João dos Reis Gomes was a Madeiran military man who stood out, in the society of his time, as an author in areas such as journalism, theater, history, romance, philosophy, music and cinema. His intellectual training will draw from the transition period between the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, marked by the wave of events that took place on the Mainland and Madeira.
Born in Funchal, on January 5, 1869, where he died, on January 21, 1950, he became known as Major João dos Reis Gomes (as if the patent was associated with his own name) and recognized as a professor, writer and essayist, member of several academies, such as Academia de Ciências de Lisboa, and founder of the delegation of Sociedade Histórica da Independência de Portugal, in Funchal. He almost always opted for an action in the field of intellectuality and not so much in terms of political exposure. Directed two periodicals, Heraldo da Madeira e Diário da Madeira, who advocated a regionalist, autonomous and conservative vision, although imbued with a patriotic spirit.
Personality inserted in a generation that fights for a better autonomy for Madeira, at the beginning of the 20th century, the insular aspect, either by resorting to themes dear to Madeiran folklore or to History, Reis Gomes was one of those responsible for building an Madeiran identity.
His action, linked to a perspective of insularity based on autonomy and regionalism, lead him to debates on issues about Madeira with the creation of the “Cenáculo” gathering, participation in Comissão de Estudo para as Bases da Autonomia da Madeira and the celebration of the 500 years of Madeira, between December 1922 and January 1923.
As a multifaceted man in the field of writing, we are mainly interested in the playwright and novelist, although he has also published books of short stories. We believe it is mainly in A filha de Tristão das Damas, O anel do imperador, O cavaleiro de Santa Catarina and Guiomar Teixeira, that we can glimpse the connection of his writing to the island and the concern with the Madeiran identity.
One of the good examples of this insular connection that guided the literary writing of João dos Reis Gomes is the historical drama Guiomar Teixeira, adapted from the historical novel A filha de Tristão das Damas, and which brings together the attributes of an insular identification and an identity cry. This play is known for being believed to be the first, in the world, to merge, in its representation, the theatrical art with the cinematographic art, being attributed the merit to Major .
In the drama, as in the historical novel, the center of the action is the Madeiran aid, provided by the donee Simão da Câmara to the capture of Safim, during the reign of D. Manuel I. In a subtle allegory with the situation experienced in Madeira at the time of autonomy administration of 1901, Reis Gomes points to the example of the conquest of the Moroccan square as a way of exposing that better autonomy would result in a better region and, consequently, a better country.In order to understand the Madeiran identity intentions and protest against the political situation of the archipelago, the Quincentenário commission chose the play Guiomar Teixeira for representation, which seems to us a clear allusion to the dissemination of the insular territory. The main actors were Sofia de Figueiredo, in the role of Guiomar Teixeira, and João dos Reis Gomes, in the role of Cristóvão Colombo.
Due to his role, we can consider João dos Reis Gomes as one of the builders of Madeira’s cultural memory, in the sense that the author’s literary production “estabelece entre o ontem e o hoje, modelando e atualizando de forma contínua as experiências e as imagens de um passado no presente, como recordação geradora de um horizonte de esperanças e de continuidade” (Antunes, 2019: 204). Merged with the concept of cultural memory, we find the “madeirensidade”, in the sense that “A literatura, por exemplo, contribui para a construção da Madeirensidade, mas ao mesmo tempo é também o devir desta que promove a emergência, a afirmação e o desenvolvimento daquilo que podemos designar como literatura madeirense” (Rodrigues, 2015: 167).
At the end of the diary on the Madeiran pilgrimage of 1926, in the original Através da França, Suíça e Itália – Diário de Viagem, Major João dos Reis Gomes expressed the feeling of nostalgia in relation to Madeira, “Estou nostálgico […]. Por momentos, ante a visão da pequenina terra [Madeira Island], apaga-se-me da memória a lembrança dessa existência de tão grande e variada beleza que eu acabo, febrilmente, de viver” (Reis Gomes, 2020: 223), which seems to us a declaration of geographical and cultural belonging dear to many Madeirans.
From the work of João dos Reis Gomes we highlight: O Theatro e o Actor (1ª ed., 1905, 2ª ed., 1916), Histórias Simples (1907), A Filha de Tristão das Damas (1ª ed., 1909, 2ª ed., 1946, 3ª ed., 1962), Guiomar Teixeira (1ª ed., 1914) , A Música e o Teatro (1919), Forças Psíquicas (1925), O Belo Natural e Artístico (1928), Figuras de Teatro (1928), Através da França, Suíça e Itália – Diário de Viagem (1929), Três Capitais de Espanha: Burgos, Toledo, Sevilha (1931), O Anel do Imperador (1934), Natais (1935), O Vinho da Madeira (1937), Casas Madeirenses (1937), O Cavaleiro de Santa Catarina (1941), De Bom Humor… (1942), A Lenda de Loreley – Contada por um Latino (1948), Através da Alemanha – Notas de Viagem (1949) and Viagens (2020) .
References
Antunes, Luísa Marinho (2019). A construção da memória cultural por meio da literatura: alguns aspectos. In Pro-Posições Culturais. São Paulo, 189-211.
Figueira, Paulo (2021). João dos Reis Gomes: contributo literário para a divulgação da História da Madeira [Phd thesis]. Funchal: Universidade da Madeira.
Gouveia, Horácio Bento de (1969). O académico e escritor João dos Reis Gomes. In Panorama, nº 29. Lisboa, 6-9.
Marino, Luís (s.d.). Panorama Literário do Arquipélago da Madeira [unpublished text]. Arquivo Regional da Madeira/Arquivo Luís Marino.
Reis Gomes, João dos (2020). Viagens (Ed. Literária Ana Isabel Moniz). Funchal: Imprensa Académica.
Rodrigues, Paulo (2015). Da Madeirensidade: Contributo para uma reflexão necessária. In Nelson Veríssimo e Thierry Proença dos Santos (orgs.). Universidade da Madeira: 25 anos. Funchal: Universidade da Madeira, 165-190.