The Journey of Ideas to Brazil and the Regionalism of Torto Arado

This paper aims to analyze Torto Arado (2019) by Itamar Vieira Júnior, given the role that the journey of ideas plays in 19th century Brazilian regionalism and its recovery in the 21st century. In the 19th century, European intellectuals such as Bouterwek, Sismondi, and Ferdinand Denis played a vital role in developing nationalism in Brazilian literature. Regionalism, as an aesthetic guided by the description of spaces and characters away from urban centers, was influenced by nationalist ideas coming from Europe, especially from France. In the 21st century, regionalism is retaken by Itamar Vieira Júnior, but based on the journey of new concepts developed by gender and race studies in the North American context. In this regard, this paper presents this hypothesis: the journey of literary theory, especially of studies produced in American universities (cultural studies, queer studies, post-colonial studies, subaltern studies, disability studies, afro-American studies, Latino studies) impact on Brazilian regionalism. If in the 19th century, space was a determining element of the psychology of the characters, in the 21st century, other issues are brought to the debate: the condition of a woman, black, in a country that still suffers from its patriarchal and slave-owning past. Therefore, this paper will analyze Torto Arado’s regionalism given three aspects: the journey of ideas, the discrepancies with 19th century regionalism, and the reconfiguration of the genre in the 21st century based on issues raised by literary theory. [Article copies available for a fee from The Transformative Studies Institute. E-mail address: journal@transformativestudies.org Website: http://www.transformativestudies.org ©2026 by The Transformative Studies Institute. All rights reserved.]