São Paulo – Brazilian of Lebanese descent Jamil Almansur Haddad and his literary work became the subject of a book launched this week in São Paulo by journalist Christina Stephano de Queiroz. ‘A Lua do Oriente e Outras Luas – Biografia e Poesia de Jamil Almansur Haddad’ [‘The Moon of the East and Other Moons – Biography and Poetry of Jamil Almansur Haddad,’ in free translation] retrieves the life story and writings of the poet, translator, and literary critic son of Arabs who lived from 1914 to 1988 and still is not well-known to the contemporary Brazilian readers.
Realizing there was a certain forgetfulness of the poet in Brazilian literary historiography motivated Christina to make him the subject of her Ph.D. dissertation. Academic research gave rise to the book. The journalist’s initial idea for her doctorate was to map Brazilian authors of Arab descent, but coming across Jamil and realizing the size and importance of his work made Christina change her plans. “It was worth a retrieval work; worth focusing the research on him,” she said.
The researcher appraised his poetic work while reporting Haddad’s story in the book. Christina said the book comprises three strands: Biography, literary production, and poetry analysis. It features a selection of poems. “I always start from a primary context; Arab immigration to Brazil. That is my pillar. When I investigate and look at poetry, I am always supported by this imaginary, this story, and Brazilian literary historiography,” said Christina.
Immigration is a fundamental subject in Jamil’s story. His parents moved from Lebanon to Brazil, and he was born in São Paulo. He was the first in his family to attend higher education, obtaining a degree in psychiatry. “But his dream, his great ambition was to work with literature, so his medical career was always interspersed with literary productions,” stated Christina. Jamil also translated from English, French, and Arabic; the latter he learned at home; and published literary reviews.
Jamil’s poetic work traveled through several aspects, such as engaged poetry, nostalgia, surrealism, and literary eroticism. In his verses are dancing odalisques, the zipper that opens and closes, sick bodies seen in medicine, the cemetery with flying tombstones, and the Cuban revolution. Christina defined Jamil as a frontier writer. “He was labeled as out-of-place his whole life, but, in fact, he had a place; he wrote from a border place, the border was his place,” she told.
The book written by the journalist is 374 pages long, and the publication brings a few changes in relation to the Ph.D. dissertation text. The academic work on Jamil was awarded as a distinguished dissertation in Language, Linguistics, and Arts by the University of São Paulo (USP) in 2018, the year after Christina concluded her studies. The book was released by the publishing house Ateliê Editorial.
The journalist said Michel Sleiman and Elaine Robert Moraes played essential roles in the making of the book. Both are professors at USP. Sleiman is also a poet, editor, and translator and was Christina’s Ph.D. advisor. Elaine is a literary critic specializing in erotic literature and presented Jamil’s story and work to the researcher. For the book’s publication, Christina also had the support of Fernanda Mokdessi Auada, in charge of Jamil’s estate.
The journalist
In addition to working with books, Christina Stephano de Queiroz works as a journalist at Revista Pesquisa Fapesp. The focus is science journalism. With an undergraduate degree in Journalism from the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo (PUC-SP), Christina obtained her master’s degree at the University of Barcelona, Spain, where she explored the topic of Arab immigration literature. For her master’s thesis, she was awarded by the Spanish Society of Arab Studies.
The launch of the book ‘A Lua do Oriente e Outras Luas – Biografia e Poesia de Jamil Almansur Haddad’ [‘The Moon of the East and Other Moons – Biography and Poetry of Jamil Almansur Haddad’] took place at Livraria da Vila, in São Paulo, last Thursday, September 8. The work is on sale in bookstores, digital platforms, and the publisher’s website.
Translated by Elúsio Brasileiro
