The Literature Book

164

See also: The Last of the Mohicans 150 ■ The Gaucho Martín Fierro 199

I

ndianism was a literary and

artistic movement in mid-

19th-century Brazil, in

which writers and artists cast

the country’s indigenous people,

the Indians, in a heroic light.

Two main factors contributed

to Indianism. First, Brazil had only

recently gained independence from

Portugal (in 1821–24), so authors

were expressing the idea that their

new nation was one in which tribes

and Europeans were united and

equal. The second factor was the

arrival in Brazil of Romanticism

from Europe, which cherished

the indigenous people for their

perceived innocence and spiritual

purity (views that derived from the

18th-century sentimental vision of

the “noble savage”).

Romantic idealism

José de Alencar (1829–77) is

regarded as the father of the

Brazilian novel, and The Guarani

first brought him to the attention

of the public. Set in 1604, it tells

the story of an early settler whose

daughter, Cecilia, has a suitor but

instead falls for Peri, the Guarani

Indian of the book’s title. Peri is

an idealized creation, exotic yet

noble, who abandons his tribe and

approves of Christian teachings.

Alencar’s inclusion of native

vocabulary, such as terms for

flora and fauna, was seen as

scandalous by the Portuguese

literary establishment, but it freed

Brazil’s literature to develop in its

own way. Highly romantic and

lyrical, The Guarani is still taught

in Brazilian schools today. ■

I TOO AM A CHILD

OF THIS LAND

I TOO GREW UP

AMID THIS SCENERY

THE GUARANI (1857), JOSE DE ALENCAR

IN CONTEXT

FOCUS

Indianism/Indianismo

BEFORE

1609 Garcilaso Inca de

la Vega, son of a Spanish

conquistador and an Incan

princess, writes Comentarios

Reales de los Incas, a prose

work about Incan traditions

and customs, and Spain’s

conquest of Peru.

1851 Brazilian poet Gonçalves

Dias publishes one of the

most famous poems of the

Indianism movement, I-Juca-

Pirama, about a Tupi warrior.

The title is in Tupi and means,

“He who must die that is

worthy to be killed.”

1856 A Confederação dos

Tamoios is published. An

epic poem about the Tupi

people by Brazilian poet

and playwright Gonçalves

de Magalhães, it was

commissioned by Brazilian

Emperor Pedro II.

They were brave, fearless men,

uniting with the resources of

civilized man, the cunning

and agility of the Indian.

The Guarani

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