Jorge Leal Amado de Faria (10 August 1912 – 6 August 2001) was a Brazilian writer of the modernist school. He remains the best known of modern Brazilian writers, with his work having been translated into some 49 languages and popularized in film, notably Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands in 1976. His work reflects the image of a Mestiço Brazil and is marked by religious syncretism. He depicted a cheerful and optimistic country that was beset, at the same time, with deep social and economic differences.

He occupied the 23rd chair of the Brazilian Academy of Letters from 1961 until his death in 2001. He won the 1984 International Nonino Prize in Italy. He also was Federal Deputy for São Paulo as a member of the Brazilian Communist Party between 1947 and 1951.

Amado was born on Saturday, 10 August 1912, on a farm near the inland city of Itabuna, in the south of the Brazilian state of Bahia. He was the eldest of four sons of João Amado de Faria and D. Eulália Leal. The farm was located in the village of Ferradas, which, though today is a district of Itabuna, was at the time administered by the coastal city of Ilhéus. For this reason he considered himself a citizen of Ilhéus. From his exposure to the large cocoa plantations of the area, Amado knew the misery and the struggles of the people working the land and living in almost enslaved conditions. This was to be a theme present in several of his works (for example, The Violent Land of 1944).

As a result of a smallpox epidemic, his family moved to Ilhéus when he was one year old, and he spent his childhood there. He attended high school in Salvador, the capital of the state. By the age of 14 Amado had begun to collaborate with several magazines and took part in literary life, as one of the founders of the Modernist "Rebels' Academy".

He was the cousin of Brazilian lawyer, writer, journalist and politician Gilberto Amado, and of Brazilian actress and screenwriter Véra Clouzot.

Amado published his first novel, The Country of Carnival, in 1931, at age 18. He married Matilde Garcia Rosa and had a daughter, Lila, in 1933. The same year he published his second novel, Cacau, which increased his popularity.

He studied law at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro Faculty of Law but never became a practising lawyer. His leftist activities made his life difficult under the dictatorial regime of Getúlio Vargas. In 1935 he was arrested for the first time, and two years later his books were publicly burned. His works were banned from Portugal, but in the rest of Europe he gained great popularity with the publication of Jubiabá in France. The book received enthusiastic reviews, including that of Nobel prize Award winner Albert Camus.

In the early 1940s, Amado edited a literary supplement for the Nazi-funded political newspaper "Meio-Dia". Being a communist militant, from 1941 to 1942 Amado was compelled to go into exile to Argentina and Uruguay. When he returned to Brazil he separated from Matilde Garcia Rosa. In 1945 he was elected to the National Constituent Assembly, as a representative of the Brazilian Communist Party (PCB) (he received more votes than any other candidate in the state of São Paulo). He signed a law granting freedom of religious faith. ...

Source: Article "Jorge Amado" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.

Jorge Amado de Faria, né le 10 août 1912 à Itabuna, dans l'État de Bahia, et mort le 6 août 2001 à Salvador, dans l'État de Bahia, est un écrivain brésilien de l'école moderniste.

Un des plus grands auteurs brésiliens, Jorge Amado est né à Itabuna au sud de l'État de Bahia dans une fazenda. Fils de João Amado de Faria et de D. Eulália Leal, Jorge Amado arrive en 1931 à Rio de Janeiro pour y étudier le droit. Son œuvre, traduite en 49 langues, se déroule le plus souvent dans les bas-fonds des communautés noires et mulâtres de la province de Bahia où il a presque toujours vécu, si ce n'est, au début des années 1950, pendant deux ou trois années d'exil politique à Paris, Prague et Dobříš, siège de l'Union des écrivains tchécoslovaques qui l'accueille pendant ce séjour forcé en Europe.

Athée, il devient membre du Parti communiste brésilien (PCB). Il commence comme militant communiste de 1941 à 1942, mais il doit s'exiler en Argentine et en Uruguay. Quand il revient au Brésil, il se sépare de sa première femme Matilde Garcia Rosa. Il est élu, au nom de ce même parti, à l'Assemblée nationale constituante de 1945. La même année, il se remarie avec l'écrivaine Zélia Gattai.

En 1947, il a un fils, João Jorge. La même année, le parti communiste est déclaré illégal: ses membres sont arrêtés et persécutés. Amado choisit l'exil avec sa famille et se réfugie en France. Il demeure à Paris jusqu'en 1950, période durant laquelle, sa femme, Zélia Gattai obtient un diplôme de littérature à la Sorbonne. Puis il part en Tchécoslovaquie jusqu'en 1952. Il voyage ensuite en Union soviétique. En Europe, il rencontre Picasso et Aragon.

À son retour au Brésil, en 1955, Amado abandonne l'activité politique et quitte le Parti communiste brésilien.

C'est l'auteur le plus adapté à la télévision brésilienne, et au cinéma, avec Tieta d'Agreste, Dona Flor et ses deux maris, et Gabriela, girofle et cannelle.

En 1984, il a été promu commandeur de la Légion d'honneur par le président de la République française Mitterrand.

Il est lauréat du prix Lénine pour la paix en 1951 et du Goncourt brésilien, le prix Camões en 1994, ainsi que de nombreux autres prix. Il était membre du comité d'honneur de la Maison internationale des poètes et des écrivains à Saint-Malo.

Source: Article "Jorge Amado" de Wikipédia en français, soumis à la licence CC-BY-SA 3.0.

Jorge Leal Amado de Faria OMC • GOSE • GOIH• CBJM ou apenas Jorge Amado foi um dos mais famosos e traduzidos escritores brasileiros de todos os tempos. Integrou os quadros da intelectualidade comunista brasileira desde o final da primeira metade do século XX - ideologia presente em várias obras, como a retratação dos moradores do trapiche baiano em Capitães da Areia, de 1937. Em 1995, já descrente dos resultados práticos do comunismo, deixa o PCB (Partido Comunista Brasileiro), despejando fortes críticas à ideologia comunista.

Jorge é o autor mais adaptado do cinema, do teatro e da televisão. Verdadeiros sucessos como Dona Flor e Seus Dois Maridos, Tenda dos Milagres, Tieta do Agreste, Gabriela, Cravo e Canela e Tereza Batista Cansada de Guerra foram criações suas. A obra literária de Jorge Amado – 49 livros, ao todo – também já foi tema de escolas de samba por todo o País. Seus livros foram traduzidos em 80 países, em 49 idiomas, bem como em braille e em fitas gravadas para cegos.

Jorge foi superado, em número de vendas, apenas por Paulo Coelho. Mas em seu estilo - o romance ficcional -, não há paralelo no Brasil. Em 1994, a sua obra foi reconhecida com o Prémio Camões.