Profile

He holds a Ph.D. in Literature and a Livre-Docência in Brazilian Literature from the Federal University of Santa Catarina. He is a retired Full Professor of Brazilian Literature and Professor Emeritus of the Faculty of Letters at the Fluminense Federal University. He has been awarded an honorary doctorate (Doctor Honoris Causa) by the University of Clermont Auvergne.

He has taught Brazilian Literature, Literary Theory, Literary Culture, and Portuguese Language at various institutions of higher and secondary education, including the Faculty of Letters at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro. He was also a Visiting Full Professor (Gastprofessor) at the University of Cologne and at the Technical School of Advanced Studies in Aachen. He is a literary critic, poet, fiction writer, screenwriter, and cultural promoter.

He has 69 published works, including: Estilos de época na literatura, A linguagem literária, leitura do texto, leitura do mundo (award-winning), Estudos literários; Oratório dos Inconfidentes (as faces do verbo), Dionísio esfacelado (Quilombo dos Palmares) (award-winning); O risco do jogo, poetry, with a Spanish edition; the novel Capitu – memórias póstumas, with editions in French and Italian; Breves estórias de Vera Cruz das Almas (award-winning), fiction; Nova ortografia da língua portuguesa – guia prático Nova ortografia da língua portuguesa – Manual de consulta in collaboration with Rejane Maria Leal Godoy; and Muitas línguas, uma língua: a trajetória do português brasileiro focused on the Portuguese language.

Several of his poems have been included in anthologies in Brazil and abroad, and some of his texts have been the subject of university theses. He is the author of monographs and entries in the fields of Literary Theory and Brazilian Literature for the 20th Century Encyclopedia. He conceived and wrote scripts for dramatized readings, radio series, and television programs. He also conceived and coordinated dozens of cultural projects.

He is a member, among other institutions, of the Brazilian Academy of Letters, of which he served as president, the Brazilian Academy of Philology, the Royal Portuguese Reading Room, and the PEN Club of Brazil.