A comment on literary texts of Anglo Brazilian Times 1865-1884

Taking into consideration the role of literature in shaping the way people think about
themselves and society, this paper aims at investigating the literary sections of the
newspaper ‘The Anglo Brazilian Times: political, literary and commercial’ published
weekly from February 1865 to September 1884 in Rio de Janeiro, then capital of the
Brazilian Empire, particularly its portrayal of Brazilian literature and writers. These
sections encompass book announcements, reviews of books, magazines and newspapers,
as well as literary works such as poems. Its editor and owner, William Scully, was an
Irish-born journalist who was one of the main advocates of Irish immigration to Brazil
and founder of ‘Sociedade Internacional de Imigração’ (International Society for
Immigration) in 1866. The editor argued that Irish immigration to Brazil was a potentially
powerful means of improving economic productivity in Brazil. As immigration and
shipping businesses were complementary and beneficial to his interests, Scully both
advertised Irish immigration in Brazil and promoted it in Great Britain. The reading
audience of The Times was mainly immigrants working in Brasil, but it is also an issue of
this research scrutinize the market of the newspaper and analyze the influence of its
literary sections on readers’ literary taste and ways of thought.

Elisa Lima Abrantes is a professor of Literatures of the English Language in the

Department of Letters and Communication at Federal Rural University of Rio de Janeiro
(UFRRJ). Her research interests include medieval, early modern and contemporary Irish
Literature. She holds a Phd in Comparative Literature from Federal Fluminense
University (UFF, 2010) and completed a post-doctoral research on Sebastian Barry’s
novels at USP (2014).