Temblores de arterias y cárceles de fuego: Literatura en el Brasil colonial

Abstract

The narrative Cultura e Opulência do Brasil por sus Drogas e Minas by Father André João Antonil, describes the processes of the colonial Portuguese production in America. The text, published in Lisbon in 1711, contains both objective and practical information, transformed and influenced by 'literary baroque'. The narrator wanders from realistic transcription to baroque subjectivity, and we may perceive a playful character in his morality sermons, as he sometimes uses extreme metaphors belonging to the sugar mill scene. In the Portuguese colony, the black identity has been transfigured and the formation of a colonial conscience arises in speeches that have taken roots in a collective memory. Father Antonil elaborates those values which help to transform his work into a 'baroque-apologetic' speech about the colonial world: "Brazil is the hell of blacks, the purgatory of whites and the paradise of mulatto men and women".