Historical Context
After the independence of Brazil from Portugal in 1822, a heavy nationalism spread through the Brazilian people. Inspired by this, poets and writers began to search for an entity that could represent and personify the newly-created Brazilian nation. Since there was no Middle Ages in Brazil, it could not be the knight, as in the European chivalric romances; it could not be the Portuguese man either, since Brazilians still held resentment for the years of colonization; it could not be the black man either, since the mentality of the time did not allow it. Influenced by Enlightenment ideals, especially works by Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the "noble savage" myth, the authors chose the Brazilian Indian to represent the new nation.
Read more about this topic: Indianism (arts)
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