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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
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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
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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.
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46 Latin American Literary Review
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
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Orality's Revenge: Jubiab? and the Defiance of the "Lettered City" 47
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
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48 Latin American Literary Review
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
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Orality's Revenge: Jubiab? and the Defiance of the "Lettered City" 49
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
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50 Latin American Literary Review
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
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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
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52 Latin American Literary Review
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
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Orality's Revenge: Jubiab? and the Defiance of the "Lettered City" 53
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
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54 Latin American Literary Review
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).
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Orality's Revenge: Jubiab? and the Defiance of the "Lettered City" 55
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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