Book contents
- Latin American Literature in Transition Pre-1492–1800
- Latin American Literature in Transition
- Latin American Literature in Transition Pre-1492–1800
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction Dwelling in Transitions
- Part I Land, Space, Territory
- Part II Body
- Part III Belief Systems
- Part IV Literacies
- Part V Languages
- Part VI Identities
- Chapter 22 Textual Figures and Modalities of Change: The Soldier, the Translator, the Plebeian, and the Woman Chronicler
- Chapter 23 Diego Muñoz Camargo and the Destabilization of the Relación Geográfica: Adaptation and Variation in the Mestizo Chronicle
- Chapter 24 Representing/Erasing the Other in Colonial Brazil’s Eighteenth-Century Epic Poetry
- Index
- References
Chapter 24 - Representing/Erasing the Other in Colonial Brazil’s Eighteenth-Century Epic Poetry
from Part VI - Identities
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 November 2022
By
Book contents
- Latin American Literature in Transition Pre-1492–1800
- Latin American Literature in Transition
- Latin American Literature in Transition Pre-1492–1800
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction Dwelling in Transitions
- Part I Land, Space, Territory
- Part II Body
- Part III Belief Systems
- Part IV Literacies
- Part V Languages
- Part VI Identities
- Chapter 22 Textual Figures and Modalities of Change: The Soldier, the Translator, the Plebeian, and the Woman Chronicler
- Chapter 23 Diego Muñoz Camargo and the Destabilization of the Relación Geográfica: Adaptation and Variation in the Mestizo Chronicle
- Chapter 24 Representing/Erasing the Other in Colonial Brazil’s Eighteenth-Century Epic Poetry
- Index
- References
Summary
This chapter addresses proto-nationalist, Indianist discourses based on early colonial depictions of Brazil’s lands and people in the epic poems Uraguai (1769) by José Basilio da Gama, and Caramuru (1781) by José de Santa Rita Durão. Both poems offer examples of Indianist tradition that would go on to become models for the aesthetic nationalism of the nineteenth century. Given that the eighteenth century represents a coming of age in Brazilian literature, the absence of Africans in these two poems is noteworthy. This essay explores the simultaneous prominence of Natives and invisibility of Africans in colonial Brazilian literary texts and proposes that the mythological idealization of the Indian was used as a pretext to conceal the problem of the “Negro.” As with any ideology, the literary texts that committed to the building of Brazilian nationhood enforced ways of thinking about Afro-Brazilian people that endure through time.
Keywords
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Latin American Literature in Transition Pre-1492–1800 , pp. 362 - 376Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022
References
Works Cited
Amado, Janaína. “Mythic Origins: Caramuru and the Founding of Brazil.” Hispanic American Historical Review 80.4 (2000): 783–811.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Andrade, Mário de. Macunaíma: O herói sem nenhum caráter. São Paulo: Oficinas Gráficas de Eugênio Cupolo, 1928.Google Scholar
Cândido, Antônio. “Literature and the Rise of Brazilian National Self-Identity.” Luso-Brazilian Review 5.1 (1968): 27–43.Google Scholar
Chaves, Vânia Pinheiro. O Uraguai e a Fundação da Literatura Brasileira. São Paulo: Cultrix, 1997.Google Scholar
Coutinho, Afrânio. A Literatura no Brasil. Vol. I. Rio de Janeiro: José Olympio Editora, 1986.Google Scholar
Dias, Eduardo Mayone. “Brazil’s Birth Certificate: The Letter of Pero Vaz de Caminha.” Pacific Coast Philology 27. 1-2 (1992): 10–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Durão, José de Santa Rita. “Caramuru.” Cervantesvitual.com. Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, n/d. www.cervantesvirtual.com/obra-visor/caramuru-poema-epico--0/html/ffce7bbe-82b1-11df-acc7-002185ce6064_1.html#I_1._Google Scholar
Elias, Simone Rodrigues, Santana, Martins, Décio Ruivo, and Moreira, Ildeu de Castro. “As Expedições Naturalistas e Cartográficas dentre as Práticas Científicas no Brasil do Século XVIII.” Fronteiras: Journal of Social, Technological and Environmental Science 7.1 (2018): 15–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harvey, David Allen. The French Enlightenment and Its Others. The Mandarin, the Savage and the Invention of the Human Sciences. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012.Google Scholar
Kalewska, Anna. “A tradição de Camões na poesia brasileira durante o Arcadismo ou a reinvenção do imaginário épico em O Uruguay de Basílio da Gama e n’O Caramuru de Santa Rita Durão.” Studia Iberystyczne 13 (2014): 111–131.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Karenga, Maulana. “Abdias do Nascimento at Palmares: Resistance, Affirmation and Self-Produced Possibility.” Los Angeles Sentinel. February 6, 2011: A7.Google Scholar
Mantovani, Rafael. “Caramuru: Uma Ferramenta de Nacionalismo.” Revista Letra Magna 8 (2008): 1–20.Google Scholar
Mattoso, Katia M. de Queirós. To Be a Slave in Brazil, 1550–1888. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1986.Google Scholar
Mendonça, Simone Cristina. “Testemunhos inicias sobre o Brasil revisistados no século XIX.” Caletroscópio 4.6 (2016): 26–36.Google Scholar
Versiani, Carlos. “A representação arcádica do índio brasileiro: O Uraguai, de José Basílio da Gama.” Amerika 14 (2016): 1–12.Google Scholar