The development of Brazilian studies in France

Abstract

T hroughout the five centuries of the history of Brazil, four major countries have been keenly interested and influential in its development. During the first three centuries Portugal dominated, interrupted by Spanish and Dutch interventions during the first part of the seventeenth century. In the last half of the twentieth century the United States has been most significant. During the first half of the twentieth century and throughout the nineteenth century it was Britain and especially France that were foremost in interest and influence. It should be noted that, due to immigration, Italian culture and sociopolitical influence were important from the end of the nineteenth century to the middle of the twentieth. British concerns and importance were primarily of a commercial and technical nature. During the nineteenth century, railroads, ports, shipping, wholesaling, some aspects of financing and insuring, electrical communications, and athletic activities followed British patterns. A medical doctor, Andrew Grant, wrote the earliest history in English, entitled a History of Brazil, comprising a geographical account of that country, together with a narrative of the most remarkable events which have occurred there since its discovery. It appeared in London in 1809, just after British merchants were given preferential trading privileges in Brazil. It was prepared to caution readers about the region's insalubrious climate. However, the author, intrigued by the vast exotic realm, wrote The development of Brazilian studies in France O desenvolvimento de estudos sobre o Brasil na França 440 HISTÓRIA, CIÊNCIAS, SAÚDE Vol. VIII(2) EDWARD RIEDINGER about it with an engaging thoroughness (somewhat anticipating the first tourist guides of Thomas Cook). Shortly after the English edition, French (Histoire du Brésil, 1811) and German (Andrew Grant's ... beschreibung von Brasilien, 1814) ones appeared, the French edition completed in Russia. Czar Alexander I would finance the monumental 1821-29 Langsdorff expedition through Brazil. (Andrew Grant appeared as the shortest entry in the first edition of the Dictionary of National Biography.) It was France, however, as the leader of the Latin cultural world, that had the most influence; and Brazil was one of the largest Latin countries. The term 'Latin America' originated from the pan-Latin ideas of the French economist Michel Chevalier during the early part of the reign of Napoleon III (who occupied Mexico during the US Civil War). The French sought to lead a Latin cultural bloc as a geo-political pawn against Anglo, Germanic, and Slavic blocs. During the same period France promoted a 'Latin' Monetary Union of itself, Belgium, Switzerland, and Italy (an effort defeated by the profligacy of Vatican State accounts). From Ravel and Bizet on, French composers created a Latin repertoire against the Germanic Wagnerian advance, elaborating some of the most memorable Spanish themes in classical music and a revival in French of Italian opera. With the opening of the port of Rio de Janeiro in...

Lévi‐Strauss, Braudel and Brazil: A Case of Mutual Influence

“…During the 1930's and again for a short period after World War II, many distinguished French scholars, recruited by Dumas and others, answered the call to SaÄ o Paulo. These included Paul Arbousse-Bastide (Philosophy), Roger Bastide and Jacques Lambert (Sociology), Pierre Deffontaines and Pierre Monbeig (Geography), Charles Moraze (History) and FrancË ois Perroux (Economics) (for more detail, see Reidinger, 2001). The most distinguished of all, as noted earlier, were Claude Le vi-Strauss and Fernand Braudel.…”