Aluísio de Azevedo and Japan: a critical appreciation

Authors

  • Renato Ortiz Universidade Estadual de Campinas. Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1590/ts.v9i2.86691

Keywords:

Japan, Modernization, Nationalism, Orient/Occident, Aluísio de Azevedo

Abstract

The article analyses the book Japan by Aluísio de Azevedo, who was Brazil’s vice-consul in Yokohama, between 1887 and 1889. It tries to insert the author’s opinions and the fascination he seems to have for the Emperor in the complex context of japonization-process which ran throughout Japan at the end of the 80ies of the last century. Talking into account that the country of that time is immersed in a debate which opposes modernization to tradition inside the parameters of an exalted nationalism, the aim here is to investigate the fundaments of a perspective suggested by an author characterized by his brasility and by an idyllic perception of Japanese isolationism, a measure of purity in relation to Europe. The analysis emphasizes the oscillation between a look which tends to see the Orient as a homogeneous block contrasting with the Occident as well as the national question, which precisely is the assertion of a specificity.

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Author Biography

  • Renato Ortiz, Universidade Estadual de Campinas. Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas

    Professor do Departamento de Sociologia do Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas, Universidade Estadual de Campinas (IFCH-UNICAMP).

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Published

1997-06-29

Issue

Section

Articles

How to Cite

Ortiz, R. (1997). Aluísio de Azevedo and Japan: a critical appreciation. Tempo Social, 9(2), 79-95. https://doi.org/10.1590/ts.v9i2.86691