The role of Travel Literature

The role of Travel Literature

 

Glimpse of the plot and historical heritage that is presented to us in the surroundings of the Campo de Santa Clara requires us to embrace a fairly extensive chronology, which began the conquest of Lisbon from the Moors and is the final day. The city of Lisbon has always earned an important place in the national and international literature. Either by their geographical position, either by the richness of its soil and groundwater, both for its grandeur and pageantry had the privilege to fertilize the various comments and descriptions in their favor. Protagonist of many adventures, deeds and legends, was part of the imaginary and its Greek classics, including the "Odyssey" of Homer.Effectively and, despite the chronic initially did not respond to a literary genre which was about sites, but about personalities and their great deeds, to the extent that it was expanding its horizons, was taking into account the importance all the surrounding accounted for these same historical facts. There were many writers who, in one way or another, pored over the city of Lisbon, using it both as an extra in the heroic stories of other characters, either as protagonists of their own stories.Some centuries later, Damian Goes (1502/1574), in his work entitled "Description of Lisbon", describes the city of Lisbon to its limits, covering its urban grid of streets, alleys and bars scattered around its hills and valleys, winding paths, both by exalting the beauty and the variety of constructions, which amounted to twenty thousand buildings. In preparing this inventory, almost exhaustive, the capital that has been expanded far beyond the walls, Damian Góis took first place "Olisipógrafo" city, fitting, meanwhile, the Francisco d'Olanda (1517/1585), to draw on watercolor panoramic views of Lisbon and its first "estate plan," the first category "Urbanista" the capital.In the "Summary and [m] that contains breuemente if alguas signed ecclesiasticas things as secular ha in Lisbon" (1554), Christopher Rodrigues de Oliveira (16th century), says the fact that it received from the Archbishop of Lisbon the task of obtaining information on the incomes of all churches, schools, monasteries, hospitals, chapels and confraternities of the city as well as the number of homes and their residents and crafts developed, a fact which leads the author to divide the work into two distinct parts, the Ecclesiastical and Secular.Is initiated thus to trigger a phase of interest in urban riches of capital, which are described and transcribed repeatedly and almost exhaustive inventory shaped by various writers over the centuries, as are example of the "Treaty of Majesty, Greatness and wealth of Lisbon in the Second Half of the sixteenth century" (1552) by João Brandão (sixteenth century), the "Book of Quantities of Lisbon" (1620), of Fr Nicolau de Oliveira (1566/1634), "Antiquities of the Most Noble City of Lisbon, Empire and the World Princess of the Ocean Sea" (1623), António Coelho Gasco (XVII), the "Foundation and Age quantities of very illustrious city of Lisbon "(1652), Luis Marinho de Azevedo (XVII), the" From Lisbon site: greatness, settlement, and commerce, "(1786) of Luiz Mendes de Vasconcelos (séc. 18), among many others.Others are works which, although more general, contain a substantial part of the capital of your pages, such is the case of "chorography Portuguese" (1706/1712) of Father António Carvalho da Costa (1650/1715) and "Map Portugal "(1729) John Baptist de Castro (1700/1775).In the eighteenth century, a time of profound changes that breathed cultural, social, and economic policies that triggered worldwide, comes a literature often associated with travel, trying to disseminate and publicize the best of what the country had to offer.Embryonic stage, emerged the Daily Travel or Travel Books, which were written by travelers who chose Portugal as a place to stay or transit. "Robert South, in a letter to Miss Barker, told him:" You do well to read travel books, which are almost the only modern books worth reading. '"The launch of this literary genre has its origins in northern Europe cultured In particular, Britain, France and Germany, the second of seven hundred century, when the Iberian Peninsula was not still considered as "European".Due to changing economic, social, political and cultural suffered, there was, in the eighteenth century, a considerable increase in foreign travel to Portugal, which resulted in the emergence of travel books, which by order or by simple pleasure of writing diaries trip, became a literary genre unique and valuable. Pouring the literature of the time, the submission of the unknown and the exotic through the report and description of countries, people and different customs, guided the predilection for works of this kind.This literary genre when operated in a more serious, and less fanciful, was used in light of the variety of creeds, religions, societies and their governments, as a form of protest and argument in order to "(...) rational principles of concussion in that society lived organized. (...) Undermine the authority embodied in the Catholic Church and the monarchical institution. "In most cases, travelers came to Spain and Portugal with predefined ideas and based on speculation. The trip served often as a form of confirmation and illustration of his thesis. The Spanish and Portuguese companies were considered too backward and ignorant, fanatical and barbarous, based on an inquisition by the clergy who dominated the kings and this time all the other social classes. Censorship functioned as a mechanism to standardize Catholic, trying at all costs to keep free thinking ideas of change and innovation. The Portuguese were also accused and blamed for not traveling, except for Brazil, Africa and India, showing lack of interest in cultured Europe.Nationally, the great earthquake of 1755, triggered the curiosity of the world, the city of Lisbon and the country the spectacle of tragedy, human panic and despair, sharpened interest in the city."(...) Lisbon in ruins became a center of attraction of European curiosity. Protestants used the cataclysm to suggest as a punishment from God against the idolatry and superstition of the Portuguese. Thus, in the late eighteenth century, travel to Portugal were fashionable in England. "In general, the travel books written by foreigners, in the eighteenth century, about Portugal, as are elements of characterization and description of the Portuguese nation and the people at that time. In most cases, were written so biased and improvised, generalizing what they were allowed to observe the chosen route to the rest of the country: "Deceived or misleading, or both at the same time, was the focus of most outsiders who described his travels in Portugal during the setecentos.Desses mistakes by arbitrary generalizations, by intuitions without sharpness or scope for accommodation to preconceived ideas, if mended, censored or corrected each other, but nothing that the Portuguese were doing it. (...) It is not uncommon to see a foreigner in serious difficulties in obtaining reliable source of information about the country itself-is. However, not without negligence admiration of so many people, in fact educated, who had lived many years in the same place, do not get to know him only superficially, (...) "Despite various irregularities and defects pointed to Travel Books, they were responsible for the dissemination of Portuguese monuments and internationally, in very large part, responsible for the rediscovery of the national elite own country, where, among others, included the names Almeida Garrett (1799/1854), Alexandre Herculano (1810/1877), Ignatius Vilhena Barbosa (1811/1890), Julio Cesar Machado (1835/1890), Ramalho Ortigão (1836/1915) and Julio de Castilho (1840/1919 ) who, either because they are assiduous readers of literature produced abroad, or by virtue of the experience of exile, awakened to the fact that the Portuguese monuments be of interest to foreign and self-sacrifice for the citizens.Not unrelated to the rediscovery of the past and national heritage were also some events whose consequences were disastrous for those same values, ie, the 1755 earthquake, the three French Invasions (1807-1811), the War Liberal (1832-1834 ), Victory of Liberalism (1834) and Republic Day (1910).In this sense, "The renewal literary generation that brought current and concludes, not instinct, it was the result of broad musings, came with social revolutions, and is explained by the same thought d'these."The profound political, economic, social and cultural rights that began in late 1700, was born a new historical awareness and consequently the worship of historical monuments. Some of our writers, ringleaders of an enlightened elite and traveled, achieved through his works, more or less evident, awaken sleeping consciences to the problem of safeguarding the national heritage monument built:"(...) The intellectual romantic, in the line of development from a position that was already the eighteenth century, he was participating in a" Republic of Letters' consisting of all those who, having risen by merit (not by birth or wealth ) the role of mediators of truth, should radiate it in order to reform the "national soul."The desire for "national self-knowledge", which led to an elite educated and traveled, was dedicated to the production of monographs and other local literary variants led to the diffusion of artistic, cultural and monumental Portuguese, which began to call Travel Guides, and they had two versions, one for domestic and one for foreigners.These Travel Guides, were responsible for the dissemination of the heritage of many countries, especially the Portuguese. As already mentioned, some Portuguese authors attracted by the rediscovery of their own country, they write papers that allowed access, easier, knowledge of national and local history. Large national instigators of this new type of literature were:Almeida Garrett founder of the Romantic movement in Portugal, which manifested from his first poem, a genuine interest in the national past and the appreciation of popular culture as sources of inspiration for the cultural change required to Portugal. In "Travels in My Country," published in 1846, Garrett presented a modern English literary prose, a mix of styles and genres, resulting from the vividness of the descriptions and terms used in the chronicle of his journey between Lisbon and Santarém. This chronic, in which Garrett was revealed at the same time, the author and narrator, put short also features social politics of a country that was taking its first steps towards experiencing social and political renewal and liberal.Alexandre Herculano considered one of the leading figures of Romanticism in Portugal, accepted the great intellectual challenges of his time, proving to be one of the most closed defenders of the homeland, its history and its architectural heritage."(...) It strives to make his work authentic message of collective dignity, in the sphere of action and culture. This in the midst of a society in which the romantic aspirations yielded increasingly to step selfish interests, (...) interested in the fate of the nation, the drama of his contemporaries. Among the creations and productions novelist and historian, vai interspersing trials devoted to current realities, concrete, administration, economics, culture. (...) The responsibilities of artists fit well cures souls and kept them therefore maintain its position as a sign of vocation that ennobled. "Ortigão Ramalho, one of the figures of the so-called Generation of 70 who disbelieve in the ability to Portugal in approaching modern societies and European anticlerical, turned to its roots, presenting his audience with the publication of several works of historical character sheet such as "The Mystery of Sintra Road" (1871), "Splinters" (1871-1887), "The Beaches of Portugal" (1876), "Travel Notes" (1879), "The Factory of Caldas da Queen "(1891)," The Cult of Art in Portugal "(1896)," Portuguese Art "(1947), among others. And to highlight the key role played by the Cult of Art in Portugal, which is presented almost as a primer in the education of several generations, with regard to heritage conservation.