The Incipit in The Portuguese and Brazilian Historical Novel

Alexandre Herculano, Almeida Garrett and José De Alencar

Abstract

The Incipit as a starting point, origin of an unknown narrative itinerary, is a privileged formula that authors use not only as a mechanism of seduction, as a device that dictates the rules of the universe of the narrative, but also as an expression of their position in relation to what is going the object of their story. In the case of the historical novel, the author still has the responsibility of temporarily situating the reader, opting either for descriptions, narrative segments or for starting the story in medias res, so as not to discomfort and loose the reader. The incipit in this genre can also work as a clue to how the author makes use of history in fiction: as an ideological “screen”, with the intention of intervening in the present, evasion and catharsis, or also reflection and clarification of a certain period. If these categories are valid in the analysis of the incipit of the works of the Portuguese authors and of some of Alencar’s texts, the Alencarian historical novels of indianist content demand another category – that of the fictional elaboration of History with mythical and legendary intentions. With some eye winking to Portuguese novelists, in a true lesson of romantic irony, Alencar makes the incipital description a true institution that concentrates in itself objectives linked to the construction of the narrative of the origins of the Brazilian people.