Topics in the tropics: the sublime in O Guarani (1857), by José de Alencar

• Autor(a) principal: Felipe, Cleber Vinicius do Amaral
• Data de Publicação: 2021
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: História da Historiografia
• Texto Completo: https://www.historiadahistoriografia.com.br/revista/article/view/1604
• topic: Romanticism; Brazilian literature; Rhetoric; Romantismo; Literatura brasileira; Retórica

This article focuses on a set of common places found in the novel O Guarani (1857), by José de Alencar, to historicize the artistic paradigm that supported his writing, analyze the construction of indigenous peoples and map some characteristics mobilized to describe the Brazilian forests and the cataclysm that closes the narrative. Our proposal adheres to an aesthetic approach that does not neglect the dated character of linguistic codes, that is, topics such as originality and genius were taken as conventions or constructs that Alencar’s novel sought to hide in order to meet the literary protocols of the time. Although the denial of rhetorical-poetic devices is recurrent, the novelist resorted to new resources such as the concept of the sublime. Thus, of the novel is not lacking in protocols and prescriptions, but the choice of other literate devices articulated to the political proposals of D. Pedro II, to the Indianist project and to the new aesthetic demands.