Brigham Young University BYU ScholarsArchive Theses and Dissertations 2005-03-18 The Byronic Myth in Brazil: Cultural Perspectives on Lord Byron's Image in Brazilian Romanticism Matthew Lorin Squires Brigham Young University - Provo Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd Part of the English Language and Literature Commons BYU ScholarsArchive Citation Squires, Matthew Lorin, "The Byronic Myth in Brazil: Cultural Perspectives on Lord Byron's Image in Brazilian Romanticism" (2005). Theses and Dissertations. 289. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/289 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. THE BYRONIC MYTH IN BRAZIL: CULTURAL PERSPECTIVES ON LORD BYRON’S IMAGE IN BRAZILIAN ROMANTICISM by Matthew Lorin Squires A thesis submitted to the faculty of Brigham Young University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Department of English Brigham Young University April 2005 BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY GRADUATE COMMITTEE APPROVAL of a thesis submitted by Matthew Lorin Squires This thesis has been read by each member of the following graduate committee and by majority vote has been found to be satisfactory. ________________________ ____________________________________ Date Nicholas Mason, Chair ________________________ ____________________________________ Date Matthew Wickman, Reader ________________________ ____________________________________ Date Frederick Williams, Reader _________________________ ____________________________________ Date Brett McInelly, Graduate Advisor _________________________ ____________________________________ Date Jesse Crisler, Associate Chair for Graduate Studies BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY As chair of the candidate’s graduate committee, I have read the thesis of Matthew Lorin Squires in its final form and have found that (1) its format, citations, and bibliographical style are consistent and acceptable and fulfill university and department style requirements, (2) its illustrative materials including figures, tables and charts are in place; and (3) the final manuscript is satisfactory to the graduate committee and is ready for submission to the university library. ___________________________ ____________________________________ Date Nicholas Mason Chair, Graduate Committee Accepted for the Department ____________________________________ Nicholas Mason Graduate Coordinator Accepted for the College ____________________________________ Van C. Gessel Dean, College of Humanities ABSTRACT THE BYRONIC MYTH IN BRAZIL: CULTURAL PERSPECTIVES ON LORD BYRON'S IMAGE IN BRAZILIAN ROMANTICISM Matthew Lorin Squires Department of English Master of Arts Byron’s reception in one of the nineteenth century’s largest and most culturally significant post-colonial outposts, Brazil, has been virtually ignored in English studies. The implications of Lord Byron’s influence in Brazil are extensive since he was overwhelmingly popular among poets but also subversive to the nationalistic aims of Brazilian Romanticism. Nearly all of the well known Brazilian Romantics were not only influenced by him, but translated him. Their notion of what it meant to be “Byronic,” however, differed from the ideas in the Europe. The Brazilian Byronic hero was more extreme, macabre, and sentimental, lonelier, darker, and deadlier. Byron had various cult followings in Brazil that established rites and ceremonies, and performed Manfred-like rituals. Brazilian Romantic culture had such a marked effect on translations of Byron’s work and perceptions of the poet that it provides an exciting context for considering the interplay of social energies between text, author, and culture. The following chapters trace characteristics Byron’s influence and are organized according to a dual methodology. First, they follow the evolution of Byron’s influence in Brazil: starting with its European beginnings, tracing the arrival of Byron’s image in Brazil, exploring the explosion of his influence evidenced in Brazilian literature, and considering the cultural obsession that reproduced his image ritualistically in the lives of Brazilian Romantics. Second, the chapters loosely map out several aspects of his celebrity image, or several ways of viewing Byron, including Byron as the rogue debauchee; Byron as the cosmopolitan; Byron as the eccentric, disillusioned poet; and Byron as the satanic Romantic. For Brazil, and much of Europe too, Lord Byron was the embodiment of Romanticism. The way Brazilian Romantics saw Byron, therefore, reflected what they thought English Romanticism to be. Especially in a contemporary critical climate that continues to respond to Jerome McGann’s The Romantic Ideology, a Brazilian notion of English Romanticism, which turns out to be so polar to the contemporary English idea of its own just-past Romantic era further disrupts the idea of stable periodization and a universally codified Romantic movement. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First, I thank my wife, Addy, for the support and encouragement she has given me throughout this project. She mitigates the chaos of my life, helps me keep things in perspective, and makes me a better person. I would also like to thank my thesis committee: Nicholas Mason for years of influence and a genuine interest in me and my work; Matthew Wickman for teaching me how to write and think on a higher level; and Frederick Williams for mentoring me in my Portuguese and Brazilian literature studies. They are scholars and gentlemen all, and their feedback and support has been invaluable. This thesis would not have been possible without many teachers in whose classes I developed intellectually. Specifically, I would like to thank Claudia Harris, Richard Duerden, Brett McInelly, Gideon Burton, and Ed Geary. I also thank Emily Bernhard Jackson and Jerome McGann for their sincere interest and scholarly input. TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction: The Social Energy of Lord Byron's Celebrity Image ................................. 1 Current Situation...........................................................................................................4 Theoretical Approach.................................................................................................... 5 Trajectory..................................................................................................................... 14 Chapter One: ‘The Injustice of the Noble Lord’: The Reaction of Portuguese Romanticism to Byron’s Celebrity Image....................................................................... 18 Childe Harold in Portugal ........................................................................................... 21 Historical and Contextual Background ......................................................................24 Byron’s Celebrity Image in Portugal...........................................................................32 São Carlos and the Portuguese Rejection of Byron....................................................36 Chapter Two: O Mal Byronico: Byron’s Cosmopolitan Image in Brazil ....................... 47 Byron the Cosmopolitan?............................................................................................49 Byron as Myth and Muse ............................................................................................53 European Cultural Hegemony in Brazil .....................................................................58 Brazilian Nationalist Ideology versus Cosmopolitan Aesthetics ............................... 61 Cosmopolitan Negotiations......................................................................................... 67 Chapter Three: Brazilian Romanticism’s Remodeling of Byron’s Image.......................71 Byron in Brazilian Print .............................................................................................. 74 Byronic Translations ................................................................................................... 77 Table of Translations................................................................................................... 79 vii Re-writing Byron.........................................................................................................88 Chapter Four: Byron and the Theatre of the Dead: Ritualization of the Byronic in Brazil ................................................................................................................................97 Byron as Aesthetic Performance and Social Drama...................................................99 Byron as a Ritual Symbol .......................................................................................... 103 Byron and the Queen of the Dead............................................................................. 107 Conclusion: “The Very Center of Romanticism”: Byronic Romanticisms....................115 Romanticisms Plural..................................................................................................118 Byron as the Image of Romanticism......................................................................... 120 The Myth of Byron in the Americas.......................................................................... 126 Notes ...............................................................................................................................131