RELATOS SELVAGENS

O ESPELHO INDÍGENA NAS LETRAS QUINHENTISTAS E SEISCENTISTAS

Abstract

This paper compares the colonial literature on indigenous peoples produced by Jesuits Vieira and Nóbrega with that of Protestants Staden, Léry and Knivet. Such an analysis seeks to understand how the Jesuit and Protestant discourses on the subject relate to each other, since, as Daher pointed out, the idea that Portuguese colonizers belittle the natives, while French travelers praise them, is rather simplistic. Thus, it argues that the rhetorical multiplicity produced on the topic was key in constructing modern thought, as Marcondes states about Montaigne’s “Of cannibals.” Among other theorists, this article applies the concepts proposed by Hansen and Lima, whose arguments help understand how the native populations were taken as ‘mirrors’ that reflected other realities.