6 - The Patriot

Summary

The primary aim of this chapter is to look at how Floresta reconciles one of the core contradictions within her own literary identity: her continual construction of herself as a devoted, patriotic Brazilian despite living in Europe for most of her adult life, and how, in fact, these two parts of her identity, the patriot and the ex-patriate, are inter-connected and mutually dependent. I will therefore be looking at how Floresta depicts both her own nation and the European nations she lives in and visits, how she manipulates these representations according to whether she is addressing a Brazilian audience or publishing in Europe, and the final construction of Brazil which emerges in her European writing. A particularly intriguing element of this construction is the question of political structure, and at the end of the chapter I will attempt to piece together Floresta's mostly brief and sporadic references to modes of governance in order to identify her own political ideals and thus test the validity of her reputation as an adherent of federal republicanism.

As I have already noted on various occasions through the course of this study, Floresta's work undergoes a noticeable change in style and approach after her first visit to Europe between 1849 and 1852. The chance to contemplate Brazil from the outside apparently enables her to conceptualise the nation for the first time. After this visit, foreign perceptions of Brazil and its status in the international arena become central to her discussion of every social phenomenon she addresses, but more importantly she also begins to address the issue of national identity itself, constructing the nation within this newly-acquired international awareness.