Comparing literature and empire: british-portuguese intercultural contacts and responses during the Victorian Period

Abstract

This paper proposes to address and problematize relevant issues in the Victorian Period that are connected with the comparative analysis of different cultures (showing both transnational and transatlantic perspectives of the Other), with the more specific problems of race and empire and respective discourses, focusing in the literary reception of some major authors and works in Britain and in Portugal. During the long nineteenth century, the two allied imperial nations (and their protagonists) were frequently, and decisively, confronted with one another in the national and international spheres, occasioning multiple contacts and encounters, mutually enriching both the political and literary cultures of the two European countries. In this unprecedented and sometimes unequal exchange, which started early on with the Peninsular Wars, continued with the Liberal and Constitutional conflicts under British control, and ended in the colonial confrontation culminating with the British Ultimatum at the fin-de-siècle, many were the intercultural responses – laudatory and critical – on both sides. These varied and interesting responses range from comments in the printing press and in public speeches, to complete travel accounts and some major literary works (in poetry and prose), a brief selection and treatment of which will serve to illustrate the respective attitudes towards the (foreign/colonial) Other and the complex issues (and consequences) of both imperial expansion and decadence.