannot, in the final analysis, be so easily linked with the protagonist's death in Jubiab?.

Although the epic summary of Antonio Balduino's life depends on the

sense of permanence that writing makes possible, there are at least three

oral aspects that are implicitly associated with this ABC as well. First, the

sambista's death itself resists any ordinary poetic treatment. It is not easy to kill this hero of the people; he only ceases to live due to the coldblooded

efforts of traitors. In other words, the monumental death of Balduino is sug

gestive in light of Ong's proposal regarding the epic necessity to include

marvelous characters and incidents in order to guarantee their repetition in

future oral works (69). The graphic transcription of this ABC does protect the protagonist's successes for eternity, but the unjust and violent end of

his life encourages its own oral and popular version as well. Second, the

alliteration of the last two lines of this ABC forges another important con

nection between its written version and its oral origins. For example, these

verses obey a number of deeper principles of orality in the sense that the

central topic of this section (death itself) and its initial letter in Portuguese

("m") are also capable of encouraging the remembrance of other factors in

the death of Balduino. The description "morreu de morte matada" utilizes

alliteration to underline the betrayal behind this death while at the same time

employing the binary verbs morrer/matar to reinforce the termination of the

epic work and the life of Balduino. Finally, the thoroughly epic component




of exaggeration represents the last oral device that invades the written limits

of this ABC. Violent as the death of Balduino may be, this dramatic written

end reaches ridiculous heights with the killing of death itself. Memory and

its ability to preserve specific details are only enhanced by this technique of accumulation. Nevertheless, the public that enjoys this ABC proves to

be the most provocative evidence of the oral flavor that persists throughout the pages of Jubiab?.

The erudite privilege that defines the members of the lettered city is

indirectly questioned by the personal, illiterate backgrounds of the various

consumers of Antonio Balduino's ABC. In contrast, it is also possible that

the "readers" of this cultural product are incapable of actually understand

ing it without the assistance of a more literate individual: "[...] ? vendido

nos cais, nos saveiros, nas feiras [...] a camponeses mocos, marinheiros

alvos, a jovens carregadores dos cais do porto, a mulheres que amam os

camponeses e os marinheiros e anegros tatuados [...]" (Amado 331). Many

(if not all) of the individuals mentioned in this passage are not noted for

their literary talents, and directly defy an elite characterization in general. Similar to the traditional, public consumption of the original literatura de

cordel, Balduino's textual ABC welcomes an oral, communal audience.8

Furthermore, the material manifestation of this epic work will be distributed

in the city of Salvador itself, and this symbolic confusion of the lettered

traditions of this urban center and the rural, auditory poetic representations

typical of Brazil's Northeast confirms the continued consolidation of oral

forces within Latin America's literary circles (Slater, Stories on a String

1). This questioning of the hegemonic power exercised by the lettered

city upon the continent's other cultural voices is even extended to more

corporeal considerations. Indeed, hybrid discourses are the rule of the day

among almost exclusively oral cultural consumers as well: "[...] e a negros

tatuados, de largo sorriso, que trazem ou urna ancora, ou um cora?ao e um

nome gravado no peito" (Amado 331). The presence of these names inscribed

on bodies of the illiterate population only aggravates the mixing of literary and oral worlds in Jubiab?. Ultimately, the revelation of this multitude of

oral elements in Antonio Balduino's ABC serves as the final dramatization

of an aesthetic process of hybridization that this work of "high literature"

demonstrates admirably. For critics of Latin American narrative, the theoretical image of the

lettered city is a durable one. It encapsulates the power (administrative, po

litical, cultural, etc.) that an exclusive, literate group is capable of imposing

upon the majority of their nations' populations. These links of control that

fill the literary history of rural and urban interactions is illuminated well

by Raymond Williams: "[...] whenever I consider the relations between




country and city [...] I find this history active and continuous: the relations

are not only of ideas and experiences, but of rent and interest, of situation

and power [...]" (7). The most pressing theoretical difficulty in this context

is the following: what is the current (aesthetic) state of the Latin American

city? In the case of Brazil, it is impossible to avoid the hybridity that flows

through its suburbios and cities alike. Likewise, the mixed population of

the Morro and Antonio Balduino's character in Amado's Jubiab? call at

tention to the serious cultural influence that this heroic figure and his oral

legacy thrust upon the (lettered) city of Salvador. Regardless of the political issues raised by the voices of illiterate and working people in the novel, the

oral cultural tendencies of this often illiterate population and its survival in

Brazil's elite discourses require more critical investigation. Truly, Jubiab?

offers a hybrid example of cultural resistance recognized in the model of

Latin America's lettered city. Its shouts become clearer by the day.

NOTES

1 Of particular importance is Mark J. Curran's article "Influencia da Literatura

de Cordel na Literatura Brasileira," Revista Brasileira de Folclore 8(1968): 111 -22.

Also deserving of critical attention is Candace Slater's "New Directions in Latin

American Oral Traditions," Latin American Literary Review 20 (1992): 99-103.

Finally, a more detailed study of orality and Brazilian literature in the figure of the

folheto is found in Slater's book Stories on a String: The Brazilian Literatura de

Cordel (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982). 2 The ABC is an important theme in a variety of critical studies based on Ju

biab?. As a possible expression of the city's popular classes, see Andrea Ciacchi's

article "A irresistivel ascens?o de Antonio Balduino," Quaderni ibero-americani

74 (1993): 95-104. Also, the connections between the ABC and its medieval echoes

are explored in Malcolm Silverman's "Allegory in Two Works of Jorge Amado," Romance Notes 13.1 (!971): 67-70.

3 In Jorge Amado: Romance em tempo de utopia (Natal: Editora Universitaria,

1995), Eduardo de Assis Duarte conceptualizes this opposition between the Morro

and Salvador as one in which innocence faces corruption and evil in general. In

the case of Balduino, Duarte contends that his exploration of the city is necessary in order to affirm his personal worth (96).

4 Still, despite this increasing presence of mass media-dominated discourses

and the sense of orality that they promise, the overwhelmingly written urban

chronicle continues to exert a formidable grip on the collective imagination of

Latin American consumers. For a study of the chronicler's changing role and of

an overall cultural challenge to the hegemony of the Latin American lettered city, see Jean Franco's The Decline and Fall of the Lettered City: Latin America in the

Cold War (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2002).




5 Indeed, Amado's presentation of Afro-Brazilian religion as more of a per

formance rather than a more profound way of life is examined in Jason Summers's

"Aspectos de la representaci?n de las religiones afro-americanas en los textos

negristas y afro-hispanos," Monographie Review/Revista Monogr?fica 15 (1999): 130-44.

6 To explore the relations between politics and poverty in general in Jubiab?, see Andrea Ciacchi's "A irresistivel ascens?o de Antonio Balduino," Quaderni ibero-americani 74 (1993): 95-104. Also, Balduino's political development is ex

amined in detail in Fernando Cristovao's "Jubiab?, ou a pedagogia da revolu?ao,"

Quaderni ibero-americani 74 (1993): 25-34. 7 The application of Amado's socialist ideas to an aesthetic development of

a collective and Brazilian class-based battle in the figure of Antonio Balduino in

Jubiab? is studied in Eduardo de Assis Duarte's "Jorge Amado e o 'Bildungsroman'

proletario," Quaderni ibero-americani 74 (1993): 35-42. 8 The merging of these popular elements with the Afro-Brazilian cultural tra

dition of the macumba in the character of Jubiab? himself is noted in David Tul lio

Russo's "Bahia, Macumba and Afro-Brazilian Culture in Jorge Amado's Jubiab?',"

Western Review 6.1 (1969): 53-58. Also, this connection of popular components in the novel with a moment of transition in Amado's general literary evolution is

studied in Carmen M. Radulet's "Cordel, samba e macumba in Jubiab? di Jorge

Amado," La Letteratura Latino Americana e La Sua Problem?tica Europea (Roma:

Istituto ?talo-Latino Americano, 1978): 317-22.

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