Citation of Camões in the Memoirs of Camilo Castelo Branco

Abstract

This study analyzes the presence of Luís de Camões’s work in the literary production of Camilo Castelo Branco, highlighting it as a “mandatory reference” for the novelist. According to Alexandre Cabral (1989), Camonian work is frequently quoted in the various genres cultivated by Camilo. The research focuses particularly on Memórias do cárcere (1862), a work that establishes an intimate relationship with Camilo’s experience of imprisonment in the Relação do Porto prison. The analysis demonstrates how Camilo seeks to promote his identification not with the factual Camões, but with the imaginary about the poet constructed by Almeida Garrett, basing his self-portrait on the figure of the martyr “who had suffered from most disastrous loves”. The study reveals how Camilo, by incorporating and reinterpreting the figure and work of Camões, establishes a profound dialogue with the Portuguese literary tradition, constructing for himself an image of an author who inscribes himself in the lineage of the great national writers, while elaborating a scathing critique of the society of his time.