Literary Festival Flip to Begin on Wednesday, honoring Hilda Hilst

07/25/2018 - 12h34

The Paraty International Literary Festival (Flip), which will begin on Wednesday (the 25th) and will be held in honor of Hilda Hilst, took yet another step in the direction it had been hinting at over the past few years. Instead of celebrating the great authors of the literary canon, the festival has opted to prioritize those that are on the outside or are considered candidates that could one compose the literary canon.

Of the last five editions, only in 2015 did the festival honor a canonical writer (Mário de Andrade). In the other four editions, it honored Millôr Fernandes (2014), Ana Cristina César (2016) and Lima Barreto (2017) - though the latter is a classic, his works are situated somewhere along the fringe of the canon.

	Foto: Bruno Santos/ Folhapress
	2017 edition of Flip

"I think that Flip is like a thermometer that conveys the ongoing discussions surrounding the canon that are taking place in universities and that, because of [the festival], can now become available to the greater public. We still study the literary history behind books written more than 50 years ago [and we] should think of works that deserve to be reassessed," said Joselia Aguiar, who will be the curator of the event for the second time.

Though the main programme of the 16th edition of Flip features an intimate take on themes such as love and death, which are prevalent in the works of this year's honorary writer Hilda Hilst, the festival will also feature events parallel to the main literary ones, varying from debates on politics and economics to fantasy literature, which will be held in houses on land and even on a boat.

	Lenise Pinheiro - 23.jun.1999/Folhapress
	The writer Hilda Hist, in 1999

The expansion of parallel and free programs can be witnessed in the number of houses that have teamed up with the festival in Paraty: 22 this year, compared to 7 last year. One of them is the Casa Folha, which was created in 2011 and for this year's edition will hold 10 different tables from Thursday (the 26th) to Sunday (the 29th).

Translated by THOMAS MATHEWSON

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