On literature and law: indianism and justice in Bernardo Guimarães' novels

Author(s)

Larissa Alves Mundim

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: Campinas, SP.
• Institution: Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas
• Defense date: 2023-05-03

Examining board members

Rodrigo Camargo de Godoi; Maria Helena Pereira Toledo Machado; Wilton José Marques; Jefferson Cano; José Maurício Paiva Andion Arruti

• Advisor: Rodrigo Camargo de Godoi

Abstract

Indianism emerged as one of the main strands of national literature in the 19th century. But, as already denounced by jurists, such as Perdigão Malheiros in 1866, one can consider that one of the assumptions of this literary strand is the idealization of the Indian, which, in turn, contrasted with the reality that marginalizes him in the Empire. However, in certain cases, the same men who dealt with the daily life of indigenist policies also wrote Indianist literature. Therefore, the thesis analyzes the case of Bernardo de Guimarães, an author who graduated as a Law Bachelor in São Paulo, worked as a journalist and writer in Rio de Janeiro and Minas Gerais, and was a Judge in the Province of Goiás, where he dealt with the indigenous issue in the courts finding empirical subsidies for his works of fiction starring indigenous characters. Given the nature of the novelist's work in the Judiciary, this thesis takes as its method the crossing of sources of diverse origins, mainly literary and legal. Among other themes, it investigates the invention of the caboclo in Bernardo de Guimarães' literature as a solution to the labor problem that arose after the end of the African slave trade in 1850 (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 17/21487-6 - About letters and laws: Indianism and justice in Bernardo Guimarães
• Grantee: Larissa Alves Mundim
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate