Questions tagged [portuguese-literature]
For questions about Portuguese literature: works of literature which were originally written in the Portuguese language, whether from Portugal, Brazil, or elsewhere in the world.
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What was the first picaresque novel in Portuguese literature?
The first picaresque novel in European literature was the Spanish novel Lazarillo de Tormes, which was first published in 1554. The Wikipedia article about the genre does not mention any examples in ...
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In what way is Jorge Amado's The Violent Land a modernist novel?
The Wikipedia article about Jorge Amado's The Violent Land / Terras do Sem Fim describes this work as "a Brazilian Modernist novel". The corresponding Portuguese, French and Italian ...
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Were Amado's Captains of the Sands based on reality?
Jorge Amado's novel Captains of the Sands concerns children living in the streets of Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, and forming gangs that engaged in petty crime. From the opening of the book:
“Captains of ...
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31 views
In what way is Jorge Amado's Home Is the Sailor a modernist novel?
The Wikipedia article about Jorge Amado's Home Is the Sailor / Os velhos marinheiros ou o capitão de longo curso describes this work as a "Brazilian modernist novel". The corresponding ...
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In what way is Jorge Amado's The Discovery of America by the Turks a modernist novel?
The Wikipedia article about Jorge Amado's The Discovery of America by the Turks / A Descoberta da América pelos Turcos describes this work as "a Brazilian Modernist novel", even though it ...
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1answer
34 views
What is the famous song about the independence of Bahia or Brazil?
Like many other novels by Jorge Amado, Home Is the Sailor is set in Bahia, one of the states of Brazil. On the second of July, one of the novel's characters organises a ceremony during which
[trumpet ...
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1answer
52 views
Why does Amado repeat the word morte in the title of his novel A Morte e a Morte de Quincas Berro d'Água?
The title of Jorge Amado's novel A Morte e a Morte de Quincas Berro d'Água (1959) has been translated in various ways:
The Two Deaths of Quincas Wateryell,
The Double Death of Quincas Water-Bray (...
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What is the meaning of the reference to a young contemporary author?
At the beginning of Jorge Amado's novel The Double Death of Quincas Water-Bray (A Morte e a Morte de Quincas Berro d'Água, 1959), the narrator seems to allude to something a young contemporary author ...
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29 views
In what way is Jorge Amado's novel Jubiabá a modernist novel?
The Wikipedia article about Jorge Amado describes the author as "a Brazilian writer of the modernist school" and adds that he was "one of the founders of the Modernist 'Rebels' Academy&...
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1answer
62 views
Was Jorge Amado familiar with the work of Anna Seghers?
While looking for novels by Jorge Amado in the online catalogue of a bookseller, I stumbled upon the recently published novella Anna Seghers im Garten von Jorge Amado ("Anna Seghers in Jorge ...
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1answer
197 views
What is the meaning of "I was living my own metaphor"?
I just started reading the book The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. In the foreword, the author is talking about how no one was buying his book. He writes,
But I never lost faith in the book or ever ...
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How does ancient Greek polytheism fit with Christianity in The Lusiads?
The Lusiads (Os Lusíadas), considered the national epic of Portugal, was written by Luís Vaz de Camões during the 16th century, a period in which the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions were menacing ...
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1answer
45 views
On what sources did Camões base his Os Lusíadas?
Os Lusíadas is one of the most important works of Portuguese literature, written by Luís de Camões in the 16th century and describing imaginatively the Portuguese voyages of discovery, mostly the ...
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1answer
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Chilli peppers in fifteenth-century India?
In Canto 7 of The Lusíads, when Vasco da Gama and his crew finally land in Calicut, they encounter a Moor named Monsayeed who explains to the former:
You are now in India, with its various
Peoples ...
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2answers
188 views
What is meant by "Nysa" in the Lusiads?
The following verse appears in Book 1 of The Lusiads (William Mickle's translation, 1877 edition; emphasis mine):
So spoke high Jove: the gods in silence heard,
Then rising, each by turns his ...
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1answer
168 views
What's the significance of the "Invocation to the muses of the Tagus"?
In the fourth stanza of Book I of an English translation of Os Lusíadas (The Lusiads), the narrator speaks to the "fair nymphs of Tagus"
And you, fair nymphs of Tagus, parent stream,
If e’...
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1answer
211 views
Where is St. Lawrence island in Africa, mentioned in Os Lusíadas
Os Lusíadas chapter 1 verse 42 mentions a certain Saint Lawrence island in Africa. But this name doesn't seem to be used in modern times. What island or other geographical location does this refer ...
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Which passages in Manuel de Faria e Sousa's commentary on The Lusiads caused his temporary incarceration by the Inquisition?
The Wikipedia article about The Lusiads tells us that
Manuel de Faria e Sousa wrote a commentary about the work in the 17th century. Published after Sousa's death[a], the work was originally written ...
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Since when do the Portuguese regard The Lusiads as their national epic?
According to Wikipedia,
Os Lusíadas is often regarded as Portugal's national epic, much as Virgil's Aeneid was for the Ancient Romans, or Homer's Iliad and Odyssey for the Ancient Greeks.
The ...
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32 views
What is the meaning and significance of "urubutinga" in Mário de Andrade's "O lundu do escritor difícil"
The title is suggestive enough to elicit an understanding that Andrade probably purposefully made this poem difficult to read for people who are not familiar with Tupi culture. A conscious effort of ...
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1answer
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How was "Contos para os nossos filhos" used in schools?
Reading about the Portuguese author Maria Amália Vaz de Carvalho, I came across the following interesting tidbit of information:
The collection of stories for children she wrote with her husband, ...