Institution
Education
Bachelor in Romance Languages and Literature from the Federal University of Minas Gerais (1959), PhD from the Paris-Sorbonne University (1968)
Written works
Shall we start by talking about your time as a student?
There are three years at the start of my career that I consider decisive for the development of my intellectual and teaching approach: 1960, 1961, and 1962. In 1948, when I was 12, my family moved to Belo Horizonte, where I obtained my degree in romance languages from UFMG [Federal University of Minas Gerais] in 1959. At that time, there were no master’s and PhD programs in Brazil. Generally speaking, you would apply to become a professor at a university and, if approved, you then received the title of doctor. Therefore, if you wanted to continue your training, you had to leave the country. I was interested in French literature and culture and got a CAPES [Brazilian Federal Agency for Support and Evaluation of Graduate Education] scholarship for a graduate program at the Maison de France, in Rio de Janeiro. It was taught by two Frenchmen and targeted degree holders with good grades from all over Brazil. I was the only approved candidate from Minas Gerais. In 1960, I moved to Rio. During the program, I resumed my study of French literature more carefully and boldly, researching authors such as philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre [1905–1980] and poets Paul Valéry [1871–1945] and Charles Baudelaire [1821–1867]. I also got to know the literary scene in Rio after meeting writer and journalist Alexandre Eulálio [1932–1988]. This was when I took a liking to literature. The program lasted a year and a half. The top three students got a scholarship from the French government to study in Paris. I was one of them.