FERREIRA, VERGLIO

born Jan. 28, 1916, Melo, Port. died March 1, 1996, Sintra Verglio also spelled Virgilio Portuguese teacher and novelist who turned from an early social realism to more experimental and inward-looking forms of the novel. Ferreira's literary career began during World War II, and his novels of the 1940s were written in the prevailing social realist (or Neorealist) style that had dominated Portuguese fiction since 1930. Works published during this phase of his career are Onde tudo foi morrendo (1944; Where All Was Dying) and Vago J (1946; Car J). Beginning with Mudana (1949; Change), however, Ferreira moved away from the social concerns of his earlier fiction and toward an increasingly introspective and existential focus, which continued to prevail in his later works. In his psychological novels published after 1950, Ferreira probed the recesses of the human condition in a search for meaning and the process of self-discovery. Of the novels of this periodManh submersa (1954; Submerged Morning), Apario (1959; Apparition), Cntico final (1959; Final Song), Estrela polar (1962; Polar Star), Alegria breve (1965; Brief Joy), among othersthe best known is Apario, which explores the relationship of a teacher with his students in an almost essayistic manner; lengthy philosophical monologues and dialogues characterize this quasi-existentialist work, which widely influenced contemporary Portuguese fiction.