Gaspar Vilela, Alessandro Valignano and João Rodrigues Tçuzu: language and adaptation on the metodology of jesuit work in Japan

• Grant number: 11/02614-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: August 01, 2011
• End date: November 30, 2012
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Literature - Modern Foreign Languages
• Principal Investigator: Eliza Atsuko Tashiro
• Grantee: Mariana Amabile Boscariol
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 11/23144-2 - Mapping of missionary documentation: impressions and position of the Jesuits who acted in Japan about the Japanese language (1549 - 1610), BE.EP.MS

Abstract

In the Jesuit mission founded in Japan by the portuguese from 1549, some priests conquered prominence in virtue of they individual work of catechism and education. With the arrival of a large number of missionaries, the method of action in relation to the doctrinal work took different forms and boardings, in accordance with the Jesuit who used them. In this context, I intend to study the question of the language as for their usage in the missionary methodology, understood as cultural accommodation, throughout the mission. Will be selected, for analysis, stories and letters from three Jesuit missionaries who represent the different phases above cited: Gaspar Vilela (1526-1572) and the first moment of the campaign, characterized by the experimentation; Alessandro Valignano (1539-1606) and a more official position as the adoption of a politic of cultural adaptation and deepening of the educational character; and, João Rodrigues Tçuzu (1561-1633), with the systematization and understanding of the language by grammars and dictionaries, assisting the deepening of the learning of the Japanese language. (AU)