The French in Brazilian Literary Historiography

Abstract

Literary historiography constitutes a field of major importance for the systematic study of national literatures, since it provides the necessary contextualization for the study of authors or works that compose literary tradition. In Brazil, this tradition is connected to the early 19th century showing, among its first authors, Frenchman Ferdinand Denis, who published Résumé de l’histoire littéraire du Portugal, suivi du résumé de l’histoire littéraire du Brésil in 1826. France had then become the country from which Brazilian artistic inspiration came due to the exile of King João VI, who chose to live in Rio de Janeiro, due to the siege of Napoleonic troops. Long before such episodes, however, Brazil had been subject of the book Voyage au pays du Brésil, published in the 16th century by Jean de Léry, one of the participants of the so-called “French Invasions” at the very beginning of the colonization of the Americas. Both works offer relevant contributions for considering the foreigner’s view of Brazil’s nature and inhabitants and the how such view contributed to our literary formation.