Antes do Baile Verde (1970)

Antes do Baile Verde (Before the Green Ball) is a Brazilian short story written by Lygia Fagundes Telles and originally published by Editora Bloch in 1970. It is considered one of the most important publications by the author, who began her career in the 1970s. The book brings together contemporary realist short stories of an intimate nature, reflecting characteristics of the third modernist generation and Concretism.

Composed of eighteen short stories, written between 1949 and 1969, the book deals with themes such as adultery, marital dissatisfaction, madness, and the demystification of family roles, with characters from middle-class urban Brazilian families who hide dramas and conflicts. Before the Green Ball was distributed under Emílio Garrastazu Médici, during the military dictatorship, and soon after it was published it won the International Women's Grand Prize for Foreign Short Stories.

Her short story work consolidated her career, earning her the Guimarães Rosa Prize in 1972 and the Coelho Neto Prize in 1973. In addition to this, other short stories by Lygia enabled her to be chosen for chair number sixteen of the Brazilian Academy of Letters, founded by Machado de Assis. In 1993, O Moço do Saxofone, one of the stories in Antes do Baile Verde, was adapted for television in an episode of the series Retrato de Mulher.

Background and context

Literary scope

Modernism in Brazil began with the Modern Art Week in 1922. One of its characteristics was the abandonment of past perspectives and formal freedom, bringing speech and writing closer together, even in the first generation, in which Oswald de Andrade, Mário de Andrade and Manuel Bandeira stood out. The existential concern of man in the world and his social relations gained ground in Brazilian literary production, clearly seen in the second modernist phase, in which Carlos Drummond de Andrade, Vinicius de Moraes, Cecília Meireles, Graciliano Ramos, Jorge Amado and Rachel de Queiroz, for example, reflected on the socio-political context of the time.

The socio-political scenario led to an even more explicit change in literature from 1945 onwards when the third generation began. João Cabral de Melo Neto published Morte e vida severina, a poetic work that criticized land concentration. In poetry, Concretism also stood out, an artistic movement that broke with lyricism and began to extend the meaning of poems to the typographic arrangement of words. Décio Pignatari and the brothers Augusto de Campos and Haroldo de Campos were some of the exponents of this movement.

Ferreira Gullar also took part in the concretist movement, but expanded the meanings of his poems through an engaged exposition in his texts. At the same time, Guimarães Rosa wrote Grande Sertão: Veredas, a work that gives voice to the sertanejo and describes, in monologue, the long journey of jagunços through Minas Gerais, Goiás and Bahia. Another post-modern writer, Clarice Lispector, exposed a recurring structure in her prose that would lead to the production of short stories: a character is in a routine condition and is disturbed by an event; some external element makes her return to normality (epiphany) and, with this, she "discovers" her true identity. The intimate poetry, stream of consciousness and feminine introspection also used by Lispector were used by Lygia Fagundes Telles throughout her literary career.

Social sphere

After the end of the World War II (1939–1945), the European continent began a gradual process of reconstruction during human destruction. Existentialist philosophy, therefore, stood out as an analysis of individual issues, especially with the start of the Cold War, which divided the world into two blocs: capitalist (led by the United States) and socialist (led by the Soviet Union). In Brazil, Getúlio Vargas resigned in 1945, after fifteen years in power, and then Eurico Gaspar Dutra won the elections, initiating a developmental policy in the country, on the side of the capitalist bloc. In 1951, Vargas returned to power democratically, but his term did not end because he committed suicide in 1954, in the face of scandals involving his name in the Tonelero Street bombing. In 1955, Juscelino Kubitschek proposed accelerated industrial growth and consequent urban growth; in 1960, Jânio Quadros was elected president, but resigned after controversy over his plans. With Quadros' resignation, his vice-president João Goulart took office and sought to implement left-wing policies.

The cultural scene reflected the changes that had taken place in society, especially the movement of people from the countryside to the city. The Teatro Brasileiro de Comédia (Brazilian Comedy Theater) was created in São Paulo, which revealed numerous actors (such as Grande Otelo, Dercy Gonçalves and Tônia Carrero); its repercussions led to the creation of the Companhia Cinematográfica Vera Cruz (Vera Cruz Film Company), a pioneer in Brazilian film production. Still in the media context, television, broadcast by Assis Chateaubriand in 1950, impressed the population and changed the country's artistic production.

The concept of "post-modernity" directed the focus of art towards human and social relations, due to the spread of the concepts of social class, ideology and egalitarianism. A new literary vision was further intensified by the counter-revolution, called for by conservative sectors of the Catholic Church, influential politicians, landowners, the industrial bourgeoisie and part of the middle class, by the Armed Forces to remove Goulart from power and establish what would become the military dictatorship, which began with the coup of 1964. As a response to the fierce censorship, marginal poetry and intimate-existentialist prose spread, including Antes do Baile Verde, by Lygia Fagundes Telles.