A Masters dissertation sheds light on a classic work of Spiritist poetry

Alexandre Caroli Rocha (photo), who lives in the Brazilian city of Belo Horizonte, in the state of Minas Gerais, has a degree, a Masters and a PhD in Literature from the prestigious UNICAMP university, in the city of Campinas. His Masters dissertation, from 2001, focused on a book of poetry that has become a classic in Brazilian Spiritist literature: Parnaso de Além-túmulo (Afterlife Parnassus). In the following interview he speaks about the findings of his research. 

Why did you decide to write a Masters dissertation about this book?

I was already in the middle of my Literature graduation course when someone gifted me the book, Parnaso de além-túmulo (Afterlife Parnassus). I had heard about Brazilian mediums who attributed their writings to deceased authors and I was curious about psychography, or automatic writing. I began reading the poems and noticed that the authors were listed alphabetically. I was really impressed by the book, which has a very ambitious proposal, and began considering the idea of analysing it in my Masters thesis. It provided me with the opportunity to focus on so many issues that are an essential part of Literature courses, such as the concept of authorship, style, identity and originality. My aim was to find out if it made sense to attribute all those poems to so many different authors and whether that was acceptable from a literary perspective. 

Could you give us a brief explanation about the book? 

It was the first book published by Chico Xavier, 90 years ago, in 1932, when he was only 22. It is an anthology of poems written through his mediumship. The first edition had 60 poems attributed to 14 Brazilian and Portuguese “spiritual authors.” More poems and authors were added along the years in successive publications, while some poems were later excluded. The definitive edition, from 1955, contains 259 poems attributed to 56 authors, including some who are very well known in Portuguese language literature, others who are not and a few anonymous writers. Most of the authors died between the second half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century. They were men and women; black and white. They had belonged to different literary movements and had various religious beliefs. In sum, it was a very diverse group. With the publication of this book, which was widely debated in the newspapers of the time, Chico Xavier began to become a household name across the country. 

Does your work include comparative analysis of the poems published by the authors in life and in the mediunimic book?

Yes, advised by my tutor, Professor Haquira Osakabe, I selected five authors whose attributed poems were published in the book: Antero de Quental, Augusto dos Anjos, Cruz e Sousa, Guerra Junqueiro and João de Deus. The aim was to check whether the defining features of their work were present in the mediunimic poems. In order to have a sound comparison basis, he asked me to find and study important critical articles and books about each one of those poets. So when I made the comparative analysis, I confirmed that, to a great extent, the style and the themes in the verses of Parnassus are in accordance with the description of the literary critics of their days. And that happened in a much more elaborate manner than I expected to find. Many of the poems – and by the way, in an obviously intentional way – establish intertextual dialogues with the published work of the authors.

Which aspect of the book, in your opinion, stands out the most?

It was the audacity of the book by mixing, in unpublished poems, elements that clearly refer to the biography and previous work of the poets with the new input that comes from their “death experiences”. There are, therefore, many points in common between their known work and the poems published in the book, but there are also differences. It is important to mention that many readers ignore one of the aims of the book, which is to revisit the poetic features of those authors, while others reject, somehow, the books other purpose, which is to present spiritual and Spiritist themes in the words of authors who, “in life,” didn’t seem very much concern about those subjects. The power of the book comes from the combination of these two aspects. 

Are there other issues involving the book that you would like to highlight?

An important achievement of this book was the introduction of great Portuguese language authors, especially the Brazilian ones, into mediunimic literature. Before the publication of Parnassus, European authors represented a majority of all spiritual authors. The first book published by Chico Xavier marks, therefore, the beginning of a process of nationalisation of Brazilian Spiritist literature. Another curiosity: according to Professor Paulo Franchetti, from Unicamp university, Parnaso de Além-túmulo is among the best-selling poetry books in Brazilian literature (with more that 100,000 copies). It is a true case of “enduring success.”

And does your analysis say about the content and the issues addressed by the authors?

One of the common issues in all editions of the book, as I mentioned in my dissertation, is death, what comes from it. But in the final edition of the book, you realise that there had been a more specific plan, which was to cover in verse all the main issues of Allan Kardec’s Spirits’ Book. I noticed that when I researched the contents of the poetic anthology. That explains, to a great extent, the reason why Parnassus expanded so much between 1932 and 1955. 

How can our readers access your dissertation?

It is available, in its entirety, at the Unicamp website (in Portuguese).