Reacção: sátira e anticlericalismo em uma revista literária gaúcha do início do século XX

Abstract

The anti-clerical thematic satirical poems were largely aimed at criticizing religious institutions for their great social and / or political influence. Despite being little known, in some moments of history, satirical and anticlerical poems have already had some relevance in literature and society. It is at the beginning of the 20th century, in Santa Maria, in Rio Grande do Sul, that you can see, there is no political genre, as well as a socialand political importance that it had. In this case, it was from personalities such as João Belém, Demétrio Niederauer, João Bonumá, Angelo Caldonazzi and Walter Jobin, all Freemasons, that a literary magazine entitled Reacção appeared, that circulated between the years 1915 to 1917 and with a total of 29 numbers preserved in the Edmundo Cardoso Hous of Memory. This magazine's main characteristic was to react to the Catholic Clergy. Anti-clerical themes varied: Catholic dogma, its religious festivals, its attitudes and what its priests preached were questioned. The writers dealt with specific topics, such as auricular confession, celibacy and the worship of divine sculptures, presented satirical epitaphs about real people of the city's clergy, questioned the wealth of the Vatican and the whole Church, etc. Many of these texts were signed by heteronyms, such as Zelador de cemitério (Cemetery Caretaker) and Belzebhu. Not only were the poems satirical, but almost all of the magazine's prose texts were also satirical. The Freemason authors of Reacção magazine, therefore, sought to clarify certain ideas and values that they defended and considered correct for comunity of Santa Marie, such as, for example, freedom of expression, science instead of religion, charity, among others. The magazine fulfilled its objectives, making use, therefore, of satirical texts, which criticized and mocked clerical subjects, attitudes of priests and the faithful. To analyze this satire found in the magazine Reacção, an analytical reading (based on Hansen, Lopes, Romeiro, Poletto and others ...) and a division by genres and themes was necessary. The focus was to observe and analyze the satirical poems in thematic and formal aspects and to understand what relations they had with the satirical convention. It was observed that these texts were close to the classical tradition due to the satirical epitaphs and other characteristics that bring them together, but it is also clear that the magazine's authors / writers were familiar with the literature that was ―in fashion‖ at the beginning of the 20th century, by following models of recognized Brazilian authors.