A contemporaneidade de Monteiro Lobato

Abstract

In this article we will discuss Monteiro Lobato’s contemporaneousness, having as a starting-point Giorgio Agamben’s ideas about what means to be a contemporaneous author. So, we will talk about the singularity and the innovator aspect in Monteiro Lobato’ s work. We will analyse
O Nascimento do Visconde, a fragment of Reinações de Narizinho. The story takes place in a rural space where fantasy and reality dialogue and everything is possible: toys acquire life and take part in the adventures of other characters. We will verify how some heroes, inserted in this magic world,
become ambiguous. So, we will base our work on the ideas exposed by Regina Zilberman, Marisa Lajolo, Nelly Novaes Coelho, Cecília Meireles and other authors. Some considerations about the origins of juvenile literature, and its advent in Brazil will propitiate a better comprehension of the
work of Monteiro Lobato, who transformed his character Emilia into a symbol of irreverence and transgression to the patterns of his time, concerning the characters of literary productions addressed to the juvenile reader.