Which Brazilian author wrote the modernist novel 'Macunaíma'?

The Brazilian author who wrote the modernist novel “Macunaíma” was Mário de Andrade. First published in 1928, the book became one of the defining works of Brazilian Modernism and helped reshape ideas about Brazilian literary language and national identity.

Its subtitle calls Macunaíma “the hero without a character,” an intentionally contradictory figure from an Indigenous community who travels from the forest to São Paulo. The novel combines Indigenous traditions, folklore, popular speech, urban experience, satire, and episodes of extravagant fantasy rather than following the conventions of a realistic European novel.

Andrade drew heavily on his research into Brazilian folklore, music, regional speech, and cultural practices. The result is linguistically mixed and deliberately unruly, reflecting Brazil’s immense cultural diversity. The novel’s collision between rural and urban worlds also raises difficult questions about colonialism, cultural appropriation, race, and the creation of a national identity.

Readers sometimes confuse Mário de Andrade with Oswald de Andrade, another central figure in the 1922 São Paulo Modern Art Week. They were both modernists, but Mário wrote “Macunaíma”; Oswald is best known for works including “Manifesto Antropófago.”