DEBASING A PILLAR OF BRAZILIAN LITERATURE: DIOGO MAINARDI'S "POLÍGONO DAS SECAS"

[...]he has created a dynamic between himself and his readership that is symbiotic, if not parasitic. Many etymological interpretations of the term "sertäo" date its first usage in Brazil to early Portuguese colonial expansion, in which the term was used to describe uncharted inland territories. [...]the mid-twentieth century, the predominant usage of the term was in this general sense of "undeveloped lands." According to Lima, Brazilian regionalists' interest in the folklore of sertaneja culture dates from the café com leite dominance of political rule during the Old Republic (1889-1930), which resulted, effectively, in an expansion of positivist concepts of national identity (65-67). Polígono das Secas' allegation that romanticized portrayals of the sertâo and sertaneja culture have enjoyed a disproportionate focus in the construction of the national imagination is not overly controversial. [...]it is plausible that it is not what Mainardi is proposing, but rather his abrasive approach to the subject that is so irreverent.