PORTUGUESE LITERATURE

the body of writings in the Portuguese language by the peoples of Portugal and the isles of Madeira and Azores. Portuguese is also the language of Brazil, Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, and Cape Verde. The literature of Portugal is distinguished by a wealth and variety of lyric poetry, which has characterized it from the beginning; by its medieval lack of and later achievement in the national epic; by its wealth of historical writing; and by its relative slightness in drama, biography, and the essay. The early cancioneiros ("song-books") evidence a school of love poetry that spread, with the language, to Spain at a time when Spanish was as yet undeveloped for lyrical purposes. The romanceiro, or balladry, on the other hand, was much influenced by that of Spain, though not sharing the latter's predilection for the heroic. In its primitive version Amads de Gaula (14th century; Amadis of Gaul), prototype of the romance of chivalry, probably was written in Portuguese, as was, later, La Diana (1559) of Jorge de Montemor (Montemayor), the masterpiece of the pastoral novel. Os Lusadas (1572; The Lusiads), a history of the Portuguese (the name Lusiads deriving from the ancient Lusitania), by Lus de Cames, may be at once the most successful of the many Renaissance epics cast in the classical mold and the most national of great poems in any modern literature, and many works of history and travel of the 16th and 17th centuries are outstanding. Though Gil Vicente, in the early 16th century, was a dramatist of great gifts, no other appeared until Joo Baptista de Almeida Garrett in the 19th, and Portugal never developed a national drama. This literature, which until the 19th century lay largely unstudied and unknown, has from the beginning been exposed to foreign influences. The earliest was Provenal, and Provenal taste ruled for more than a century. Then came Castilian, with a court poetry that provided models until the Renaissance saw the triumph of that form in Italy and in the classics of antiquity. In the 17th century with political domination Spain again imposed its literary standards, followed in the 18th century by France. The Romantic movement reached Portugal from both France and England, two countries whose influence, joined in a lesser degree by that of Germany, persisted long after. The closeness of contacts with Spain, reinforced by dynastic marriages that often brought to the court at Lisbon a predominantly Spanish atmosphere, explains why for two centuries and more after 1450 nearly every Portuguese writer of note was bilingual and wrote also in Spanish, so that some, like Montemor and Francisco Manuel de Melo, are numbered among the classics too of Spanish letters. Portuguese literature retains, nonetheless, a distinct individuality that contrasts strikingly with that of Spain. The medieval lyric, the plays of Gil Vicente, the bucolic verse and prose of the 16th century, and, above all, Os Lusadas, are expressions of a clearly defined national temperament. Additional reading Histories Theophilo Braga, Histria de Literatura Portugueza, 11 vol. (1896-1907); J. Mendes Dos Remdios, Histria da Literatura Portuguesa, 6th ed. (1930), with anthology; Fidelino De Figueiredo, Histria Literria de Portugal (Seculos XII-XX), 3rd ed. (1966); Albino Forjaz De Sampaio (ed.), Histria da Literatura Portuguesa Ilustrada, 4 vol. (1928-42); Georges Le Gentil, La Littrature portugaise, 2nd rev. ed. (1951); Antonio Jos Saraiva and Oscar Lopes, Histria da Literatura Portuguesa, 12th rev. ed. (1982); Jacinto Do Prado Coelho (ed.), Dicionrio das Literaturas Portuguesa, Galega e Brasileira (1956-60); Aubrey F.G. Bell, Portuguese Literature (1922, reprinted 1970), a standard work, with extensive bibliography. Critical studies Fidelino De Figueiredo, Characteristics of Portuguese Literature (1916; originally published in Portuguese, 1915), Estudos de Litteratura, 5 vol. (1917-51), and A Epica Portuguesa no Seculo XVI, rev. ed. (1950); Aubrey F.G. Bell, Studies in Portuguese Literature (1914, reprinted 1975); Edward Glaser, Portuguese Studies (1976); M. Rodrigues Lapa, Das Origens da Poesia Lrica em Portugal na Idade-Mdia (1929), and Lies de Literatura Portuguesa: poca Medieval, 9th rev. ed. (1977); Pierre Le Gentil, La Posie lyrique espagnole et portugaise la fin du moyen ge, 2 vol. (1949-52, reprinted in 1 vol., 1981); Frede Jensen, The Earliest Portuguese Lyrics (1978); Jole Ruggieri, Il canzoniere di Resende (1931); Marcel Bataillon, tudes sur le Portugal au temps de l'humanisme, 2nd ed. (1974); Hernani Cidade, Tendncias do Lirismo Contemporneo do "Oaristos" s "Encruzilhadas de Deus," 2nd ed. (1939), with an anthology of modern poetry; Lies de Cultura e Literatura Portuguesas, 2 vol., 6th rev. ed. (1975); O Conceito de Poesia Como Expresso da Cultura, 2nd rev. ed. (1957), and A Literatura Portuguesa e a Expanso Ultramarina, 2 vol., 2nd rev. ed. (1963-64); H.V. Livermore and W.J. Entwistle (eds.), Portugal and Brazil: An Introduction (1953, reprinted 1963), which contains a literary bibliography of studies and of translations from Portuguese to English. Studies of individual authors include Edgar Prestage, D. Francisco Manuel de Mello (1922); Aubrey F.G. Bell, Diogo do Couto (1924), Fernam Lopez (1921), Gaspar Corra (1924), Gil Vicente (1921), and Luis de Cames (1923). William C. Atkinson Norman Jones Lamb Lus de Sousa Rebelo Developments of the 15th and 16th centuries Literature of the 15th century Under King John (Joo) I, founder of the new dynasty of Avis, the Portuguese court became once again a literary centre. The King himself wrote a treatise on hunting. His son Duarte (Edward) collected a rich library of the ancients and of medieval poems and histories and composed a moral treatise, Leal Conselheiro (1437/38; "Loyal Counselor"), which revealed a conscious stylist. But the historical chronicle distinguished the age, with credit to King Edward, who in 1434 created the office of cronista mor do reino, or "chief chronicler of the realm," and appointed Ferno Lopes, author of chronicles of the first 10 kings of Portugal. The Crnica dos Sete Primeiros Reis do Portugal, a chronicle of the first seven kings, discovered in 1947 and published in 1952-53, is almost certainly the first part of that work. Until its discovery only the chronicles of Pedro I, Ferdinand I, and John I were known. Vividness of style combined with serious documentation to produce in Lopes the finest writer of medieval Portuguese prose. His successor in office, Gomes Eanes de Zurara, continued the chronicle on a lower level of artistry. His chief works are the Crnica da Tomada de Ceuta (Conquests and Discoveries of Henry the Navigator) and the Crnica do Descobrimento e Conquista da Guin (The Chronicle of the Discovery and Conquest of Guinea). Poetry was cultivated in the mid-15th century after a long eclipse, but much had changed. The dominant influence came now from Spain, and Portuguese poets initiated the long chapter of allegiance to Spain. Apart from the ballads, popular poetry had disappeared along with that of the troubadours. The constable Dom Pedro de Portugal initiated the fashion of writing in Castilian. As one of the first to adopt the new Spanish trend toward allegory and the cult of classical antiquity derived from Italy, his influence on his compatriots was doubly important. His own poems were inspired by deep feeling and much reflection on life, and he was one of almost 200 poets represented in an anthology of poetry, the Cancioneiro Geral (1516; "General Songbook"), of the chronicler Garcia de Resende, covering the preceding three-quarters of a century. The main subjects of these 1,000-odd poems, in Portuguese and Castilian, were love, satire, and epigram. Resende was a better poet than most of his contributors. Gil Vicente and early drama The emergence of the modern play may be traced in the works of the court dramatist Gil Vicente. Eleven of his 44 plays were written wholly, and another 17 partly, in Spanish. The Barcas (1517-19), a group of autos, or religious plays, revealed his dramatic power and a fondness for comic relief; in this lay his strength, and in construction lay his weakness. The phenomenon of a potential national theatre, however, died with its founder, and his real influence was felt in Spain. The Inquisition, introduced into Portugal in 1536, early declared war on the popular theatre on the charge of grossness. Vicente's own plays, which figured on the Spanish Index of 1559, were reduced in number to 35 and were sadly mutilated in the second edition of 1586. The 17th century From a literary and political point of view, the 17th century found Portugal in a state of decadence. Before the loss of independence to Spain in 1580, Spanish influence had introduced the Inquisition and, with it, censorship of books and the preparation of an Index of Forbidden Books. Between 1552 and 1555 the Jesuits gained control of higher education. The cult of classical Latin was already present, in the work of Cames and others, before the example of the Spanish poet Luis de Gngora y Argote was felt; but with the exhaustion of the national spirit that underlay political eclipse the influence of Gngora penetrated deeply. Its extent may be seen in the five volumes of the Fnix Renascida (1716-28; "Phoenix Reborn"), which anthologizes the poetry of the preceding century and reveals the futilities to which good talents could devote themselves. The trend survived the throwing-off of the Spanish yoke in 1640; Portuguese editions of Gngora continued to appear. The foremost literary figure of the age was the encyclopaedic Francisco Manuel de Melo, a classic of Spanish and-with his series of historical episodes, Epanforas de Vria Histria Portuguesa (1660; "Anaphoras of Diverse Portuguese History"), and dialogues on literary and social topics, Aplogos Dialogais (1721)-of Portuguese literature who strove, more successfully in prose than in verse, to free himself from subservience to Spanish form and style. Most lyricists of the period remained steeped in Gongorism. Epic poets continued active, but few of their productions were more than rhymed chronicles. Frei Lus de Sousa, a monastic chronicler, won fame as a stylist with his Vida do Arcebispo D. Frei Bartolomeu dos Mrtires (1619; "Life of Archbishop D. Frei Bartolomeu dos Mrtires") and the Histria de So Domingos (three parts, 1623, 1662, 1678; "History of So Domingos"). A Jesuit, Antnio Vieira, missionary and diplomatist, was highly regarded for his Cartas (1925-28; "Letters") and Sermes (1679-1748; "Sermons"). The popular theatre lived on obscurely with mostly anonymous plays that were never printed. Those that survived were mainly religious and showed the common Gongoristic abuse of metaphor and simile. All through the century most dramatists who aspired to be heard wrote in Spanish. The court after 1640 preferred Italian opera, French plays, and Spanish operettas-to the detriment of native drama and of acting. The 18th century The 18th century, in Portugal as in Spain, was predominantly prosaic, even in poetry. Yet signs gradually appeared of a literary revolution that developed eventually into the Romantic movement. Lus Antnio Verney poured scorn on prevailing methods of education in Verdadeiro Mtodo de Estudar (1746; "True Method of Studying"). Men of liberal ideas traveled to France and England, and to their example were largely due the reforms that invaded every branch of letters. Among the most influential were Alexandre de Gusmo, Francisco Xavier de Oliveira, Antnio Ribeiro Sanches, Jos Correia da Serra, Avelar Brotero, and Francisco Manuel do Nascimento. New literary societies called arcdias cooperated in the task of reform. In 1720 King John V established the Academia Real da Histria Portuguesa, which counted among its members such men as Manuel Caetano de Sousa, author of a colossal Histria Genealgica de Casa Real Portuguesa (1735-49; "Genealogical History of the Portuguese Royal House"). The Academia Real das Cincias (Royal Academy of Sciences), founded in 1779, initiated research into the study of Portuguese literary history. In its ranks were found nearly all the scholars of note at the end of the century, such as the ecclesiastical historian Frei Manuel do Cenculo; a scientist, Antnio Ribeiro dos Santos; Joo Pedro Ribeiro, perhaps his country's first modern historian; and critics Francisco Alexandre Lobo and Frei Fortunato de So Boaventura. In 1756 Antnio Dinis da Cruz e Silva established the Arcdia Lusitana (or Ulissiponese), its first aim being the uprooting of Spanish influence. The bucolic verse of Dmingos dos Reis Quita signified a return to the native tradition of two centuries earlier. Sincerity and suffering spoke in the justly more famous Marlia de Dirceu (1792), love lyrics in a pastoral setting, by Toms Antnio Gonzaga. In 1790, a Brazilian Nova Arcdia came into being, its two most distinguished members being the rival poets Manuel Maria Barbosa du Bocage and Jos Agostinho de Macedo. Outside the Arcdias stood the "Dissidents," among whom were at least two writers of distinction. These were the satirist Nicolau Tolentino de Almeida, who painted the customs and follies of his day with devastating accuracy, and Francisco Manuel do Nascimento (pseudonym Filinto Elsio), who addressed himself perseveringly to purifying the language and to restoring the cult of the 16th-century poets. Early in the century popular authors attempted a revival of the drama in Lisbon. The peras Portuguesas (1733-41) of Antnio Jos da Silva owe their name to the interspersing of the prose dialogue with arias, minuets, and modinhas (popular light songs). The 19th century Romanticism and after The 19th century witnessed a general revival of Portuguese letters. The chief exponents of Romanticism were, in poetry and drama, Joo Baptista de Almeida Garrett and, in prose, Alexandre Herculano; both lived for some years in exile, the price of their political liberalism. Almeida Garrett read literature in English and French and introduced Portugal to nationalistic Romanticism through two epics, Cames (1825) and Dona Branca (1826). Antnio Feliciano de Castilho, half-Romantic, half-Classicist, exercised much influence over a younger generation of poets: Joo de Lemos, Soares de Passos, Toms Ribeiro (who won fame with the ardently patriotic Dom Jaime, 1862). In 1865 Antero de Quental, a student of German philosophy and poetry, and Tefilo Braga, disciple of Auguste Comte, led a revolt against the primacy of Castilho, much to the benefit of literature, and of poetry in particular. The Campo de Flores (1893; "Field of Flowers") of Joo de Deus contained some of the finest short poems in the language, marked by a spontaneous simplicity. Ablio Manuel Guerra Junqueiro, heir to Victor Hugo, was a would-be social revolutionary excessively prone to grandiloquence. In Os Simples (1892) he turned to the portrayal of peasant life, and this work constituted his finest poetry. Akin to him was Antnio Duarte Gomes Leal, author of Claridades do Sul (1875; "Clarities of the South") and O Anti-Cristo (1884; "The Anti-Christ"), who could likewise achieve quiet sincerity when dealing with humble themes. Antnio Cndido Gonalves Crespo stood out as the first of his country's Parnassians. By contrast Cesrio Verde, considered to be the greatest poet of the century, addressed himself to the poetic essence of common realities. The S (1892; "Alone") of Antnio Nobre was intensely Portuguese in themes, mood, and rhythms; he and Teixeira de Pascoais developed a cult of saudosismo ("yearning," "nostalgia") that inspired a whole school of poets. French Symbolism found an enthusiastic adept in Eugnio de Castro. Drama, the novel, and history Almeida Garrett, seeking to reinvigorate drama, found he had to create alike theatre, plays, actors, and audience. In Um Auto de Gil Vicente (1838; "An Auto of Gil Vicente"), O Alfageme de Santarm (1841; "The Swordsmith of Santarm"), and especially in Frei Lus de Sousa (1843; Brother Luiz de Sousa), he proved himself to be, after Vicente, his country's most notable dramatist. Joo da Cmara was the outstanding dramatist of his day, and his works include Afonso VI (1890), Rosa Enjeitada (1901; "Rose Abandoned"), and Os Velhos (1893; "The Old Ones"). Herculano, returning from exile with an enthusiasm for Sir Walter Scott, launched the historical romance with O Monasticon: Eurico, o presbitero (1844; "The Monastic: Eurico, the Presbyter") and Lendas e Narrativas (1851; "Legends and Narratives"). Many followed suit, including Oliveira Marreca, Arnaldo da Gama, and Pinheiro Chagas, popular successes being A Mocidade de D. Joo V (1852; "The Youth of D. Joo V"), by Lus Antnio Rebelo da Silva, and Joo de Andrade Corvo's Um Ano na Crte (1850-51; "A Year in the Court"). This was the great age of the novel: Camilo Castelo Branco, Joaquim Gomes Coelho (better known as Jlio Dinis), and especially Jos Maria Ea de Queirs were names that would stand high in any country. The first was a master of the language and of dramatic, or melodramatic, plot; Jlio Dinis depicted country life, as in As Pupilas do Senhor Reitor (1867; "The Pupils of the Dean"); while Ea de Queirs introduced Realism with a powerful novel, O Crime do Padre Amaro (1876; The Sin of Father Amaro). With his magnum opus, the Histria de Portugal (1846-53; "History of Portugal"), and the Histria da Origem e Estabelecimento da Inquisio em Portugal (1854-59; History of the Origin and Establishment of the Inquisition in Portugal), Herculano established himself as a leader of modern Spanish and Portuguese historians. Historiography flourished with the Visconde de Santarm, historian of the Cortes; Jos Simo da Luz Soriano (of constitutionalism); Rebelo da Silva (of the period of Spanish rule under the Philips); and Jos Maria Latino Coelho (of the dictatorship of Pombal). Henrique da Gama Barros and Antnio da Costa Lbo followed in the footsteps of Herculano. The works of Joaquim Pedro de Oliveira Martins gave proof of psychological imagination, a notable capacity for general ideas, and a gift of picturesque narration. He left in his numerous writings a vast portrait gallery of great figures of his country, particularly in the Portugal Contemporneo (1881; "History of Contemporary Portugal"). The 20th century The passage from monarchy to republic in Portugal in 1910 saw a revisionary urge in literature associated chiefly with Oporto and the Renascena Portuguesa ("Portuguese Renaissance"). Leonardo Coimbra was its philosopher, and Antnio Srgio its critic and historian. Its poets-Mrio Beiro, Augusto Casimiro, and Joo de Barros-adopted the saudosismo of Teixeira de Pascoais as the key to the nation's recovery of greatness, though the inadequacy of this nostalgia was soon realized. The "Integralist" school reacted from 1913 onward in favour of the Roman Catholic monarchist tradition, led by Antnio Sardinha, a historian and poet. Fernando Pessoa, author of Mensagem (1934; "Message"), was posthumously regarded as the most brilliant poet of his generation. Among novelists of the first half of the century, Aquilino Ribeiro was a prolific writer whose themes often were centred on his native Beira; his delight in life was combined with awareness of decay and death. Miguel Torga, a poet, storyteller, and author of autobiography, showed a radical individualism that took its strength from his peasant roots. The psychological novel, which had attained a sophisticated form with Jos Rgio, also an outstanding dramatist and a religious poet, took new directions with Carlos de Oliveira. Casa na Duna (1943; "A House on a Sandhill"), his first novel, combines an acute perception of human motivation with social awareness, leading up to Finisterra (1978), his last book and a masterpiece. Verglio Ferreira added a metaphysical dimension to the novel of social concern in Alegria Breve (1965; "Brief Joy") and explored the evanescent moods of the past and the idea of death in Para Sempre (1983; "Forever"). After the overthrow of the Salazar regime on April 25, 1974, poetry and fiction found a new freedom of expression. Jorge de Sena, a poet and novelist of outstanding quality, published Sinais de Fogo (1978; "Signs of Fire"), an impressive novel about the effects in Portugal of the Spanish Civil War. J. Cardoso Pires wrote his best novel, Balada da Praia dos Ces (1983; "Ballad of the Beach of the Dogs") based on the account of a political assassination. Women novelists have also brought a new voice to fiction. Agustina Bessa Lus, a most prolific writer, first came to notice in 1955. She extended the psychological insight evident in her drawing of fictional characters to enhance her portraits of historical figures, as in her work Fanny Owen (1979). Maria Velho da Costa, one of the authors of Novas Cartas Portuguesas (1971; The Three Marias: New Portuguese Letters)-a book that became a cause clbre because its authors were put on trial by the state-explored with great subtlety the condition of women in a repressive society in Lcialima (1983; "Lemon Verbena"). Jos Saramago came to the fore in the 1980s. His novels combine an acute observation of reality with flights of poetic fancy. In Memorial do Convento (1982; "Memorial of the Convent") the story of the building of a magnificent convent is also the allegory of human suffering in history, told in the form of an epic tale. Notable work also came out in history and literary criticism, and through this Portugal's history and literature have become more adequately known.