The political and historical views of Maria Graham on Journal of a voyage to Brazil / O vies politico e historico de Maria Graham em Diario de uma viagem ao Brasil

AUTOR(ES)
DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO

2009

RESUMO

The main object of this thesis is the Journal of a voyage to Brazil and residence there, during part of the years 1821, 1822, 1823, by the British writer Maria Graham. The focus of this thesis is on the great British influence over Brazil in the nineteenth century, on how Graham takes a position that supports British interests, as well as the manner she narrates all these facts. To analyze this, the following steps were taken: careful examination of the bibliographic material; studies about the History of Brazil; analysis of support and references regarding travel literature theory; organization of all these readings; analysis on how the contents of the books of this bibliographic corpus meet. The relevance of this research is that the studies about Graham generally tend to be about the subjective aspect of her narrative, but never about the political and historical factors implied in the production of her texts. This author wrote in a moment of political changes throughout the world. Europe was recovering from the Napoleonic wars and getting rid of the ancien régime; the colonies from South America were claiming for independence. Finally, England was the greatest power then, and was deeply interested in Brazil, to enlarge its commercial relationships. Therefore, the main objective of this research is to show how this context appears on Graham’s travel books, especially on Journal of a voyage to Brazil, and also to understand how these circumstances influenced the production of her texts. We concluded that Graham’s point of view, who came from a continent that was becoming more and more modern, in contact with Brazil, ends up seeing Brazil as a country with barbarian habits. This female point of view brings to the reader a detailed sociological investigation about issues related to everyday little things, as well as more important subjects such as political issues. Finally, regarding the political issues, we also concluded that although Graham does not admit it clearly, she supports the interests of Britain. Since this country was interested in the commercial advantages that Brazil could offer, its most important interest was that Brazil became an independent nation, as well as it kept its nacional unity.

ASSUNTO(S)

subjetividade subjectivity daily of trip diario de viagem brasil england

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