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Finding Aid for the Literatura de Cordel collection, ca. 1970-1995
1420
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Title: Literatura de Cordel collection
Date (inclusive): ca. 1970-1995
Collection number: 1420
Extent:
24 boxes (12 linear ft.)
Abstract: Boxes 1-19 include a collection of 4100 Brazilian popular literary pamphlets known as "literature de cordel," a favorite reading
of many in the country, especially in the Northeast. Genres in the collection include religious, romance, profane tales, and
pelejas.
Language: Finding aid is written in
English.
Repository:
University of California, Los Angeles. Library Special Collections.
Los Angeles, California 90095-1575
Physical location: Stored off-site at SRLF. Advance notice is required for access to the collection. Please contact UCLA Library Special Collections
for paging information.
PARTIALLY PROCESSED COLLECTION UNAVAILABLE FOR USE: except for boxes 1-19. Inquiries regarding these materials should be directed,
in writing, to the Manuscripts Librarian, UCLA Library Special Collections.
Restrictions on Use and Reproduction
Property rights to the physical object belong to the UC Regents. Literary rights, including copyright, are retained by the
creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue the copyright
owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.
[Identification of item], Literatura de Cordel collection (Collection Number 1420). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles
E. Young Research Library, UCLA.
The Brazilian stories in verse called
folhetos or
literatura de cordel ("stories on a string") have for nearly a century been the primary reading material of the underclasses in the coventry's
Northeast (mainly Pariba, Bahia, Ceará, Pernambuco, and Rio Grande do Norte), an area that contains approximatelyone third
of Brazil's total population. today, this literature is among the world's richest and most varied heirs to the vernacular
tradition of centuries old oral balladry, the European, and more specifically Portuguese Chapbook (including written ballads
and astrological almanacs), religious material such as biblical stories and the medieval exemplum, and various African and
Brazilian Native American elements.
Though in some respect
cordel literature is similar to other pamplet-book or market literature that has appeared at various times in the cultural history
of Europe, Africa, Asia and the Americas, it is nevertheless uniquely Brazilian. In Brazil, poets originally called their
stories
folhetos ("pamphlets"). About a decade ago, however, due to the growing number of middle-class visitors, they adopted as their own
the term
literatura de cordel, which was for centuries a Portuguese rather than a Brazilian term referring to the manner in which booklets were frequently
suspended from lines (
cordel means "cord" or "string") stretched between two posts.
The
cordel origins probably go back well beyond the nineteenth century. Its evolution is, however, difficult to trace. This is due in
part to the fact that the first available Northeastern
cordels date back only to the 1890s. Furthermore, prior to 1900 there are few references to vernacular cultural forms such as the
cordel. Interest in vernacular culture was limited to only a few individuals until the time of the nationalist impulse sparked by
romanticism in the first half of the nineteenth century. Even then, for the most part, the Brazilian urban intellectual and
cultural elite, which traditionally looked toward Western Europe for its cultural inspiration, took relatively little interest
in either vernacular culture or in isolated regions such as the Northeast in which the
cordel thrived. It was not until the Neo-Romantic revival of nationalist sentiment during the late nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries that a significant number of individuals of the elite cultural and intellectual sectors began to take a serious
interest in vernacular tradition. In the face of the leveling forces of cultural entropy spawned by urbanism, industrialization
and mass culture, these individuals came to see in the
cordel, along with other vernacular cultural forms, a uniquely Brazilian form of expression.
Playwrights, actors, painters and musicians frequently base their work on cordel literature. Such internationally recognized
Brazilian authors as Joã Guimarães Posa, Jorge Amado, Ariano Saussuna, and Joã Cabrao de Melo Neto, to mention only a few
of the more obvious examples, have incorporated elements of the
cordel into their writings. The interest in the vernacular initiated by such individual from the intellectual and cultural elite
is now part of a more widespread movement that encompasses the middle class at large. Psychologists, historians, doctors interested
in publicizing health measure, politicians, and religious leaders seek out the
cordel as a medium for reaching vast numbers of people. Consequently,
cordel literature is important not only in its own right as a vernacular cultural expression, but also for its broader influence
on twentieth century Brazilian society and culture as a whole. It is at once a form of entertainment and didacticism, which
reflects and perhaps at times influences the warp and woof of socio-economic, political, cultural and intellectual changes
in Brazil.
Boxes 1-19 include a collection of 4100 Brazilian popular literary pamphlets known as "literature de cordel," a favorite reading
of many in the country, especially in the Northeast. Genres in the collection include religious, romance, profane tales, and
peletas.
Generally, the
cordel measures four by six and a half inches, and is composed of eight, sixteen, thity-two or (less frequently) sixty-four pages
of six or seven-line stanzas. It is printed on newspaper-weight paper, with fourfold pages and is sold uncut. The typical
cordel cover is a pastel and contains a photograph or engraving which frequently, but not always, relates to the
cordel's subject matter. Most often, the author's or publisher's name, or both, appears above the title. A likeness of the poet, along
with various advertisements of a commercial nature, frequently appear on the back.
There exist a variety of systems for classifying cordel literature based on subject matter, structure, form, etc. The following
four-category classification of UCLA's Special Collections holdings of 4100 cordel booklets is to some extent a variation
on the system devised by Candace Slater in her
Stories on a String, the Brazilian "Literatura de Cordel" (University of California Press: 1982), which is an invaluable reference tool for anyone seeking an indepth study of the
cordel. This four-category division, however, is not intended to be as exhaustive as Ms. Slater's system. Rather, its purpose
is to provide the user with an immediate and simple means of accessing material based on general subject matter in three categories
-- (Religious Stories, Love Stories and Profane Stores) --- and a fourth, genre category -- Pelejas (Poetic Contests).
Religious Stories. Deals with religious or sacred subject matter, or with mundane topics viewed from a religious point of view, the primary
purpose being that of edification and religious education by example. Includes stories dealing with the Lives of the Saints,
miracles, prophecies -- particularly relating to the End of the World --, stories based on the Scriptures, or religious figures
such as Frei Damião, Padre Cicéro, etc.
Love Stories. Deals with amorous subject matter with either a profane or religious slant. Most commonly, the latter depict starcrossed
lovers who pass through a series of trieals which almost destroys either one or both of them. Their religious faith and/or
sacred love bond, however, protects them. Variations on this type of story are those involving bravery, in which the hero
or heroine is rewarded with marriage and/or great wealth at the story's end.
Profane Stories. Included in this category are all other stories that do not deal specifically with amorous or religious subject matter,
or that have a religiousintent; this, despite the fact that many open with a religious invocation and/or close with a religious
benediction. At times, the content of the profane story is satirical or comical. At other times, it is simply an anecdotal
or mundane relation about bandits ("Lampião"), crimes, wars, natural catastrophies, disasters, elections, social conditions,
and various other stories or contemporary or past global, national or regional figures and events, be they real, legendary,
or mythical in nature.
Pelejas ("Poetic Contests"). Stories in which two or more less evenly matched competitors seek to outdo each other in questions of objective knowledge
and verbal skill.
Pelejas may be profane, religious, or amorous in nature. What defines the peleja regardless of subject matter is its title...
Peleja ... (less frequently "Discussão" or "Debates") and/or its dialogue-like form.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.
Chapbooks Brazil.