The open archive of Paulista modernism

Abstract

Couto de Barros: a elite nos bastidores do modernismo paulista, by Maria Eugenia Boaventura, and Couto de Barros: o filósofo da malta (textos modernistas), edited by the same author, recover an important, although almost forgotten, member of the group that organized the Modern Art Week and played a decisive role in the reconfiguration of letters, culture and institutional life in São Paulo. With access to Couto de Barros archive, preserved by his family, Boaventura reconstructs not only a biographical and historical-literary narrative, but also the material history of this group. This review analyzes the recovery of this new character, Boaventura’s methodology and the theoretical architecture implicit in her research.