O 16th century, in Brazil and Portugal, designates an important phase in the history of literature in these countries, despite having expressed itself differently in both. In Brazil, it designates the set of texts and authors from the colonial period, comprising the first three centuries since the Portuguese conquest. Divided into two strands, one characterized by the occurrence of texts from information and another for the occurrence of texts from charactercatechizer, this initial period of germination of the letters in the nascent Brazilian territory is of fundamental importance for knowing the country's history and its literary tradition.
In relation to Portugal, Quinhentismo manifested itself in a literary production focused on classical expression, or that is, works were produced that resumed Greco-Latin themes and aesthetics, in the molds of what was proposed by the Rebirth.
Read too: Arcadianism in Brazill – literary school that also took up Greco-Latin themes
Historical Context of 16th Century
In the first three centuries of Brazil, social life and, consequently, the economic and cultural sphere developed around the relationship between the colony and the metropolis. This relationship took place so that the colony was extremely exploited by the metropolis, which made the immediate concern of the first settlers, that is, inhabitants of the territory, was to occupy the land, explore O brazilwood, cultivate sugar cane, extract gold.
This exploratory posture was crucial for the existence of urban centers that emerged from exploration cycles of these raw materials destined for the European metropolis. Thus, they formed, in the Brazil, social islands, more precisely the following: Bahia, Pernambuco, Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo.
Parallel to economic exploitation, which was the driving force of these nuclei, there were among its inhabitants those who manifested, through writing, the first echoes of literature in Brazil, that is, the first manifestations, albeit timid, of the thought of the intellectual elite.
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Characteristics of the 16th century
The manifestations of 16th century literature can be divided into two groups, which, despite common features, have distinguishing characteristics: information literature and formation or catechesis literature. See their respective characteristics:
→ information literature
The first written records from Brazil have the characteristic of documentation of the colonizing process that marked the first years of settlement. It is information that European travelers and missionaries they wrote down about man and the nature of the lands they knew in that context. These records descriptive do not belong to the literary category, since there was no aesthetic concern in organizing them in favor of a delight that comes from a reading of fruition, that is, focused on pleasure, like those generated by a fictional work.
However, some literary critics situate this nascent production as a rich thematic font for later writers. After all, the description of the original landscape, indigenous habits and customs and social groups that were born in the urban centers that emerged formed a encyclopedia to which writers, like those of the Brazilian Romanticism, resorted to writing a literature genuinely focused on national themes.
Thus, the embryonic intellectual production of Brazil Colony, materialized in the reports from travelers and Catholic missionaries, has not only historical value of recording a time, but also served as inspiring thematic material for later literary production, which had as its principle the construction of a truly Brazilian literature, establishing itself as a counterpoint to that produced in Portugal.
Main works and authors of information texts
The main productions of Brazil Colony, written in the 16th and 17th centuries, categorized as informative are:
TheLetter, from Pero Vaz de Caminha to el-Rei Dom Manuel, referring to the discovery of a new land and the first impressions of nature and the indigenous (1500);
O Navigation DiaryPero Lopes e Sousa, scribe of the first colonizing group, that of Martim Afonso de Sousa (1530);
O Brazil Land Treatyand the History of the Province of Santa Cruz which we commonly call Brazil, by Pero de Magalhães Gândavo (1576);
The Epistolary Narrative and the Land and People Treaties of Brazil, by the Jesuit Fernão Cardim (1583);
O Descriptive Treaty of Brazil, by Gabriel Soares de Sousa (1587);
you Dialogues of the greatness of Brazil, by Ambrósio Fernandes Brandão (1618);
at cards of Jesuit missionaries written in the first two centuries of catechesis (later recorded in anthologies, as in At Jesuit Letters, of 1993);
at Two trips to Brazil, by Hans Staden (1557);
The Trip to the land of Brazil, by Jean de Léry (1578);
The history of Brazil, by Friar Vicente do Salvador (1627).
See too: First romantic generation - movement that resorted to sixteenth-century accounts
→ Training or Catechesis Literature
Parallel to the information works written by lay travelers who pioneered the colony, were also produced, works of a pedagogical and moral nature, the so-called formation or catechetical literature, produced by the Jesuit missionaries. Coming from Portugal, these religious, who had the mission of catechizing the Indians, left letters, treatises, chronicles and poems, which they became records not only of a religious practice of spreading Catholicism, but also records of texts with a certain refinement aesthetic.
Main works and authors of formation or catechesis texts
The most significant authors of this trend are the priests Manuel da Nóbrega, Fernão Cardim and José de Anchieta.
Manuel da Nóbrega (1517-1570)
He was born in Alijó, Portugal, and died in Rio de Janeiro. He arrived in Bahia on March 29, 1549 and attended the first mass celebrated in that locality. it was um of the founders of the cities of Salvador and Rio de Janeiro.
In the letters he wrote to Portugal, there is a description of the beginning of the settlement of Brazilian lands. In addition, as a catechist, his writings contributed to the study of customs of the tupinambá indigenous society. In his first letter from Brazil, to Father Simão Rodrigues, provincial in Portugal, he expresses a typical posture of the Jesuits about the conversion of the indigenous and the attempt to eliminate certain habits from their culture, such as cannibalism and polygamy:
"He says he wants to be a Christian and not eat human flesh, nor have more than one wife and other things: only that he has to go to war and those who captivate sell them and make use of them, because these in this land always have war with others and so all walk in discord. They eat each other, I say the opposites. They are people who have no knowledge of God, nor idols, they do whatever they are told."
His main work is Gentile Conversion Dialogues(possibly from 1558), in which he presents the “negative” and “positive” aspects of the Indian, from the point of view, evidently, of someone interested in the conversion of the original peoples to Catholicism.
Fernão Cardim (1549-1625)
He was born in Viana do Alentejo, Portugal, and died in Bahia, just outside the city of Salvador. The three treatises he wrote were condensed for the first time in the work Brazil's Land and People Treaty, published in 1939.
His first two texts,Brazil's climate and land and From the beginning and origin of the Brazilian Indians, were first published in English, in the collection directed by Samuel Purchas, in London, in 1623. The third text, the Epistolary Narrative of a Journey and Jesuit mission, was published in 1847, in Lisbon, by Francisco Adolfo de Varnhagen. In these works, there is a predominance of an enthusiastic description of the country's fauna and flora, according to him:
“This Brazil is already another Portugal, and not talking about the climate that is much more temperate and I go out, without great calms, nor cold, and where men live a lot with few diseases”.
José de Anchieta (1534-1597)
He was born in the Canary Islands, Spain, and died in the city of Reritiba, now the city of Anchieta, in the state of Espírito Santo. In Brazil, participated in the foundation of the city of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.
It was noted, in the colonial period, as poet and dramatist, but also published historical chronicles and a Tupi language grammar, a Grammar art of the most used language on the coast of Brazil(1595). In drama, he published works inspired by the works of the Portuguese writer Gil Vicente, such as the auto At the feast of São Lourenço, first staged in 1583. As for the language, it is observed in these records sometimes the use of the Portuguese language, sometimes the use of the Tupi language.
Although the religious content, destined to the edification of the Indian and the white, permeated his poetic work, as well as permeated his other works, his poems show a more accentuated aesthetic care. Look at this fragment of the poem “of the Blessed Sacrament”:
What bread, what food,
oh what a divine treat
gives itself to us on the holy altar
each day!
[...]
This gives immortal life,
this one kills all hunger,
because in him God and man
contain themselves.
[...]
that this manjar all spend,
because it is wasting fire
that with your divine love
everything burns.
The presence of religious symbols, common in the catechesis texts of the 16th century, is evident in all the stanzas of this poem fragment. Bread, a Eucharistic element, represents the body of Christ and, as in the biblical text, in the poem, it is raised to a symbol capable of supplying human imperfections.
See too: Iracema - novel that portrays the meeting between Europeans and Brazilian Indians
16th Century or Classicism in Portugal
Sixteenth or Classicism is how the set of literary works is named produced during the Rebirth, artistic, literary and scientific movement inspired by the Greco-Latin culture that prevailed in Europe in the 16th century.
Going with what was happening in history at that time, marked by profound social, economic, cultural and religious transformations, Classicism promoted the replacement of medieval faith by the cult of rationality, Christianity by Greco-Latin Mythology and, above all, it elevated man to the centrality of everything (anthropocentrism).
→ Main authors and works
Francisco de Sa de Miranda(1481-1558)
Pioneer of Classicism / 16th Century in Portugal, Sá de Miranda was born in Coimbra and died in Amares, in the interior of Portuguese territory. Its importance in the literary history of its country lies mainly in the fact that it introduced the decasyllable verse in Portugal, that is, the verse characterized by having ten metric syllables. He was also a pioneer in the composition of sextinas, triplets and octaves, influencing many poets in that context. See a fragment of one of his poems, entitled “Sonnet 11”:
In cruel torments, such suffering,
in such continual pain that it never eases,
to call death always, and that it, haughty,
laugh at my pleas, in torment!
In this stanza, one of the recurrent themes in his works can be observed: the philosophical reflection on the finitude of life. In addition to several poetic compositions, he wrote the tragedy Cleopatra, the comedies Foreign and villagers, in addition to letters in verse, the most famous being the one he addressed to King D. John III.
Luís Vaz de Camões (1525-1580)
Most important Portuguese language writer, Camões bequeathed to Western culture the famous epic poem The Lusiads, work published in 1572. This literary classic narrates the heroic deeds of the Portuguese, who, in the 14th and 15th centuries, launched themselves on the high seas. Full of references to Greco-Latin mythology, this work is the high point of classicism, as the beginning of the first song foreshadows:
corner I
The weapons and barons assigned
Which, from the western Lusitana beach,
By seas never before sailed,
They also went beyond Taprobana,
In perils and hard wars
More than human strength promised,
And among remote people they built
New kingdom, which so sublimated;
Camões also wrote lyrics, one of the most famous being the one that begins with the stanza below:
Love is fire that burns without being seen;
It's a wound that hurts, and you don't feel it;
It is discontented contentment;
It's pain that freaks out without hurting.
To learn more about other works from this European artistic period, access the text: Classicism.
solved exercises
Question 1 - (PUC-Camp) Father José de Anchieta, in his mission to catechize the Indians, wrote documents in which he sought to represent Christian values. In one of these records, he presented a speech by Satan:
I aim
stir up all the tabas.
good thing is to drink
Even vomiting cauin.
This is greatly appreciated.
This is recommended,
This is admirable.
Note, in these verses, that Anchieta
a) communicates with the Indians without in any way distinguishing them from the Christian faithful.
b) mixes elements of native culture and a prayer from the Catholic mass.
c) mocks the satanic temptation, adapting it to the experiences of the natives.
d) uses an elevated language to counteract that of the Indians.
e) seeks to understand what he considers sins of the Indians, and absolve them.
Resolution
Alternative C. By mocking the satanic temptation, the priest indirectly condemns a practice common to the indigenous (drinking cauim and getting drunk), making the native associate the attitude to a sin, induced by forces satanic.
Question 2 - (UPE) The Letter from the Discovery of Brazil, according to Alfredo Bosi, is a travel diary. In it, the author Pero Vaz de Caminha, when extolling the beauties and riches of the land, aims at
a) convince the Portuguese authorities to send settlers to the discovered region so that they could take possession of land, preventing the entry of foreign ships on the Brazilian coast, much coveted by the British in the era.
b) communicate to the King of Portugal, Dom João Terceiro, that the new land had been discovered and that everything in it was attractive, including nature, quite exuberant. For this reason, the sailors were so delighted that they showed their intention not to return to Portugal.
c) demonstrate to the Portuguese king that the navigators have achieved the objectives of the voyage, since they were sure, when they left Europe, that they would find, without much sacrifice, lands south of the Ecuador.
d) certify to the king his arrival in the new land, which had made a good impression on him because it was rich, had fresh water, was lush in nature, in addition to being inhabited by an exotic people who wore no clothes.
e) inform the Portuguese regent about the difficulties of the trip, the existing disagreements between the sailors and the vision of the new land, by the way unsatisfactory, in view of the difficulty of access and the poor hospitality of its population.
Resolution
Alternative “d”. The main concern of Pero Vaz de Caminha's text is to inform the king of Portugal about the arrival of Cabral's squadron in Brazil and transmit in detail data about the land where they landed, which had made a good impression on him for being rich, having fresh water and lush nature.
Question 3 - (UEU). At work the lusiads, the corner IX is known as the one that contains the episode of the Isle of Loves. Note the painting below Waterhouse that shows an idyllic place where the nymphs seductively welcome Hylas, a very handsome young Greek, belonging to the Argonauts, who has never been seen again. The Camoian text also portrays an environment recognized as locus amoenus, a pleasant and protected place where there are clear waters, grass and leafy trees.
Ilha dos Amores is the moment of reward for navigators, offered by Venus, who has the task of protecting the Portuguese Navy.
Considering the amount of references to classical antiquity in the work Os lusíadas, observing the table, and based on the knowledge of the literature of the period, it is correct to state:
a) Luís de Camões is a neoclassical poet, because he uses the locus amoenus and of mythological figures.
b) Camões' work brings with it the conflict between classical knowledge and the influence of the church.
c) The epic work helped its author to obtain international recognition in his lifetime.
d) Camões uses the epic tradition, contrasting the poet with the commandments of the Christian Church.
e) The presence of Greek mythology and the auxiliary Vasco da Gama is a poetic license used by Camões.
Resolution
Alternative “e”. Camões is a classic poet – the use of the figure of the locus amoenus and from Greco-Latin mythology it refers to classical antiquity; in turn, eighteenth-century neoclassicism uses the same themes to retake Renaissance Classicism. The use of classical mythology does not represent a conflict with Christian ideas, nor with the Catholic Church, since this use it is allegorical – that is, Camões uses Greek myths as a traditional theme of poetry, and not because he believes in his gods.
By Leandro Guimarães
Literature teacher
