Imaginary Antarctic France

The article analyzes the narratives written by the Franciscan André Thevet and the Calvinist Jean de Léry about their stays in Antartic France, then recently created. Finding themselves before a world that was new in all aspects, these two French sojourners set out to describe the undescribable, and...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Augras, Monique
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:Portuguese
Published: Editora FGV 1991
Subjects:
Ela
Online Access:http://bibliotecadigital.fgv.br/ojs/index.php/reh/article/view/2312
Description
Summary:The article analyzes the narratives written by the Franciscan André Thevet and the Calvinist Jean de Léry about their stays in Antartic France, then recently created. Finding themselves before a world that was new in all aspects, these two French sojourners set out to describe the undescribable, and this led them to compose paradoxical texts where in the Renaisssance zeal for objective knowledge fostered interpretations from within the realm of the imaginary. The tensions between wonderment at (estranhamento), and appropriation and comprehension of, the other prompted a style of writing that can be interpreted as the beginning of anthropological discourse O artigo analisa as narrativa de dois autores franceses, o franciscano André Thevet e o calvinista Jean de Léry, sobre suas estadas na França Antártica, pouco após ela ter sido fundada. Diante de um novo mundo sob todos os aspectos novo, os dois viajantes se vêem confrontados com uma tarefa impossível: descrever o indiscritível. Isso os leva a produzir textos paradoxais nos quais o zelo cedeu lugar a interpretações quese situam no campo do imaginário. As tensões entre sentimentos de estranhamento, apreensão e compreensão, geraram um estilo de escrita que pode ser interpretado como precursor de um discurso antropológico.