Nineteenth‐Century Beefs: Britons and the Brazilian Stage

Abstract

Near the beginning of Brazilian dramatist Joaquim José da França Júnior's 1882 play Cahio o ministério (Caiu o ministério or The Cabinet Has Fallen!), the character of the ostensibly "rich British industrialist" Mr. James pontificates as follows on the nature of his host country: "The problem with you Brazilians is your speech. Brazilians talk all the time, you make very beautiful speech, but the country doesn't move forward as fast as it speaks.… This country is in need of manpower, of commerce, of industry, of railways" (19). 2 In making this proverbial disjunction between speech and action-a disjunction that Mr. James claims he will help rectify if given a concession to build a useless, impossible railway on the slopes of Corcovado mountain in Rio de JaneiroMr. James sets the tone for this play's discussion of what it means to be Brazilian and the degree to which outsiders in Brazil participate in the processes of nationalism. The play is one of several by França Júnior that formulate an anti-imperialist, pro-nationalist discourse grounded in the repudiation of foreign, and particularly British, interests to foster true Brazilian development and self-determination-at the same time that the British characters offer a trenchant, if risible, critique of Brazilian political and social mores. In focusing on the relationship between the discursive propensities of the Brazilians and the more British characteristics of development, industrialization, and progress, Mr. James points to the central tension between representation and reality that governs the rhetoric of empire, as well as its ideological self-justification. And by highlighting the importance of speed-of speech, of action-Mr. James elucidates the teleological nature of the enterprise into which Latin American countries were drawn and into which they drew themselves in the period following independence from Spain and Portugal, when Britain aimed to be the preeminent European power in the region.Through an analysis of the portrayal of British characters in the works of França Júnior, this essay broaches such themes as indigenous opinions of British-backed industrialization projects; political and diplomatic developments in the relationship between Britain and Latin America; and the way in which Brazilian elites were encouraged to