October 29, 2024

The Embassy of Portugal, Washington, DC

 

The Seduction of Writing by Julieta Almeida Rodrigues 

 

To Ambassador Francisco Duarte Lopes

 

To Dr. Sandra Pires, Cultural and Science Counselor at this embassy

 

To Anna Lawton, the head of New Academia Publishing and a former professor at Georgetown University, where we met. Over time, I was both at the Department of Portuguese and the BMW Center for German and European Studies.

 

To the Luso-American Foundation that sponsored the translation into Portuguese of Eleonora and Joseph.

 

To my colleague and editor Gail Spilsbury, whose ear for American English works wonders on a foreign writer's prose.

 

To Anne Christman – to whom this book is dedicated (together with my son Julian). Anne is an attorney who exemplifies the spirit of American generosity so endearing to me and to so many others throughout the world.

 

Esteemed colleagues and friends, I am grateful for your presence here today.

 

Ambassador Francisco Duarte Lopes has kindly spoken about the content of Eleonora and Joseph.

 

I will talk about:

a. Why I wrote this book;

b. How I treated the subject as a novelist;

c. What seduced me about the theme.

 

When I write, I don't feel I'm working. I'm wandering through a set of ideas that I'd like to put in order. It's like a maze, a puzzle, something that I must organize in my mind. By managing to do this, I can then better explain the subject matter to the reader.

 

All the writers present here today know what I mean!

 

I'm telling a story that has a beginning, a middle, and an end. The novelist is a storyteller: just that.

 

Many authors say, and I agree, that themes and characters choose us, we don't choose them.

 

I have always had a keen interest, almost an obsession, in the relationship between biography, memory, and narrative. And I consider the 18th century to be one of the most interesting periods in human history, due to the events of the American and French revolutions.

 

And so, while studying the Enlightenment, two fascinating characters of Portuguese origin rose in my mind: Eleonora Fonseca Pimentel and Abbé Joseph Correia da Serra.

 

The first to come to me was the Abbé Correia da Serra. It happened here, in this very building, some years ago. While talking to Ambassador João de Vallera in his office, I noticed a portrait of the Abbé above the fireplace. I found the Abbé's smile to be as enigmatic as Leonardo's Mona Lisa's.

 

I registered the smile of this priest, botanist, diplomat… and moved on, life always continues! A few years later, I was walking in the Spanish Quarter of Naples, Italy. It was a radiant, sunny morning, as only Naples offers. And, suddenly, I came across a school named Eleonora Fonseca Pimentel.

 

Who is this lady, I thought, I've never heard of her. But the name is Portuguese, not Italian!

Another mental note tucked away. Added to the backdrop of the 18th century, the century in which these two Portuguese lived.

 

Then, in a Eureka moment, these two people became characters in my mind. Human beings, with their own lives and experiences, who now inhabited my imaginary world. Wandering here to there, day and night, in permanent motion in my mind.

 

So, I now had two characters and two nations: the kingdom of Portugal and Brazil (united at the time) and the kingdom of Naples. I had, therefore, a setting, a world, in which these characters lived.

 

I began to think: What fun! These two characters lived in two nations I happen to know well! But I would like a third character and a third nation. And this is how Thomas Jefferson and Monticello came to me.

 

I had visited Monticello twice in the past. And I had seen that one room in the mansion is dedicated to Abbé Correia da Serra.

 

As ideas flew in my mind, I recalled that a lively correspondence existed between the Abbé and Thomas Jefferson. These two shared interests and common viewpoints, as expressed in many letters over the years.

 

And this is how the third character, Thomas Jefferson, came into being in the novel. And, with the third caracter, came the third nation. In the 18th century, the newly independent American colonies. Today, another nation I love, and feel a special connection with.

 

I told myself: I must write this book! And I must start now! Well, the writing process (and I am not thinking about the research for the book) took five years of my life!

 

My biggest difficulty quickly arose: the organization of the piles of material that I had collected. I had hundreds of primary and secondary sources on my desk!

 

Soon enough, I now had to confront a challenging hurdle—the problem of dates. I wanted to talk about Leonor's revolutionary role in the Neapolitan Revolution of 1799. But the visits of Abbé Correia da Serra to Monticello didn't begin until 1813 (they lasted until 1820). During this time, Jefferson is, of course, already retired.

 

At this point, I decided to organize the novel as a dual narrative. But, actually, I was intertwining three biographies. So, I chose to have Eleonora tell her tragic story through her prison diary. And I chose to have the Abbé and Thomas Jefferson convey their theirs thoughts through conversations at Monticello.

 

These conversations included, necessarily, Saly Hemings, and the inhuman and unjust system of slavery.

 

We must now turn to the question of what is historical fiction? In its simplest definition, it is fiction that takes charge of the past. Fiction that deals with matters that occurred more than 50 years ago (of course, an arbitrary number). The author uses historical research and, therefore, doesn't use his or her personal experience. The narrative reflects an historical period, which is identifiable.

 

The historical past appears in the writing, thus, as a main source of inspiration.

 

That's what I did in Eleonora and Joseph.

 

The privileged area in writing a novel is the domain of emotions and how they are rendered between the various protagonists. In other words, the truth of the characters' human experience.

 

That's also what I did in Eleonora and Joseph.

 

With regard to the narrative of a biography immersed in the past, we now have three questions to consider:

a. The facts. For example, the day Eleonora was born;

b. The interpretation of those facts. For example, why Correia da Serra leaves Paris and decides to come to America;

c. And last, and probably the most important - what we do not know about these lives. This part of the work is, indeed, complex as you progress through the narrative.

 

I must mention here the invaluable support I had, as it was the foundation for the historical rigor I intended to give the novel. I had the honor of the support from two eminent Portuguese academics: José Luis Cardoso, the current president of the Academy of Sciences of Lisbon, and José Barreto, from the Social Sciences Institute, the University of Lisbon.

 

For it is necessary for historical fiction writers to know how to choose, simultaneously and carefully, between the veracity and the plausibility of the facts that emerge from the research.

 

In my note to the book's Portuguese edition, I mention the novel by Barbara Chase-Ribaut, Sally Hemings, published in 1979. The book shows the enormous probability that Hemings' children were also Thomas Jefferson's.

Years later, the DNA of one of Hemings' sons confirmed this supposition. These facts are now all corroborated by the Thomas Jefferson/Monticello website.

 

Therefore, a historical fiction plot has two pillars:

a. What is known from the various existing historical sources;

b. What is not known and must be invented, created, as plausible. Therefore, what could have happened.

 

As regards the role of the imagination - which is fundamental in a novel - my goal was to show the unfolding of these three characters' lives over time:

a. How Eleonora became increasingly revolutionary;

b. How Abbé Correia da Serra became increasingly conservative;

c.  And how Jefferson, in both his public and private domains, behaved like a sphinx. As such, he successfully hid his most intimate secrets from everyone.

 

That's what I did, or tried to do, in this novel.

 

I would like now to briefly mention the power of words, the essential make up of a novel. In line with the literature of Anglo-Saxon countries, I above all appreciate plots (in short stories and novels alike) that are based on ideas. I don't enjoy writing/literature that's wordy, or ornate, or contrived.

 

The last word in this matter comes, to me, from Goethe who once said: "When ideas fail, words come in handy!"

 

A literature that is accessible is part of a culture that is accessible. Open to all. And both are, in my opinion, democratic ideals!

 

I find that I write to better understand certain issues related to the 18th century - and the Enlightenment - and the novelist in me ends up understanding herself - and the world around her - better, much better!

 

So, my friends, to finish. This is the great seduction, the great benefit, the great gift that writing offers me. And not only me! But to all of us, who write, who read, and who enjoy literature.

 

It's been a pleasure. Thank you very much!