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 Because
the main focus of the Jorge Amado House Foundation's work is on
writing and literature, the Foundation is much more than a Research
and Documentation Center. It was also conceived as a center for
disseminating actions aimed at producing literary works, hailing
and spotlighting writers' professional activities and thereby fulfilling
one of the articles of its constitution.
Born under the aegis of the
literary journal Exu, the Foundation's Publishing Program arose
from the need to organize publications, publish research and documents
originating from the Foundation's collection and the critical mass
produced by the Jorge Amado House's seminars, lectures and studies.
Because it deals with an extremely
dynamic sector and engages in a broad range of action in the community,
this program is being consolidated not only through the publication
of Exu, but through the Casa de Palavras (House of Words) Collection,
whose varied range of publishing lines are taking on the characteristics
of a publishing house that is accredited by and affiliated with
the Brazilian National Publishers' and Booksellers' Syndicate (SNEL).
House of Words Collection
The lack of a true publishing
movement in Bahia, paradoxically the home of so many cultural values,
has always caused concern among authors, communicators and everyone
interested in literature and publishing.
The Casa de Palavras (House
of Words) Publishing Project was created to fill that gap and attempt
to reverse that process by publishing the results of projects and
research undertaken through the Jorge Amado House Foundation, as
well as providing a means of spotlighting Bahian themes and writers.
The House of Words released
its first publication in 1987 - A política do Partido Comunista
e a questão do realismo em Jorge Amado (The policies of the
Communist Party and the question of realism in Jorge Amado) by Nelson
Cerqueira, part of its first publishing line, the Ensaio (Essay)
series.
Today, the House of Words Collection
incorporates eight publishing lines: essays, collections, memory,
fiction, poetry, art, literature in Bahia, and unpublished works.
Expectations are that two new series will be launched this year:
anthologies and Bahians.
The House of Words has built
up a critically acclaimed publishing catalogue, and some titles
are out of print or in their second edition. Some have been adopted
by universities: the Federal University at Alagoas used Meu amigo
Marcel Proust romance (My friend Marcel Proust: a novel), by Judith
Grossmann, in its college entrance exams; the São Paulo universities
USP and PUC use O seqüestro do barroco na formação
da literatura brasileira: o caso Gregório de Mattos (The
rape of the baroque in the shaping of Brazilian literature: the
case of Gregório de Mattos), by Haroldo de Campos, now in
its second edition. PUC has also adopted the book Armadilhas da
memória (Snares of memory), by Jerusa Pires Ferreira.
The books Adonias Filho: a
representação épica da forma dramática
(Adonias Filho: the epic representation of the dramatic form), by
Maria da Conceição Paranhos, and A arte de traduzir
(The art of translation), by Ildásio Tavares, are also used
in courses offered by the Federal University at Bahia.
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