Ana em Veneza

by João Silvério Trevisan

Veneza, verão de 1890. Três pessoas se encontram; Júlia, mãe de Heinrich e Thomas Mann, que passa férias com a família de Lübeck; a escrava negra Ana, antiga ama de Júlia; e o compositor brasileiro Alberto Nepomuceno. Eles falam sobre os seus passados, tão diferentes, sobre exílio, nacionalismo e terra natal, sobre identificação e identidade culturais, sobre a crise e os dilemas do 'fin-de-siècle. É uma ficção literária consciente, uma espécie de parábola, que aponta para a então nova crise de identidade cultural que levaria aos deslocamentos e à miscigenação globais dos povos no século XX.

658 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

João Silvério Trevisan (born June 23, 1944 in Ribeirão Bonito, São Paulo) is Brazilian author, playwright, journalist, screenwriter and film director. In his much-diversified oeuvres, he has published eleven books, among them great works of fiction, essays, short stories, and screenplays. Trevisan has been influential as a literary and cultural critic, particularly on gay and lesbian issues and his works have been translated into English, Spanish, and German.

Early in his career in 1970, Trevisan wrote and directed a feature film, Orgia ou o Homem que Deu Cria, which was censured by the Brazilian military regime for almost ten years. In 1976, however, Trevisan wrote his first book, Testamento de Jônatas Deixado a Davi, and in 1983, Em Nome do Desejo. He subsequently emerged as one of Brazil's more important literary figures due to the enormous quantity and quality of work produced over the course of his career on a variety of topics. In 2010, one of his many short stories, The Secret Friend, was adapted to a short film directed by Flavio Alves. The film was shot in Brooklyn, and entered more than 80 film festivals and won 21 awards all over the world, including Best of the Fest at Palm Springs International Film Festival, the Storyteller Award at Savannah Film Fetival, and the Van Gogh Award at the Amsterdam Film Festival, among others.

Trevisan's best-known literary work, Two Bodies in Vertigoo is part of the anthology The 100 Best Brazilian Story Tales of the Twentieth Century. He has been honored three times with Premix Jabuti, which is the most prestigious Brazilian literary award and three times with the Association of Art Critics of São Paulo (APCA) Award, as well as several other honors. Yet, despite the numerous awards and distinctions, his work has been ignored by the Brazilian mainstream media.

Between 1973 to 1976, Trevisan lived in Mexico and in the United States, where he had direct contact with the gay rights movement. Not surprisingly, in 1978, he founded, SOMOS, the first gay rights organization in Brazil and, in the same year, the first gay news publication, O Lampião da Esquina. In 1982, he started research for his book, Devassos no Paraiso (Perverts in Paradise), which became at the time the most comprehensive study of the history of homosexuality in Brazil.

He currently resides in São Paulo, Brazil.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jo%C3%A3...

Reviews

[Janne · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one I also read in portuguese. The story of the black slave of Julia Mann, Thomas Mann's mother. Julia was born in Brazil and grew up in Paraty until the age of 7, when her father moved the family to Lubeck. Ana went with them. Te story is interesting, but the author gets sidetracked and boring.

[Iris Gollner · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderfully involving book. One of Trevisan's themes is identity. He slowly and skillfully shows what happens to Ana's Portuguese in her exile in Germany. I'd like to know whether the decay of one's mother tongue has ever featured in fiction before.

[Francine Guilen · Rating 2 out of 5]

meu deus que canseira