Freyre's East and West: Orientalist Topics in Casa-grande & Senzala and the West in Sobrados e Mucambos

Abstract

Centered on one of the main aspects of our doctoral thesis, entitled Os orientes de Freyre: tópica orientalista e luso-tropicalismo, the present paper intends to propose an analysis of some aspects of two of Gilberto Freyre's books. In Casa-grande & Senzala (1933), we will analyze what we call Orientalist topic, that is, we will try to understand how the author portrays the theme “orientas” in it. In relation to Sobrados e Mucambos (1936) we will analyze the two conceptions of the West that Freyre develops there. Although the current thesis analyzes the aforementioned Orientalist topic in a larger portion of the author's work, we will contemplate here those works in which aspects that we consider central to the study are solidified: the notions of West and East, which guide the appreciations of Freyre on Brazil and Portugal in their multisecular imperialism.