Rio Grande do Sul as published by Livraria do Globo: Regionalist temporalities and publishing (1924-1960)

Resumo

In this article I intend to analyze the nexuses between the editorial project of Livraria do Globo, a publishing house of Porto Alegre, and gaúcho regionalism in Rio Grande do Sul in three temporalities: the heroic gauchismo of the 1920s; the critique and downward path of regionalism in the 1930s; and the return to themes and topics involving the South by local intelligentsia, with new criteria, after the end of the Estado Novo (1937-1945). The publication of regionalist books took up a significant proportion of the life of Livraria do Globo, fluctuating according to the interest of the public, the political situation, the development of the Brazilian market, and the relatively increased autonomy in the cultural field. On the one hand it can be said that, as a literary and for a while political movement, gaúcho regionalism depended almost exclusively on Globo’s investments in publishing, which enabled efforts to reconfigure this line ideologically and esthetically. On the other, we know that at least at two points in time (in the second half of the 1920s and the 1950s) regionalism gave the business considerable financial returns: first, together with the translated literature published for the masses, it supported the expansion of the editorial structure of the old bookstore, and then it ensured a dependable revenue in times of crisis.

Keywords: Editora Globo, gaúcho regionalism, History of Culture.