A make-believe Herodotus: Varnhagen, the writing of the history of the Dutch War and his dialogue with the XVIIth, XVIIIth and XIXth century works

• Autor(a) principal: Clementino, Kleber
• Data de Publicação: 2018
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Clio (Recife. Online)
• Texto Completo: https://periodicos.ufpe.br/revistas/index.php/revistaclio/article/view/237973
• topic: Varnhagen; Dutch War; History of historiography; Politics; Varnhagen; Guerra holandesa; História da historiografia; Política

F. A. de Varnhagen earned in the XXth and XXIth centuries the titles of “Brazilian Herodotus” and “Founder of the History of Brazil”, for the celebrated cientific pioneering and critical rigour of his books, which had suposedly introduced a split in the preceeding historiography. This paper however seeks to demonstrate that at least on the theme of the Dutch War (1624-1654), Varnhagen, concerned during the reign of D. Pedro II (1840-1889) with the construction of Brazil’s nacional identity, wrote under the influence of  XVIIth and XVIIIth centuries’ historical thought. Thus his work brings not rupture, but instead the culmination of a narratio inaugurated during the course of said war, by authors such as D. A. Coelho e M. Calado, both of which Varnhagen defied himself to surpass. To prove it we examine his Historia Geral do Brazil and specially his Historia das lutas com os Hollandezes no Brazil, mapping the dialogue stablished with the known bicentennial bibliography of that struggle.