A Reading of Republicanism in Sousândrade’s Poetry

Abstract

This article discusses the poems Novo Éden: Poemeto da adolescência (1888-1889), Harpa de Ouro (1888-1889) and O Guesa, O Zac (1902) with emphasis on the republican political content that constitutes them. In this triad, Sousândrade builds a legitimizing narrative of the Brazilian Republic by presenting us with the panorama of the struggle for the emancipation of the free and democratic nation as a result of the efforts of two national heroes: Tiradentes and, surprisingly, Princess Isabel, both represented as Christian martyrs defenders of a new political Eden. It is worth mentioning that these poems are inscribed in the moment of transition from a monarchic to a republican Brazil, marked by ideological disputes by political groups that intended to be protagonists of the nation’s modernization towards the 20th century.