The Arvon Foundation

During an evening of casual internet perusing, I came across a recent press release issued by Arvon Director Ariane Koek about plans with the British Council to help initiate a literary movement native to Brazil. At issue is the country’s enduring tradition of music and oral culture that continues to dampen its literary ambitions. Specifically, Sao Paolo is marked by an aesthetic and physical confluence of extremes. It is both one of the most violent and one of the richest cities in the world where marbled balconies often loom above crowded shanties and traffic congested streets. As a cosmopolitan city with an array of nationalities represented, including Chinese, Jews, Arabs, and Italians, this part of the world is rife with the unwritten narrative of its peoples. Here, cultures and class hierarchies clash with as much vigor, if not more, as its European counterpart. One can’t help but wonder what exciting form of literature is waiting to emerge from such a turbulent environment. And who, in Brazil, will pioneer world literature as did, for example, Chimamanda Adichie, Andrei Codrescu, and Chinua Achebe for Benue, Romania, and Nigeria, respectively? I’ll therefore keep a close eye on the British Council’s activities and hope eagerly for a special voice to boldly burst from the literary enclaves of Brazil.