A literary art: The banquet of Mário de Andrade

Abstract

Mário de Andrade’s last work, O Banquete left incomplete by his death, included original literary uses of foods. Describing an elegant lunch, the author treated several problems faced by the creation of Brazilian erudite music in the decade of 1940. The tasting of each new delicacy offered to the guests of that peculiar banquet served to discuss problems related to the production and public reception of Brazilian musical activities. The choice of the menu wasn’t innocent at all. Contrasting savoury and less showy national dishes with seductive plates of a north-American world imposed by the intrusion of foreigners, Mário de Andrade demanded a better place for the national folklore, which should, according to him, constitute a source of inspiration for Brazilian composers of erudite music. Four of the five persons present at the banquet dealt with music: the hostess, very fond of the arts, a famous female singer, a politician responsible for funding artistic activities and a talented composer, non-conformist and poor. Accepting with greater or lesser enthusiasm the delicacies offered, each one of the guests defined its adhesion to national or American cultural values. By commenting their personal characteristics, Mário de Andrade succeeded in not portraying those persons as manipulated puppets. The analysis of that work in the context of the time it was composed, opened curious anthropological perspectives of thinking about the emergency of culinary as a relevant theme of ethno-historical studies.