Nineteenth century's rereadings of Camões

Abstract

The 19th century elevated the figure of Luís de Camões to a sculptural level, as Teófilo Braga had already indicated before the tercentenary celebrations. Since Bocage and Garrett, several writers have sought to associate themselves with this poet. In this article, I propose to analyze some recurring aspects that marked the construction of this ideal and some fictional constructions of Camões in Portuguese Romanticism to examine his use far beyond a simple sculptural character. To this end, I focus on texts that are less well-known today but were widely circulated in their time, such as those by António Feliciano de Castilho, a poem by the poetess Maria Adelaide Fernandes Prata, and a narrative by Alexandre Herculano. In this way, I hope to be able to show how the idea that to be like Camões became recurrent that it was necessary to have defended and sung the country. This would prevent the full association of female writers with the Camonian figure. On the other hand, it allowed Herculano, who was also a soldier and a poet, to sing and tell stories about Portugal in different genres, with the aesthetic freedom he advocated, associating his image with that of the author of The Lusiads, even without referring directly to him or his work.