Mario de Andrade; from Mademoiselle Iolanda to Fräulein Elza

Abstract

This article aims at analysing the aesthetic transformation of Mário de Andrade's works, from de short story "Brasilia", part of the book Primeiro Andar (First Floor), up to the novel Amar, verbo intransitivo (To love, intransitive verb), caused by a Dionysiac process, as discussed in the book The Origin of Tragedy, by Nietzsche. At least two years separate those novels. The recognition, as Brazilians, of our culture was the greatest concern of Mário de Andrade's modernism. This concern influenced his aesthetics, leading to the substitution of the character Iolanda, a French woman present in the short story "Brasilia", for the German Fräulein Elza in the novel Amar, verbo intransitivo (To love, intransitive verb). Other features of this substitution, as a well as the approach between Mário de Andrade and Nietzsche, will also be part of our discussion.