Iracema (1865 to 1981)

Literature, Cinema, and Formation of Brazilian Identity

Abstract

This article, using comparative methodology, aims to review the novel Iracema (1865), by José de Alencar, in order to relate it to the film Iracema: uma transa amazônica (1981), directed by Jorge Bodanzky and Orlando Senna. The theoretical framework includes the postulates by Antonio Candido, Zilá Bernd, Wayne Booth, Marcel Martin, among others. Due to the fact that the analyzed works correspond to different media and historical contexts, this study proposes comparisons about intermediality and 19th and 20th centuries’ socio-historical aspects. Based on these oppositions, it is possible to observe that, despite the media differences, the film’s plot reflects 1970s political issues, mainly the Imperialism, in order to deepen some themes that romanticism prose already used, such as, for example, the antagonism between self and foreigner. With these results, the conclusion is that, with regard to the colonization process, the film offers a new interpretive approach, because it obeys modernist ideals. Thus, this paper covers two moments in Brazilian History and Literature, focusing on essential idiosyncrasies in the formation of national identity.