DebatePapo about Joseph of Anchieta

José de Anchieta's De Gestis Mendi de Saa is the first Latin epic of the Americas and part of a corpus of Latin literature from the colonial period. As the title suggests, the poem describes the deeds of the third governor-general of Brazil, Mem de Sá (1500-1572). After a brief introduction to the text and its context, this talk will examine Virgil's role in the poem's depiction of New World 'monsters'. Comparison between De Gestis and the Aeneid shows how Virgil contributed to the poem's presentation of indigenous Brazilians and French Huguenots as non-humans, charting the constitutive relationship between classical texts and settler colonialism.

Speaker: Erika Valdivieso (Pricenton University)

Moderator: Leni Ribeiro Leite (Ufes)

Watch at Youtube: https://youtu.be/emjiCU46sXg