Abstract

ARAUJO, Ricardo Benzaquen de. Through the looking glass: subjectivity in My formation, by Joaquim Nabuco.Translated byPlínio Dentzien. Rev. bras. ciênc. soc. [online]. 2006, vol.2Selected edition, pp. 0-0. ISSN 0102-6909.

This paper aims at examining the different ways through which Joaquim Nabuco shapes his personality in My Formation, choosing travels as the leitmotiv, especially travels to Europe, as the conductor thread for the investigation. Having always as a reference the way through which political and literary values intertwine in his reflections, we intend to suggest that his subjectivity seems to be elaborated at least at two distinct, though tightly articulated, levels The first corresponds to the author’s youth, marked by a melancholic curiosity that implies, on the limit, a fast and superficial contact with the objects he purports to know; the second entails a relation with the level of tradition, especially British tradition, whose permanence, extension, and variety will promote an environment of serenity and freedom that turns out to be one kind of axis around which Nabuco conceives his biography.

Keywords : Joaquim Nabuco; Melancholy; Subjectivity; Travels to Europe.