Brazilian literature

Brazilian literature, the body of written works produced in the Portuguese language in Brazil.

Colonial period

Brazil was claimed for Portugal in 1500 and was named for the land’s first export product, pau-brasil (brazilwood), trade in which was initiated in 1502 by a consortium of “New Christians” (converted Jews) led by Fernão de Noronha. With printing presses scarce during most of the colonial period, manuscripts, when possible, were published primarily in the mother country Portugal—unlike in Spanish America, where printing presses had been established since the early days of colonization. Publications of conquest, travel, and colonization were therefore not encouraged within colonial Brazil. This scenario explains in part why the letter of discovery written to King Manuel I of Portugal by Pero Vaz de Caminha—the scribe to the explorer Pedro Álvares Cabral, who is credited with having been the first European to sight Brazil—was not published until 1817, even though its existence had been known since 1773. The letter not only narrates the Portuguese encounter with native tribes and the discovery of natural resources but also reveals the roots of “nativism,” an impressionistic glorification of Brazil’s fauna and flora.

Nativism was also evident in 16th- and 17th-century texts such as Prosopopéia (1601; “Personification”), by Bento Teixeira, and Diálogos das grandezas do Brasil (1618; Dialogues of the Great Things of Brazil), by Ambrósio Fernandes Brandão, and continuously in texts written throughout the colonial period. Born in Portugal, Teixeira—like all crypto-Jews obliged to practice their Judaism clandestinely—fled to Brazil from the Inquisition, but he eventually fell victim to the Holy Office, dying in an Inquisition jail in Lisbon. Published in Portugal, his Prosopopéia is an epic poem in Classical form that pays homage to a governor in Brazil’s Northeast. Despite the Christian spirit at its surface, the poem can be read as crypto-Jewish, hinting at the tribulations of Jews in colonial Brazil. Other cultural and literary activities during early colonization were sparked by the European Baroque via missionary Jesuits. Father José de Anchieta, recognized as the “father of Brazilian literature,” spent most of his life in Brazil catechizing the Indians. Inspired by medieval religious theatre, his dramas represent the best of Brazil’s notable Jesuit theatre of the 16th century. Anchieta also wrote the first grammar of the Tupí language (1595).

Scholars dispute the actual beginning of Brazilian literature. Afrânio Coutinho, for instance, interprets Brazilian literature as the expression of the nativist experiences in the New World. But Coutinho also underscores that Brazilian literature was born under the influence of the Baroque through the writings of Jesuits such as Anchieta. In this same vein, Antônio Cândido, in his Formação da literatura brasileira (1969; “Formation of Brazilian Literature”), emphasizes the European genesis of Brazilian letters and how the civilization was shaped by the colonial experience. Although Brazilian literature is considered to have its “official” origins in the 19th century, during the decade following Brazil’s independence (1822), most scholars, like Cândido, recognize local literature as emerging in the 18th century. Within this literature is embedded a distinctly Brazilian cultural context, even though these works make use of European aesthetics and Classical forms. With the Baroque and its variant Rococo in Brazil flourishing up to the mid-18th century, this metaphorical style of rhetoric with its play on words can be found in the satirical poetry of the irreverent 17th-century poet Gregório de Matos Guerra. Nicknamed Boca do Inferno (“Hell’s Mouth”), owing to his vicious barbs concerning the social injustices in the colony, Matos wrote in a colloquial tone that already betrayed impulses of a Brazilian style. The Baroque can also be found in the prose of Father Antônio Vieira, a powerful and learned Portuguese Jesuit who spent many years as a missionary among the Indians in the Amazon and the Northeast. Recognized for his 15 volumes of sermons published between 1679 and 1748, Vieira addressed religious and sociopolitical issues in a florid rhetorical style that became well known throughout Latin America.

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Famous Poets and Poetic Form

In the mid-18th century, literature began to manifest a strong interest in Neoclassical forms of Arcadianism (see arcádia) as practiced by the Minas school of poets, who wrote epic and Neoclassical verse that combined personal lyrics with descriptions of nature and Classical ideals. Greatly influenced by the Enlightenment, these poets formed a “conspiracy” in 1789 with the aim of promoting political independence. The abortive Inconfidência Mineira nevertheless made national heroes of these literary figures, who later were celebrated by several Romantic poets. Two epic poets of the 18th century were Basílio da Gama and José de Santa Rita Durão. As part of the Minas school, they wrote, respectively, O Uraguai (1769; “Uruguay”) and Caramuru: poema épico do descobrimento da Bahia (1781; “Caramuru: Epic Poem of the Discovery of Bahia”). Both epics glorified the indigenous peoples as “noble savages” while praising the natural beauty of the land. Durão’s poem, loosely modeled on the form of the Portuguese epic Os Lusíadas (1572; The Lusiads), by Luís de Camões, is, with its detail of native life, an example of exuberant nativism and a precursor to Romantic Indianism. The lyrical poetry of this school, notable for pastoral verses, is to be found in the work of Cláudio Manuel da Costa (Obras poéticas [1768; “Poetic Works”]) and in Tomás Antônio Gonzaga’s three-part Marília de Dirceu (1792, 1799, 1812; “Marília of Dirceu”), an amatory tribute to his muse, called Marília. As pre-Romantics, these poets led the way toward a burgeoning national literature.