Meletinsky in Brazil

Abstract

This paper dwells upon analysis of E.M. Meletinsky’s legacy in Brazil. The authors attempt at tracing publication history and reception of the researcher’s works in Portuguese. It is important to note that when Meletinsky came to São Paulo with lecture courses, his works had already been known to Brazilian researchers via publications arranged by the University of São Paulo Professor B.S. Schneiderman. We believe it important to highlight that translation and study of Meletinsky’s works in Brazil were taking place in the context of perception of the Tartu-Moscow Semiotic School and its structural-semiotic method. Publication of the “Structural-typological study of fairy tale” paper in 1984 as an appendix to “Morphology of fairy tale” by V. Propp, together with a paper by Lévi-Strauss, was the most critical step in promoting Meletinsky’s works in Portuguese. As remarkably significant, we consider the publication of “Poetics of myth” (1987) and “Literary archetypes” (1998), which led to a whole series of comparative research projects blending classical mythology studies and contemporary literature studies, especially the so called “new Latin Americal novel”.