Rodrigo Tadeu Gonçalves
Professor of Classics at the Federal University of Paraná (UFPR-Brazil).
Professor Associado de Língua e Literatura Latina na UFPR, Pesquisador CNPq - nível 2, Pós-Doutorado Sênior - CNPq-UFMG 2021-22.
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/RodrigoTadeuGonçalves
Lattes CV: http://lattes.cnpq.br/0497560630462156
Academic site: https://aliaclassica.com
Professor Associado de Língua e Literatura Latina na UFPR, Pesquisador CNPq - nível 2, Pós-Doutorado Sênior - CNPq-UFMG 2021-22.
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/RodrigoTadeuGonçalves
Lattes CV: http://lattes.cnpq.br/0497560630462156
Academic site: https://aliaclassica.com
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https://grupoautentica.com.br/autentica/livros/sobre-a-natureza-das-coisas/2025
https://www.amazon.com.br/Sobre-Natureza-das-Coisas-Lucr%C3%A9cio/dp/6559280799/ref=rvi_5/139-4214272-9123822?pd_rd_w=G2wIU&pf_rd_p=efdee74a-69c9-4b49-9f9d-7952b2b8eb2e&pf_rd_r=HXT9EQA1Z337M3Y5E2B1&pd_rd_r=14727686-9499-4a00-9540-631ae8bde5ab&pd_rd_wg=JQSJ2&pd_rd_i=6559280799&psc=1
Publicado em parceria pelas editoras Cultura e Barbárie e n-1, com apoio do Poiesis — Organização Social de Cultura e da Casa Guilherme de Almeida.
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https://grupoautentica.com.br/autentica/livros/sobre-a-natureza-das-coisas/2025
https://www.amazon.com.br/Sobre-Natureza-das-Coisas-Lucr%C3%A9cio/dp/6559280799/ref=rvi_5/139-4214272-9123822?pd_rd_w=G2wIU&pf_rd_p=efdee74a-69c9-4b49-9f9d-7952b2b8eb2e&pf_rd_r=HXT9EQA1Z337M3Y5E2B1&pd_rd_r=14727686-9499-4a00-9540-631ae8bde5ab&pd_rd_wg=JQSJ2&pd_rd_i=6559280799&psc=1
Publicado em parceria pelas editoras Cultura e Barbárie e n-1, com apoio do Poiesis — Organização Social de Cultura e da Casa Guilherme de Almeida.
Keywords: Plautus; Amphitruo; Brazilian theatre; Metatheatre; Guilherme Figueiredo
Resumo: Este artigo apresenta em linhas gerais o dossiê e avalia sua relevância para a pesquisa atual na área dos estudos de recepção dos clássicos. Apresentamos o contexto discursivo em que os artigos se inscrevem, tanto individual quanto coletivamente, salientando os modos pelos quais eles reforçam, desafiam e expandem o horizonte crítico. Palavras-chave: Recepção dos Clássicos no Brasil; Literaturas Clássicas; Literatura Brasileira. This dossier 1 includes most papers presented on a panel organized at the 144th annual meeting of the Society for Classical Studies in Seattle (USA) in 2013. The panel was the first presented to an Anglophone audience that was devoted entirely to classical reception in Brazil. Following a panel organized at the same convention a year earlier under the title " Postcolonial Latin American adaptations of Greek and Roman drama, " the panel sought to raise awareness among classicists in the northern hemisphere about the classical tradition in Brazil. Despite the wide presence of works from ancient Greece and Rome in Brazilian literature, classical reception in Brazil is still largely unknown outside national academic boundaries. Since then the scholarly landscape has happily changed. There has been a growing number of panels and. 1 Konstantinos Nikoloutsos would like to thank Rodrigo Tadeu Gonçalves for the honor, and challenge, in extending the invitation to give a response to the panel from which this dossier emerged. Many thanks are due to Anastasia Bakogianni for the useful suggestions and criticism she provided when she acted as a referee for the journal New Voices in Classical Reception Studies, to which the papers were originally submitted.
Abstract: This article discusses the principles we have been adopting in our so-called "rhythmic translations" which try to emulate the rhythm of the ancient verse in Portuguese and presents some passages of the ongoing project of a full translation of Lucretius' De Rerum Natura in Brazilian dactylic hexameters.
The play is an excellent case study through which to examine the ways in which Greek tragedy and myth intermingle with nonclassical elements (cf. Pinto, 2009) and are used to suit the needs of a racial and social Brazilian context, filtered through the lens of a modern psychological discourse (Delfino et al., 2006). Although not a traditional rewriting of Greek Tragedy, one can identify some important topoi in the play. For instance, although every character has a meaningful Christian name, Virginia is cast as a white Medea (cf. Burlim, 2009), who kills her offspring, while Ismael wants to get rid of his otherness and be part of a white patriarchal society. Another Greek tragic element is a chorus of ten black women responsible for commenting and framing the scenes. Also, Elijah is a Christian Tiresias, a blind androgynous character, responsible for delivering a curse by Ismael's mother. Finally, Ismael can be seen as an inverted Oedipus, because not only he seduces his stepdaughter, but also kills her.
The main issue raised in the play is the fact that neither the black protagonist nor his white wife can cope with the underlying racial attitude of their society (cf. Moutinho, 2004; Fernandes 2008a,b; Moura, 2012). All complications arise from Ismael’s self-prejudice, and his desire to incorporate Virginia’s whiteness results in an isolated world. Their house (as opposed to Medea's palace in Euripides) is never reached by the sun, while Medea in Euripides escapes with her grandfather's chariot. Paradoxically, the breaking of the circle is also the re-enactment of its own beginning. In sum, Rodrigues redeploys Greek tragic themes, within his complex view of how historical Brazilian racial tensions imbricate the repression of primal human desire.
References:
Alves, Lourdes Kaminski & Leites, Wallisson Rodrigo. "O teatro de Nelson Rodrigues - a linguagem e a composição trágica em Anjo Negro." Travessias, vol. 3, n. 3, 2009. pp. 103-109.
Branco, Lucio Allemand. "O negro é um "outro": a representação dramática do negro no Brasil a partir da polêmica racial entre Nelson Rodrigues e o seu "sucessor" Plínio Marcos". Anais do XII Congresso Internacional da Associação Brasileira de Literatura Comparada (ABRALIC), Curitiba 2011.
Brookshaw, David. Raça e cor na literatura brasileira. Porto Alegre: Mercado Aberto, 1983.
Burlim, Lívia Aparecida. Anjo Negro e Medéia: tragédia nos trópicos. PhD Dissertation. São Paulo: PUC, 2009.
Delfino, Eliana Maria; Reis Filho, José Tiago; Foscarini, Sílvia Regina Gomes e Avelino, Wanda. "Anjo negro: gozo da cor". Estud. psicanal. 2006, n.29, pp. 89-93.
Fernandes, Florestan. A integração do negro na sociedade de classes. Vol. I: Ensaio de interpretação sociológica. São Paulo: Editora Globo, 2008a.
Fernandes, Florestan. A integração do negro na sociedade de classes. Vol. II: No limiar de uma nova era. São Paulo: Editora Globo, 2008b.
Lopes, Ângela Leite. Nelson Rodrigues: trágico então moderno. Rio de Janeiro, Editora UFRJ/Tempo Brasileiro, 1993.
Macintosh, Fiona. "Parricide versus Filicide: Oedipus and Medea on the Modern Stage" in Brown, Sarah Annes & Silverstone, Catherine (eds.). Tragedy in Transition. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2007.
Magaldi, Sábato. Nelson Rodrigues - dramaturgia e encenações. São Paulo: Perspectiva, 2000.
Magaldi, Sábato. Teatro da obsessão: Nelson Rodrigues. São Paulo: Global, 2004.
Mendes, Miriam Garcia. O negro e o teatro brasileiro (entre 1889 e 1982). São Paulo: Hucitec, 1993.
Motta, Gilson. O espaço da tragédia: na cenografia brasileira contemporânea. São Paulo: Perspectiva, 2011.
Moura, Christian Fernando dos Santos. "A brutal solidão negra no paraíso racial: a representação do negro no teatro brasileiro moderno a partir da leitura da peça Anjo negro, de Nelson Rodrigues" Pitágoras 500, vol. 3, 2012.
Moutinho, Laura. "'Raça', sexualidade e gênero na construção da identidade nacional: uma comparação entre Brasil e África do Sul". cadernos pagu (23), 2004. pp. 55-88.
Nascimento, Abdias do. Dramas para negros, prólogos para brancos. Rio de Janeiro: Teatro Experimental do Negro, 1961.
Ons, Carolina. "Nelson Rodrigues e a censura teatral". Anagrama, ano 2, vol. 2, 2009
Passos, Juliana da Silva. Entre Evas e Marias: a representação feminina em Dorotéia. Master's thesis. Curitiba: UFPR, 2009.
Picchia, Menotti del. "Anjo Negro" in Rodrigues, Nelson. Teatro Completo. Rio de Janeiro: Nova Aguilar, 1994.
Pinto, Liliane Negrão. Nelson Rodrigues e o espetáculo trágico do castigo: a moralização cristã em Álbum de Família, Anjo Negro, Dorotéia e Senhora dos Afogados. Master's thesis. Campinas: Unicamp, 2009.
Prado, Décio de Almeida. O teatro brasileiro moderno. São Paulo: Perspectiva, 1975.
Rabelo, Adriano de Paula. Formas do trágico moderno nas obras teatrais de Eugene O'Neill e de Nelson Rodrigues. PhD dissertation. São Paulo: USP, 2004.
Ribeiro, Violeta. A respeito de 'Anjo Negro'. Correio da Manhã, Rio de Janeiro, 11 abril 1948. Enciclopédia Cultural da Literatura Brasileira.
Rodrigues, Nelson. Teatro completo de Nelson Rodrigues. Vol. 2. Rio de Janeiro: Nova Fronteira, 1981.
Rodrigues, Nelson. The theater of Nelson Rodrigues. 2 volumes. Selected and arranged by Joffre Rodrigues. Rio de Janeiro: Funarte, 2001.
Rodrigues, Nelson. Nelson Rodrigues por ele mesmo. Org. Sonia Rodrigues. Rio de Janeiro: Nova Fronteira, 2012.
Souto, Carla. Nelson Rodrigues: o inferno de todos nós. Araraquara: Junqueira & Marin, 2007.
Szondi, Peter. Ensaio sobre o trágico, Rio de Janeiro: Jorge Zahar, 2004.
Gonçalves during the Latin Language courses at UFPR during 2015. The poem 63, related to the rite of the mother goddess Cybele, was composed with the galliambic meter, whose complexity is significant for the frenzied worship of the goddess, and this feature determined the option for a translation that maintains this rhythmic scheme. The work incorporates recent
discussions about translation and performance, mainly from the studies and projects developed by the two teachers involved, Rodrigo Tadeu Gonçalves and Guilherme Gontijo Flores, and their experiences with performative translation, rewriting, adaptation and translation of Greek and Roman Literatures in the Brazilian context. The Latin text used is Peter Green’s edition (2005), which also tried to recreate the different rhythms of Catullus in English.
Preview in Google Books: https://books.google.com.br/books?id=OybvoQEACAAJ&lpg=PP1&hl=pt-BR&pg=PA232#v=onepage&q&f=false
Scholarship on this play is minimal. Romano (1998) claims that Sastre's play is one of the first rewritings of Plautus to go back to the metatheater of the Roman palliata through the extensive use of non-realist devices. Diez (2010) compares Plautus and Sastre regarding infidelity, the role of women (Juno turns the tables on Jupiter in a very innovative way at the end of the play) and some technical devices, such as the rupture of dramatic illusion, but her analysis goes no further. Bertini (2010) has produced one of the few books about Amphitruo and the theme of doubling which deals with modern plays, and his analysis of Sastre's play puts it in the context of the recent rewritings of the 20th and 21st centuries.
The main point to be developed is that, differently from other more recent rewritings of Plautus' play, such as Norberto Ávila's Uma noite sobre a cama ("A cloud over the bed"), first staged in 1991, Antonio Abelaira's 1980s made-for-TV Anfitrião, outra vez ("Amphitryon, again") and even Guilherme Figueiredo's Um deus dormiu lá em casa ("A god slept here"), first staged in 1949 (although Gonçalves 2012 defends it as a very important twist in the myth's lineage), Sastre's play actually achieves a high degree of general metatheatrical effect via not only the usual breaks in dramatic illusion, anachronisms, literary allusions (the main points in Romano's argument), but the Spanish playwright actually transcends the limits of realist classical theater by producing a marked return to ancient metatheater in a coherent reception of the Plautine metatheatrical framework. His clever use of lector et auctor in fabula (e.g. Mercurio complains to the author about a very severe anachronism, and the author himself answers in the play with a ""don't worry", cf. Sastre, 1995:33, among other examples I intend to analyze), his constant references to the very performance that is being staged (in the famous first dialogue of Sosia-Mercurio, the slave speaks Latin, and the god reminds him that the play they are in is actually a translation, cf. Sastre, 1995:62), and even his literary and comic stage directions (longer passages will be presented) blur the lines of modern dramatic conventions, creating a postmodern equivalent reception of Plautine metatheater. The argument is that a performance-translation-rewriting of this kind is one of the first to be able to reinstate the contradiction of a play which is and is not a translation and is and is not an original at the same time, such as is the case in Plautus (which, for instance, frequently mentions his model as the play is being staged, but with a new, Latin name (cf. e.g. Pl. Asin. 10-13: "huic nomen graece Onagost fabulae; / Demophilus scripsit, Maccus vortit barbare; / Asinariam volt esse, si per vos licet"). Sastre, like Plautus, creates anew what is being retold, making a kind of hybrid theater which is radically new and old at the same time. A thorough analysis of this kind of rewriting via new models of performance can shed new light on the old texts, allowing for a more diverse and meaningful study and teaching of the ancient texts, and all the more so when one considers the lack of modern rewritings of ancient Roman Comedy which actually manage to achieve so sophisticated a level of metatheater, one of the fundamental touchstones of the Roman palliata, which Sastre achieves through a kind of palimpsestic collapse of different traditions, hypotexts and devices.
Figueiredo’s play does not figure in comprehensive studies of the reception of Plautus' Amphitruo (Lindberger 1956; Margotton & Huby-Gilson 2010; Ferry 2011), with the exception of Bertini (2010), who considers it "the most revolutionary of all re-elaborations of the Amphitruo theme." Even in Brazilian scholarship, studies on this particular play by Figueiredo are very meager, with the exception of Cardoso (1996), Gonçalves (2012) and Gomes (2012). Some important Brazilian theater critics mention him briefly in their studies on Brazilian drama, usually in a positive way (cf. Prado 1988 and Magaldi 2004). In view of the almost complete lack of information and scholarship on Figueiredo, I intend to discuss the most important characteristics of his play, as well as some of his own theater criticism, published as a series of dialogues entitled Xantias.
Although Figueiredo wrote and performed, even in Europe and in the United States, other plays with ancient themes (cf. his retelling of Satyricon's Milesian tale on the widow of Ephesus, Sat. 110.3-113.1), A God Slept Here should be praised for its unique treatment of the plot of its model. Its most peculiar trait is the total absence of the gods as characters: possessed by jealousy roused by a prophecy from Tiresias which said that a man would sleep in his house the night he was supposed to go to war against the Teleboans, Amphitryon decides to leave briefly with Sosia, only to return immediately, both disguised as Jupiter and Mercury pretending to be disguised as Amphitryon and Sosia. The main themes of the play consequently shift to Amphitryon’s impiety, lack of rhetorical skills, cowardice and jealousy. A very unique treatment is given to Alcmene, as well: she is very pious and constantly complains about her husband's social faux pas, but she is also coquettish, almost wanting to be possessed by a different, more powerful man, or even a god. Amphitryon's homecoming, then, can be seen as a self-fulfilling prophecy, which gives rise to a brilliant use of metatheater culminating in an aporetic ending, in which the general's farce will force him to choose between being a war deserter or a cuckold.
The main questions to be debated are: the important ways in which we seem to have a double layer of metatheater (characters disguised as gods disguised as themselves), which is used to create interesting comic effects through slips of the tongue, false starts, and, as the situation gets more complicated (especially in Act II), multiple attempts by "Jupiter-Amphitryon" to leave the role and put an end to the farce, all interpreted by Alcmene as attempts to reinforce the role of god; the radical reinterpretation of the roles of husband and wife, the former in a lowered, stooge-like manner, and the latter in a complex new portrayal of Alcmene as a mid-20th century urban woman, very self-aware and liberated; and finally, the fact that, by removing the gods altogether, Figueiredo seems to reanalyze the possibilities of the myth itself. There are no gods, but the only possible solution to the aporia at the end of the play is a deus ex machina: Amphitryon has to acknowledge, before the angry mob which came to kill Alcmene for being unfaithful, that it was Jupiter that visited his house, thus creating the myth.
The aforementioned novelties in the treatment of the Plautine model will be discussed in relation to the Brazilian post-war period of re-democratization from 1945 to 1964, the year of the overthrow of the military government, and in the context of national modernist drama.
Thus, very important questions of translation and adaptation arise, such as: (i) the gods themselves are absent from the play: the tradition established by Plautus’ text depends heavily upon the metatheatrical problems raised by Mercury and Jupiter’s transformation into Sosia and Amphitryon’s doubles – no previous adaptation of Plautus has discarded the gods as characters, in a long line that includes Vital de Blois, Shakespeare, Molière, Camões, Dryden, Kleist and the two Giraudoux, for example. The metatheater is transferred to the self-awareness shown by the pair of deceivers when they discuss the best way of interpreting the gods interpreting themselves. Therefore, we have a double layer of metatheater; (ii) the myth developed by Plautus into a peculiar comedy (considering the conventions of the New Comedy) is built by Figueiredo with a close relationship to the cycle of the House of Thebes, including Tiresias, Creon, and several references to Oedipus’ unfortunate family. Moreover, tragedy is present as a butt for parody in an interesting way, since the myths around the House of Thebes set the main background for the play, introducing the possibility of a cross-over of genres in a new way for the Amphitruo tradition, and finally, (iii) the absence of the gods has an important consequence for the myth of the birth of Hercules: in spite of the fact that every detail of the cycle of Thebes is mentioned, there can be no Hercules. As a consequence, the main theme of the play – jealousy – leads to a grim conclusion: Alcmena, herself a very different character from Plautus’ on account of her unchaste and vain nature, is accused of infidelity by the whole town, which leads to Amphitryon’s final public lie that the real Jupiter was in his house, to protect his honor for being absent from war because of jealousy.
Based on these three points, this paper aims at analyzing Figueiredo’s play in relation to the problems of adaptation, translation and rewriting discussed by Robinson (2003) and Lefevere (2007), as well as regarding the problems of the theory of literary genres as discussed by Bakhtin (1993), Conte (1994), Schaeffer (1989), among others. This paper is part of a wider project of studying translations as more powerful performative acts capable of establishing a literary tradition and new genres.