The erudite amphitheater: a rhetorical study of the Biblioteca Lusitana

• Grant number: 22/07144-7
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: October 01, 2022
• End date: September 30, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Literature - Brazilian Literature
• Principal Investigator: João Adolfo Hansen
• Grantee: Dario Trevisan de Almeida Filho
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This doctoral project proposes a study of Biblioteca lusitana (1741-59), by Diogo Barbosa Machado. In it, we will first discuss the reception of the work, since the nineteenth century, as "literary proto-historiography" by Brazilian literary historiography and criticism. Next, we will propose the substitution of this category by "biblioteca", understanding it as a historically more credible denomination and, thus, with a potentially privileged analytical scope. With this movement, "biblioteca" is suggested as the designation of an autonomous literary genre, conditioned by the rhetorical conventions of its time and, therefore, endowed with particular and distinct characteristics of nineteenth- and eighteenth-century literary histories. Based on this hypothesis, we will proceed to a rhetorical description of the Biblioteca lusitana, comparing it with the genre models alluded to by the author in the prologue of the work, in order to clarify its inventive, dispositive and elocutive aspects. Finally, we will investigate the intervening sense of the work in its time, associating it, in particular, to the initiatives of writing the Portuguese History and its domains developed by the Royal Academy of Portuguese History (1720-76), of which Barbosa Machado was a member.