The introduction by Benjamin Moser to Chronicle of the murdered house: literary biography and the valorization of frivolous information

Abstract

In recent years, Brazilian literature has gained more and more space in the international market. The present article analyses the interpretative and biographical considerations made by the critic Benjamin Moser regarding the publication in English of the novel Chronicle of the murdered house, by Lucio Cardoso translated by Margaret Jull Costa and Robin Patterson, using Charlie Rosen’s notions (which, in turn, are based on Walter Benjamin’s criticism) which place biography at the center of interpretation of a literary work of art. This analysis highlights and problematizes a given project developed by Moser, which is devised under the sign of biographical writing, giving it a personal touch that hardly considers the actual content of the novel.