Abstract
Raul Brandão’s As ilhas desconhecidas has always been regarded as a great example of travel literature. This essay attempts a dialectical analysis of the text that highlights its social critique, which remains as urgent in the present. Brandão’s perspective, in all its subjectivity, lack of familiarity, anxiety, and even some feeling of repulsion, never becomes that of a consumer or collector of exotic, strange or alienating, images. While today’s tourists are tempted with the promise to have immediate access, without making any effort, to the “secrets” of nature and the intimate lives of the population, Raul Brandão never spared his readers the necessity to assume an ethical confrontation with a reality that forced itself upon them in all of its contrasts and contradictions to which no one could remain impassive. As Brandão shows us, the specter of the other is also always our own.
Resumo
Abstract
Raul Brandão’s As ilhas desconhecidas has always been regarded as a great example of travel literature. This essay attempts a dialectical analysis of the text that highlights its social critique, which remains as urgent in the present. Brandão’s perspective, in all its subjectivity, lack of familiarity, anxiety, and even some feeling of repulsion, never becomes that of a consumer or collector of exotic, strange or alienating, images. While today’s tourists are tempted with the promise to have immediate access, without making any effort, to the “secrets” of nature and the intimate lives of the population, Raul Brandão never spared his readers the necessity to assume an ethical confrontation with a reality that forced itself upon them in all of its contrasts and contradictions to which no one could remain impassive. As Brandão shows us, the specter of the other is also always our own.
- © 2022 by the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System
This article requires a subscription to view the full text. If you have a subscription you may use the login form below to view the article. Access to this article can also be purchased.
Log in using your username and password
Purchase access
In this issue
Jump to section
Related Articles
Cited By...
- No citing articles found.