France between two Americas: French travelers in the United States and Latin America (1836-1867)

• Grant number: 14/18811-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: January 01, 2015
• End date: June 05, 2016
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - History - History of America
• Principal Investigator: Maria Ligia Coelho Prado
• Grantee: Valdir Donizete dos Santos Junior
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This research intends to analyze French travel writings about South and North Americas, published between 1836 and 1867. This work will discuss the elaboration of different conceptions about the America colonized by the British and the other one colonized by the Portuguese and Spanish, emphasizing the existence of two Americas, the "Anglo-Saxon" and the "Latina". The French construction of images on the new continent introduced components that were appropriate by North and South Americans in formulating their local identities. Similarly, in these texts there is a concern about France's place in the international context of the 19th century and its confrontation with England and the United States. This research begins (chronologically) with the first edition of Lettres sur l ' Amérique du Nord, by Michel Chevalier, text that express, at the same time, the experience of the author in American Federation and the formulation of the original idea of an America "latina"; and it ends with the defeat of the French intervention in Mexico and the definitive failure of the dream of making French power hegemonic in the subcontinent. The sources of this investigation included selected texts by Michel Chevalier, Alcide D'orbigny, Xavier Marmier, Hippolyte du Pasquier of Dommartin, Jean-Jacques Ampère and Élisée Reclus, French men who traveled, in the mid 19th century, through various parts of the New World, forging conceptions and elaborating projections about the region. (AU)

Academic Publications

(References retrieved automatically from State of São Paulo Research Institutions)

SANTOS JUNIOR, Valdir Donizete dos. Industrial utopias, imperial dreams: Michel Chevalier between Latins and Anglo-Saxons in Europe and in the Americas (1833-1863). 2019. Doctoral Thesis - Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH/SBD) São Paulo.