The making of the portuguese nation in Alexandre Herculano on the first half of the 19th century

• Grant number: 13/25497-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: March 01, 2014
• End date: February 29, 2016
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - History - Modern and Contemporary History
• Principal Investigator: Ana Lúcia Lana Nemi
• Grantee: Larissa da Costa Oliveira
• Host Institution: Escola de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (EFLCH). Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). Campus Guarulhos. Guarulhos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This research intends to comprehend how Alexandre Herculano opts for Portuguese medieval past by creating a dialogue with his present in the making of what could be the contemporary Portuguese nation on the 19th century. The source of research is the historic romance O bobo, firstly published in 1843 in the periodical O Panorama and, lately, published in book, in 1878. The analysis will be done by considering the relation between the romance, its historical context of publication and its author's biography. Through this romance it's intent to understand its author's attempt to point a path for contemporary Portugal. In the making of Portugal that, it's believed in here, the author undertakes, it will be contrasted the role of the nation on the new European arrangement, after The Congress of Vienna, its emphasized and criticized characteristics and the political legitimation of the liberalism defended by Herculano. It was opted for the first half of the 19th century because besides being the period of the chosen source's elaboration, the years of 1848-1850 imposed contents and political and social contexts that won't be approached in here.