Indianism In the First Decade of Romantic Journalism (1833-1845)

Abstract

Those who study the history of 19th-century Brazilian literature often believe that the idealized representation of the indigenous figure as a symbol of national identity was a deliberate aesthetic choice made by the pioneers of the romantic movement. However, this assumption is mistaken. The analysis of the journalistic production of this early period reveals a curious phenomenon: there is a relatively small presence of proposals or examples of indianist literature in them. Examining periodicals such as Jornal dos Debates and Revista Nacional e Estrangeira, both highly representative of the contemporary sensibility, one perceives that indianism did not hold the indispensable value for early Romantics that later critics ascribed to it. This article aims to demonstrate this point. By examining important literary periodicals published between 1833 and 1845, it will become clear that the emergence of the indianist literary trend did not occur spontaneously following political independence, but was instead a slow, gradual, and uneven process.