Murilo Rubião (1 June 1916 – 16 September 1991) was a Brazilian writer. His entire work consists of short stories, best described as surreal fables in the tradition of
Franz Kafka
Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a novelist and writer from Prague who was Jewish, Austrian, and Czech and wrote in German. He is widely regarded as a major figure of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of Litera ...
- this being so, Rubião's work must be seen as part of the
Magic Realism
Magical realism, magic realism, or marvelous realism is a style or genre of fiction and art that presents a realistic view of the world while incorporating magical elements, often blurring the lines between speculation and reality. ''Magical re ...
movement of late 20th-century Latin America. It is said that Rubião was obsessive about his work, revising it at every new edition, always changing a few details, such as characters' names.
Biography
Rubião was born in
Carmo de Minas city, in the state of
Minas Gerais
Minas Gerais () is one of the 27 federative units of Brazil, being the fourth largest state by area and the second largest in number of inhabitants with a population of 20,539,989 according to the 2022 Brazilian census, 2022 census. Located in ...
, Brazil, to Eugênio Alvares Rubião and Maria Antonieta Ferreira Rubião. He attended school in
Conceição do Rio Verde, then studied law in
Belo Horizonte
Belo Horizonte is the List of largest cities in Brazil, sixth-largest city in Brazil, with a population of around 2.3 million, and the third largest metropolitan area, containing a population of 6 million. It is the List of cities in Sout ...
, graduating in 1942. In 1947 he released his first collection of short stories, ''O ex-mágico''. The book won little acclaim and Rubião began work as a political advisor. In 1951, he became head of the governor's office of
Presidente Kubitschek. Between 1956 and 1961 he served as cultural attaché of Brazil in Spain. In 1966 he founded the Literary Supplement of the Official Gazette of Minas Gerais, which became the most widely distributed literary supplement in Brazil.
The publication of ''O pirotécnico Zacarias'' in 1974 brought Rubião sudden literary fame. He is believed to have influenced many
Brazil
Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...
ian authors, among them
José J. Veiga
José Veiga, known as José J. Veiga (February 2, 1915 – September 19, 1999), was a Brazilian writer. His writings are often classified within the magical realism genre, although he denied the label; his books deal with social and political crit ...
and
Moacyr Scliar
Moacyr Jaime Scliar (March 23, 1937February 27, 2011) was a Brazilian writer and physician. Most of his writing centers on issues of Jewish identity in the Diaspora and particularly on being Jewish in Brazil.
Scliar is best known outside Brazil ...
. Rubião died in Belo Horizonte on September 16, 1991.
Adaptations and translations
Several of his works have had adaptations for other languages, such as cinema. Among them: "A Armadilha", "O pirotécnico Zacarias", "O ex-mágico da Taberna Minhota" and "O bloqueio". For the theater: "O ex-mago", "The piranha lounge" (play based on the author - several short stories) and"O ex-mago da Taberna Minhota". His main short stories have been translated into English, German, Czech and Spanish.
Bibliography
* ''O ex-mágico'' (1947)
* ''A estrela vermelha'' (1953)
* ''Os dragões e outros contos'' (1965)
* ''O pirotécnico Zacarias'' (1974)
* ''O convidado'' (1974)
* ''A casa do girassol vermelho'' (1978)
* ''The Ex-Magician and Other Stories''
nglish trans. Thomas Colchie(1979)
* ''O homem do boné cinzento e outras histórias'' (1990)
* ''Contos reunidos'' (2005)
References
External links
*
Rubião's Life
1916 births
1991 deaths
Brazilian writers
Brazilian speculative fiction writers
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