Elastic body (Concerning Serão inquieto, by António Patrício)

Abstract

Born in 1878, António Patrício came to literary maturity after the proliferation of currents and aesthetics at the end of the eighteen-hundreds and the beginning of the twentieth century. On this crossroad he reveals himself as a poet and would come to be known as a dramatist whose plays, such as Pedro, o cru, were almost impossible to stage and had a primarily literary value. Although Serão inquieto is less recognised, we consider this collection of short stories, published in 1910 and on the cusp of Modernism, to be his magnum opus and one of the finest twentieth-century Portuguese examples of the genre. This article aims to review the innovative aspects of his writing, which we believe were reflected in books by later authors who have received far more critical attention than António Patrício.