YEARBOOK OF EUROPEAN STUDIES — ANNUAIRE D’ETUDES EUROPEENNES Series Edito Menno Spiering, of Amsterdam Joep Leerssen, University of Amsterdam Robert Harmsen, The Queen’s Univ Thomas M. Wilson, The Queen’s Univ ‘ity of Belfast Review Editor Philippa Sherrington, The Queen’s University of Belfast YEARBOOK OF EUROPEAN STUDIES ANNUAIRE D’ETUDES EUROPEENNES 12 rs SF NATION BUILDING AND WRITING LITERARY HISTORY edited by ‘Menno Spiering ae Amsterdam - Atlanta, GA 1999‘Yearpoox oF FuROPEAN SrupIES 12 (1999): 185-196 ‘QUICK, FLEETING SKETCHES’ LITERARY HISTORY IN PORTUGAL IN THE 19™ CENTURY Fernando Venancio the end of the 18* century and the year 1835, there was Tittle in the way of cultural activity in Poruigal. Any publication of Court, Church is more, di this period was disrupted by the threat of a Franco-Spanish inva- sion and any new idea coming from France - and all that was new came from that country - was viewed with suspicion, But the port of Engl after the King’s flight to Brazil in 1808, were in de facto control of the country. A liberal revolution in 1820 placed the king on the throne again. A few intellectuals were able at this point to penetrate through to the centre of power, but then a right-wing revolution forced them into exile in England and France. In 1825 the poet and pol (1799-1854), a leading exile, is Camées in London, heralding the birth of Portuguese Romanticism. Only in 1834, when the civil war finally ended in favour of the liberal King Pedro, did life become livable again in Portugal. In that same year, large-scale cultural activities got under way that would last for several decades. As early as 1836 the number ofERNANDO VENANCIO Some of them, including Herculano's O Panorama and Castilho’s Revista Universal would be the leading arbiters of literary taste until far into the 1850s. Once the country had been freed of the Ingui mn and absolute led, there was a feeling that everything was possibl tical, legal and social terms, and not only possible ~ compulsory. Cultural recon- struction was the objec the field of literarure and that of iterature around 1818 ~ dated from 1793. This was the four-part Memérias de Literatura Portuguesa (Essays on Portuguese ture) on which a number of philologist members of a society had worked. In the forty years jon to the issue of The year 1834, or thereal recognised by many as the beginning of an era. Castilho saw it as the birth of a ‘new, fiery ‘ae anions generation An wnagned| aril] dint appeneed had changed unrecognisaby in cultural terms. has permeated society, longer recognises itself after a short period of ten to twelve years. New principles are formulated, new systems arise and new theories contest each other in pol sciences’. In 1850, Marcelino M weekly Esmeralda dated the begi bourgeoisie’ and of ‘great progress around 1834. ‘Only sixteen year literary history has been enriched with great monuments. expressions of concern were n and poet Alexandre Hercu- Literary History in Portugal in the 19 Century 187 lano (1810-1877), who pointed out th in Portugal. In an article entitled “Wha What path should it be following now?” of literary reflection te is our literature in? asked for a ‘ci past for Portugal. He argued that th so great. But we are heading for chaos, from wl to fice ourselves as fast as other na ‘course’ in Portuguese developed in tis This request was granted. At least, in 1834 the Ligdes Nacional by exile Freire de Carvalho (1779-1854) were published in Rio de Janeiro. This was intended to be the first part of a ‘Curso nal’, According to the to provide ‘clear, exact principles that answer which in practice amounted to prose. nerely reiterated the positions taken up by Greek and Roman authors, notably Quintilianus, on this subject. But he di th great conviction. In his view, these were authors that should be ‘studied by all those who wish to distinguish them- mastery of rhetoric. ‘This could hardly have been the ‘course’ that Herculano so earnestly advocated. Nev of the Licdes in 1840 (published was impatient to see the second part, Poética, whose publication had been announced. He wrote in O Panorama ‘We can now contend that we have a course in literature for beginners which closely follows the present state of human knowledge.’ How could h a conservative and traditional work was such a crying need? Perhaps he had understood how unrealistic his dreams were in the Portugal of his time and had contented himself with what there was,188 FERNANDO VENANCIO Essayist and poet Anténio Feliciano de Castilho (1800-1875) also felt the need to expose the theoretical and educational vacuum in the ature course’. His extensive fact treatments of very varied liter essays accompanying his m of La Confession d’ Amélie by, Delfine Gay and the Portuguese version of Fontanclle's Convers Mondes are worthy of note. He was unconcerned by the fact that his collaboration on such works was often a pretext for his literary exposes. Castilho’s doctrinal vocation was clear and was understood by his contemporaries. But he never managed to publish a c n of his, articles, much less to work them into the body of doctrine Hercu- Jano was seeking. The fact that he was blind, and therefore com- pletely dependent on others, coupled with his very arbitrary way of working (prompted by a foreword, a review or participation in debate) have stood in the way of any overall view of his very substantial body of work. As a result, the original and progressive ideas he put forward in the 1830s and 1840s were completely forgotten and from the fifties onwards he was regarded as the perfect illustration of rigidity in literary theory. prefaces and epilogues were ‘The history of the writing of literary history in Portugal in the 19° century is chiefly one of hesitation, warnings, failed endeavour and ed chances. This was completely understandable. Although the civil war had ended, Portuguese p in a turbulent state, The country’s cultural life there was no systematic debate or contacts until the 1850s, which explains the total lack of continuity and knowledge of the work of others. What is more, little was known about entire literary periods, particularly the Middle Ages, and the little that was known was often the subject of speculation and supposition, hardly the most inspiring basis for overall studies. Then there was the problem of the medio- | cre intellectual capa only university (indeed the 1910, when the infant Republic founded and Oporto. (Although in 1854, partly through the int German prince consort, an semi-official ‘Curso Superior de Letras’ ates it issued were not widely Iso lost in marginal controversies, 1837 regarding the true origins of the Portuguese language, which some, including the celebrated Cardinal Saraiva of Lisbon, believed to be Celtic. And finally the latent conviction that contemporary literature was decadent was not overly conducive to the study of Portuguese literature The first attempt to write a history of Portugu made in Paris in 1826, where Almeida Garr quejo da historia da poesia c lingua portuguesa’ (Essay on the history of Portuguese poetry and language) as an 1871, an admirer of Garrett's, Te6filo srary historian whom we shall later discuss in more rewrite and expand the article at some point. Yet a biographer of Garrett, Gomes de Amorim, who had made this known in 1881, believed that ‘nothing else has been written on this subject that in any way undermines its value’ ‘The philologist Freire de Carvalho’s attempt to write an overview of literary history went somewhat further. In 1845 he published Primeiro Ensaio sobre Historia Literdria de Portugal, w claimed to have written in 1814. In its current form he described the Primeiro Ensaio (or ‘first attempt’) as ‘the first standard, methodical study’ of the material, and he invited ‘industrious anderudite spirits’ to write a comy ? plete literary history of Portugal. Carvalho's own work is indeed erudite, and this is clear from his remarkably broad definition of the concept of literature, In hi (and particularly in reflected in the work of cultural wi 2 te Silvestre Ribeiro (1807-1891) published in the Revista, Universal collected and annotated an impressive of what he called ‘aids we possess for the history of In 1853 this work appeared as part of a led to serve as a ‘bi and thereby to show how plines at school and univer ho could say’, was his ishmeat, ‘that Literature is less comprehen- nd less useful to humanity than other Facul- ties?". The series he envisaged never got any further than the first volume. It is difficult to understand by Ribeiro did not inspire anyone quoted by anyone else ‘A new ‘letiers programme’ was : s Set up in 1859 anonymously in the popular periodical Mustracdo Luso-Brasileira. This was another attempt to highlight the area of literature and its importance. The a ee rary history was becoming more widely felt. In an sy dating from 1848 entitled ‘The necessity for a literary history of Portugal’ the philologist Heliodoro Rivara condemned the ‘nes ity of a people buried in intellectual rigidity.” s “Bosquejo” and Carvalho’s Primeiro Ensaio : 1850, the poetry critic Costa e Silva, a himself advocated a more systematic study of poetry from the century onwards, also voiced complaints, He said that Portugal was the only country in Europe withe ory of i to action and was never Savery amDWnLy om a view ee ene terary criticism could only manage to “describe a features of bygone centuries in quick, fleeting lacked ‘references" which ‘This situation would con- ie, according to Rebelo da as long as studies in this field ith little warmth and never given any support.” For, he said, ‘the public has no interest in them, and our narrow- minded and incomplete education system never quotes them, for it is not even aware of them. shape’, whil Romanticos, published in 1871, was the first volume of this history, ‘and was followed in 1880 by Histéria do Romantismo em Portugal. ‘On account of his opinions on literature and nationalism, notably his slorification of the Middle Ages, it was only the work of Garr popular poet and collector of traditional ballads, that Braga could praise without any reservation. The work is in fact a far-reaching settlement of accounts (partly for personal motives) with other great names in the Portuguese Romantic movement, principally Castilho, Herculano and the novelist Camilo Castelo Branco (1825-1890). In fact Garrett and Camilo were the only writers whose work became the subject of a monograph in their lifetimes. Rebelo da Silva wrote a comprehensive study in 1849 entitled “The modern literary school. Mr Garrett’. It was a classic example of thorough research coupled with a fascinating exposé. In order to emphasis the importance of one of his books on the subject of linguistic innova~ tion, Rebelo da Silva produced a veritable history of the Portuguese language, including the current century. According to the author, in Castitho’s works the language of poetry had been proved to lend ‘lf to ‘anything’, while Herculano’s prose fulfilled ‘all the re- quirements of modern genres’. The time had come for Garrett to conquer the “final resistance’ of the language with his Viagens na Minha Terra, of 1843. For, as he wrote ‘such mastery of language ‘and serenity of imagination is not achieved until in the arts the period of perfection has been reached and in criticism the period ofreflection and taste.’ This was not the only beatification of a living writer. In 1861, the cultural writer Vieira de Castro published a consummately hagiographic biography of Camilo Castelo Branco, had become popular through his adventurous, ‘romantic’ novels and his archaic but proper use of language. A second, amended impression appeared the following year and was less fulsome and more objective. What is remarkable is that in overall terms, the essayist had judged the work of his self-willed but worthy contemporary fairly accurately 863 the cultural writer and art critic Andrade Ferreira (1823- 1875) finally made a start on the first systematic history of Portu- guese literature. However, this was publ in an educational periodical and therefore had little impact. Only in 1875 was it to appear in book form, at a time when Braga’s work was already known. His early death meant that Ferreira never finished his work: that was to be acco lo Castelo Branco, in 1876. The fact that Ferreira’s work could almost be described as clandestine meant that Te6filo Braga became the first author of a trary history. A tireless autodidact, Braga published 1869 and 1872 ten volumes covering the Middle Ages (about which much more was known due to the discovery of Cancioneiros in the Vatican and elsewhere) up to the Romantic period, notably Garrett. Braga had learnt from Comte that literature was the expression of a ‘people emancipating itself. Portuguese mediaeval lyric poetry illustrates this point, according to Braga, with a strength and purity that would never be equalled. Garrett's endeavour to rediscover traditional poetry in its most authentic form and to imitate it made him a genuine Romantic, in Braga’s view, and his works represented the summit of literary quality in the 19% century. In a note to ‘ria da 872), Braga wrote ‘In the cont nd the genius of mediaeval literatures, it was Portuges that sacrificed most of its national character to classicism and that lost most of its originality.’ Braga’s work principally serves to 6ria da Literatura Portuguesa between the Latin traditions ene eee ee justify his ‘anti-classicist’ position and to demonstrate the authentic~ ity of the Portuguese ‘genius’ Nowhere did Braga formulate his convictions more clearly than in the preface to the 1909 edition of his Idade-Média, when more than 30 volumes of his Histéria had been published. There he wrote ory of Portuguese Literature is the result of the importance of this living manifestation of the aesthetic genius of the Portuguese people, which is as remarkable as its energy in undertak- ing the great sea voyages and geographic discoveries. "The honours earned by Portugal do not solely consist ted the great voyages of discovery and to have been at ty in that extraordinary era. Although numerical n to occupying vast dominions, the Portuguese people ‘one of the most beat languages, and in that poets, historians, travellers and philosophers a brilliant manner with the language is spoken today in extent of Portuguese dominion. today - one of the moral forces ‘and autonomy of Portugal. The length of the ‘Andrade Ferreira had also emphasised the close connection between pationality and literature. In the foreword to his book published in 1875, and after he had emphasised the ‘necessity’ of writing a rary history, Ferreira took stock of almost a century of literary studies. He recalled the 18" century Memérias, referred to and a sua ent (Os ttulos de nobreza de Porugal nfo consistem excl ssa lingua ainda hoje se fala em novos estados, inio portugues; ¢ essa literatura foie ainda was morais que sustentam a nacionalidade ¢ autonomia de ‘da Literatura Portuguesa, 1, Oporto, Livratia Chardron, 1909,made certain reservations concerning the nsaios of Freire de Carvalho and of Costa e Silva, and underlined the innovative role layed by Braga’s studies, which nonetheless do not constitute a ‘complete’ literary history. He said of his own work that it ‘ordered the material’ for a genuine literary history. Strangely enough, he forgot to mention in his four d’ horizon the pioneering work of Silvestre Ribeiro, whose aim had been ta produce just such an inventory and who had largely succeeded in that aim. Ferreira wrote on the subject of nationality: ‘The literary history of any country is not solely the totality of bic graphical notes on one of another writer and the list of books he wrote. (...) In our view, literary history comprises the inves recording and analysis of the intellectual progress of a peop! leads to knowledge and characterisation of its 1 ndence and inner relationship between historic facts and manifes- 8 of literary genius are a problem that has been studied and resolved and constitute one of the laws of modern literary crticism.* Nineteenth-century literary histories, or attempts to write them, are nowhere in use in modern Portugal. And although the State Publish- ing Office recently republished Te6filo Braga’s comprehensive Historia, references to it in modern literary histories are rare. Either too amorphous or too systematic, nineteenth-century reflec- tion on Portuguese writing no longer has a contribution to make to useful insights. Braga occasionally provides support for a particular point of view, though such points of view are mostly uninnovative. biogréficas de dda sua pena. [...] A histria apresenta-se-nos como inv dos progressos intelectuais de u (qualificacio das suas igacio, registo e anélise ‘empenho de que resulta 0 conte ima nag2o, como raga, como esta dependéncia e parentesco 0 factos historicos com as manifestagbes do génio terrio € um problema es resolvido que constitui uma das leis da moderna critica lteratia.” (Curso de Literatura Portuguesa, 1, Lisbon, Matos Moreita & C>, nacionalidade, como vitalidade ccongéniio em que se encont Nevertheless, those decades of almost endearing but industrious endeavours to provide Portugal with a literary history represent in general terms a picture of serious effort in a field that has never been rewarding and never will be. The ‘quick, fleeting sketches", as Rebelo da Silva, probably the most honest and independent of these men of letters, described that earnest toil, are more than worthy of their own literary history. References Braga, Teéfilo. Garrett e os Dramas Romanticos, Oporto, Imprensa Portuguesa, 1871 Teoria da Historia da literatura portuguesa, Oporto, Imprensa Portu guesa, 1872. Manual da Histéria da literatura portuguesa, Oporto, L Universal, 1875. Histéria do Romantismo em Portugal, Lisbon, Nova Livraria Inter- nacional, 1880 Carvalho, Francisco Freire de. Licdes elementares de eloquéncia nacio- nnal, Rio de Janeiro, Eduardo Laemmert, 1834 (2nd impression 1840) Primeiro ensaio sobre historia literdria de Portugal, desde a sua ‘remota origem até o presente tempo, Lisbon, Rolandiana, 1845. Castelo Branco, Camilo. Curso de literatura portuguesa, Lisbon, Matos Moreira eC, 18 | Castilho, Anténio Feliciano de. A Noite do Castelo e Os Citimes do Bardo, seguidos da Confissto de Amélia de Delfine Gay, Lisbon, aria Fontanelle, Conversagdes sobre a Pluralidade Castro, J. C. ras, Oporto, Si Ferreita, José Maria de Andrade. [Curso de literatura portuguesa Boletim Geral de Instrucao Piblica, 3-4, 1863-1864, In book form: Lisbon, Matos Moreira & C8, 1875 . Garrett, Almeida. “Bosquejo da histiria da poesia ¢ lingua portuguesa’, in Parnaso Lusitano, Pais, 1826 (2nd impression in O retrato de Vénus e Estudos de historia literdria, Oporto, Vitva Moré Eaitora 1367)