Antonio Candido, criador da área de Teoria Literária e Literatura Comparada

Abstract

Supported by his performance as a literary critic, and as Sociology professor at USP, Antonio Candido realized that there was a lack of general introductory studies and of specialized theoretical studies, fundamental for a good academic education for Literature students, in opposition to what happened in other colleges and courses, that already had disciplines for this purpose. He will use this observation to substantiate his suggestion to create a discipline of this content in the Literature course, sent to the Congregation of the Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras of the University of São Paulo, at the time, which was approved in 1959.
Antonio Candido's role as the professor who inaugurated the field of theoretical and comparative studies at USP is the main focus of this article, which also includes a memento of the collaborators who have contributed and those who currently contribute to the development of the Literary Theory and Comparative Literature area.