Gilda Rocha de Melo e Sousa (March 24, 1919 – December 25, 2005), also spelled Gilda Rocha de Mello e Souza, was a Brazilian philosopher, literary critic, essayist, and university professor.

Gilda de Melo e Sousa
BornMarch 24, 1919
São Paulo, Brazil
Died25 December 2005(2005-12-25) (aged 86)
São Paulo, Brazil
OccupationPhilosophy professor, literary critic, essayist
Alma materUniversity of São Paulo
Notable worksO tupi e o alaúde: uma interpretação de Macunaíma

Biography

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She was born Gilda Moraes Rocha in São Paulo in 1919 and grew up in Araraquara, inland in São Paulo state.[1][2] She returned to the city of São Paulo in 1930 to attend school. In 1937, she enrolled in the University of São Paulo (USP) graduating with a bachelor's in philosophy in 1940.[1][2] She was one of the first women to attend the university.[1] While there, she studied under such notable professors as Roger Bastide, Claude Lévi-Strauss, and Jean Maugüé [pt].[1]

She then helped found the cultural magazine Clima, alongside her future husband Antonio Candido and other young intellectuals of the era.[1][2][3] In 1952, she received a doctorate in social sciences, with a thesis on 19th-century fashion, and in 1954 she became the founding director of the teaching of aesthetics at USP's Philosophy Department.[1][3] She would go on to direct the department from 1969 to 1972, a period of significant repression of academics under the military dictatorship.[1][3] In her time as an academic, she was particularly interested in studying the work of Mário de Andrade, with her publications including the central study O Tupi e o Alaúde on his Macunaíma.[1][4]

After retiring in 1973, in 1999 she was named professor emerita in the USP's Faculty of Philosophy, Letters, and Humanities.[1]

She married the critic and sociologist Antonio Candido de Mello e Souza in 1943, and the couple had three children.[1][2] Gilda de Melo e Souza died in 2005, at age 86, at São Paulo's Albert Einstein Israelite Hospital.[1][2] In 2014, professor Walnice Nogueira Galvão published A palavra afiada, a collection of some of de Melo e Sousa's interviews, letters, and writings.[1][4]

Selected works

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Tadeu Arantes, José (2014-04-23). "Livro resgata escritos de Gilda de Mello e Souza". Exame (in Portuguese). Archived from the original on 2016-03-23.
  2. ^ a b c d e "Memória: Ensaísta Gilda de Mello e Souza morre aos 86". Folha de S.Paulo (in Portuguese). 2005-12-27. Retrieved 2024-05-06.
  3. ^ a b c Gama, Guilherme (2021-03-18). "Da moda à filosofia, acervo conta a vida de Gilda de Mello e Souza". Jornal da USP (in Brazilian Portuguese). Retrieved 2024-05-06.
  4. ^ a b Coli, Jorge (2014-08-05). "A fala da mestra". Teoria e Debate (in Brazilian Portuguese). Retrieved 2024-05-06.
  5. ^ "Gild Rocha de Mello e Souza". Rede Brasileira de Mulheres Filósofas (in Portuguese). Retrieved 2024-05-06.