Research Description:

Epic and Ekphrasis: Virgilian allusions in the Uruguay

My essay offers a comparative analysis of the marked similarities between the temples that are a central theme in both Basilio da Gama’s Uruguay and Virgil’s Aeneid, cataloging in detail Virgilian allusions in Gama’s epic, with emphasis on word choice, imagery and focalization. By analyzing Gama’s deployment of Virgilian themes in this manner, I seek to advance our understanding of the role of classical literature in the literary formation of the emerging Brazilian nation and in the process of decolonization generally.

Gama’s Uruguay, published in 1769, is one of the first epics of Brazilian literature, and it describes the unsuccessful attempt by the natives and their Jesuit overlords to resist Portuguese occupation of the region to the east of the Uruguay River. The poem had a significant impact on the formation of Brazilian literature, particularly in the first half of the nineteenth century, when Brazil acquired independence from Portugal. It has been the subject of much criticism, but while scholars have noted allusions by Gama to European classical literature, in particular to the Roman epic poet Virgil, a dedicated study of Gama’s sources and his uses of them has yet to appear.

Thus, for example, I explore the unmistakable echoes of the famous description of Juno's temple in Aeneid in the description of Gama’s temple at the dramatic climax of the Uruguay. Of particular significance is the fact that Gama appears to draw on the geopolitical dimension in Virgil’s temple, which illustrates the Trojans’ sorrows during the Trojan War. These sorrows can be viewed as crimes that Juno instigated against the Trojans, much as the images in Gama’s temple can be described as the crimes the Jesuits inflicted on the whole world.