{"id":219891,"date":"2016-06-30T12:17:42","date_gmt":"2016-06-30T15:17:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/?p=219891"},"modified":"2016-06-30T13:41:50","modified_gmt":"2016-06-30T16:41:50","slug":"globalization-in-the-19th-century","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/globalization-in-the-19th-century\/","title":{"rendered":"Globalization in the 19th<\/sup> century"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"cicula\u00e7\u00e3oDaniel Almeida<\/span>Many decades before the term \u201cglobalization\u201d came into widespread use, the literate world of the 19th<\/sup> century frequently ignored national borders, at least in the West.\u00a0 France was the center from which cultural goods were distributed, and with them, the French language, a symbol of refinement that was in daily use even among the members of the court of the Russian czars.\u00a0 Presented with a growing market, France exported a thousand tons of books and magazines around 1840 and a number that reached 4.7 million tons in 1890.\u00a0 Many of those printed items, published in various languages, were later re-exported.\u00a0 Even when in French they may have been translations produced in various languages, especially German and English, to serve avid readers from among the elites in other countries, including Brazilians in major urban centers.\u00a0 Materials were printed in France in practically all the known languages because the scale of the enormous French printing industry made it cheaper.\u00a0 Furthermore, in the case of Brazil, a tax was assessed on imports of blank paper but not on imported books.<\/p>\n

This effervescent scenario is reconstituted for us by a FAPESP-funded thematic project entitled A circula\u00e7\u00e3o transatl\u00e2ntica dos impressos \u2013 A globaliza\u00e7\u00e3o da cultura no s\u00e9culo XIX<\/i> <\/em>(The transatlantic circulation of printed matter \u2013 Globalization of the culture in the 19th<\/sup> century), begun in 2011 and expected to be completed in August 2016.\u00a0 The coordinators-general are M\u00e1rcia Abreu, from the Institute of Language Studies at the University of Campinas (IEL-Unicamp) and Jean Yves-Mollier, a Frenchman from the University of Versailles-Saint-Quentin (France).\u00a0 The purpose of the project is to \u201cfamiliarize people with the printed matter and ideas that circulated among England, France, Portugal and Brazil.\u201d\u00a0 The period covered borrows from British historian Hobsbawm (1917-2012) the concept of \u201ca long 19th<\/sup> century\u201d), the initial highlight of which was the French Revolution (1789) and the final milestone the outbreak of World War I (1914).\u00a0 The starting date of the subjects studied is appropriate because the French Revolution had changed the laws pertaining to the sale of books in France, resulting in a profusion of publications, very often ephemeral, that spread throughout that country and later the world.\u00a0 The final date selected is a geopolitical milestone that directly affected all the countries that are the focus of the project.\u00a0 One result of the study is a book entitled The cultural revolution of the nineteenth century: Theatre, the book-trade and reading in the transatlantic world<\/i><\/em>, a collection of articles published in the United Kingdom by I. B. Taurus.\u00a0 No plans for a Portuguese translation have been made.<\/p>\n

During the period studied, printed matter would usually arrive in Brazil an average of 28 days after being introduced in Europe.\u00a0 Shipments were met by an army of translators who, among other purposes, stood ready to satisfy the growing demand for their publication in the form of serials (folhetins<\/i><\/em>) published in short chapters printed at the bottoms of the front pages of newspapers\u2014a phenomenon not so different from what Brazilians now experience with regard to United States television series.\u00a0 In a similar development the success of foreign items on the promising market below the Equator stimulated local production.\u00a0 French publishers and publishers of other European nationalities moved to Portugal and Brazil and successfully established themselves there.<\/p>\n

Initially the Brazilian market was contested by French and Portuguese publishers.\u00a0 The booksellers\/publishers who had established themselves in Brazil not only imported and sold books produced in Europe, but also published Brazilian magazines and books that they arranged to be printed in France and Portugal.\u00a0 \u201cIn addition, as time went on they discovered the Portuguese reading public and reversed the direction of the secular flow of the books to such a point that competition from Portuguese works that had been printed in Brazil became a matter of concern in Portugal,\u201d Professor Abreu says.\u00a0 Concern extended to the phenomenon of counterfeiting of books and magazines, which was nothing more than piracy of cultural products, also common in the contemporary world.\u00a0 At the time, Portugal had a much smaller population (5.5 million in 1900) than Brazil (18 million) but the illiteracy rate was equivalent (at about 25%), which made the Brazilian market more robust and commercially attractive.<\/p>\n

\"cicula\u00e7\u00e3oDaniel Almeida<\/span>Urbanization<\/b><\/strong>
\nAn important trend in the period was the consolidation of the residential structure of cities.\u00a0 It was also an era when distances were becoming shorter, not only because of the progress of railroads but also because of the invention and dissemination of the steam-powered printing press, mechanization of paper manufacturing, and the advent of the telegraph in the early 19th<\/sup> century, followed by the rotary press, linotype, and photography in the century\u2019s last decades.\u00a0 \u201cConsumption of culture could no longer be traditional, based only on what was spoken from the church pulpits,\u201d says Tania de Luca, a professor at the History Department of the School of Sciences and Letters of S\u00e3o Paulo State University (Unesp), whose role in the project was to coordinate the study of periodicals.<\/p>\n

According to M\u00e1rcia Abreu, what enabled researchers to evaluate Brazilian participation in the circuit of exchange of cultural products and ideas in an unprecedented fashion was \u201csetting aside the tradition that was centered on the concept of nation\u201d as had been proposed in 2010, one year before the research work began, during a meeting at the University of Versailles coordinated by Jean-Yves Mollier.\u00a0 The group that joined the project is composed of 40 researchers from 19 research institutions in the four countries that were studied.\u00a0 The initial nucleus, which includes French historian Roger Chartier, who is fairly well known in Brazil, gathered on an annual basis.\u00a0 \u201cAt that first meeting, some of the papers presented had demonstrated that, as early as the 19th<\/sup> century there had been a desire by the internationally less important countries to become better known in France.\u00a0 Once we stepped away from the limits of national territories, we began to perceive events and personages who previously had been practically invisible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Translation<\/b><\/strong>
\nStanding out among those personages was the important figure of the translator, a professional highly sought after in all the countries studied and, as a mediator among them, almost a symbol of the globalization of the culture.\u00a0 Translators were multitalented professionals who worked in various intellectual activities and were grouped in the general category known as \u201cmen of letters.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cEven in France, a central country, translations accounted for some of what was read,\u201d Abreu remarks.\u00a0 One emblematic representative of that professional category in Brazil was Salvador de Mendon\u00e7a (1841-1913), from the state of Rio de Janeiro.\u00a0 He had been hired by Casa Garnier, the publishing house that had also published his best known novel (Marab\u00e1<\/i><\/em>) (1875).\u00a0 He was also a poet, playwright, critic, journalist, and later consul-general of Brazil in the United States.<\/p>\n

What is strange is that a translator like Mendon\u00e7a, when wearing his critic\u2019s hat, harshly denounced the wide circulation of foreign works in Brazil.\u00a0 It was an era when national bodies of literature were being built up \u201cas the foundation of nations in formation,\u201d which was what the men of letters aspired to.\u00a0 Meanwhile, they had to work as translators in order to supplement their income, Abreu observes.\u00a0 Even Machado de Assis (1839-1908), known as the great 19th<\/sup> century author of novels, was also a critic, columnist, playwright, and translator.\u00a0 The only Brazilian author from the period under study, who lived solely on literature, for a time, was Alu\u00edsio Azevedo (1857-1913), severely criticized by intellectuals who thought he had surrendered to a need to satisfy the popular taste.<\/p>\n

The researcher emphasizes that translators had \u201ca lot of freedom to make changes; respect for the original text was not as great as it is today.\u201d\u00a0 And so, for example, questions arose as to which \u201cversions\u201d of the works by French novelist \u00c9mile Zola (1840-1902) were being read in Brazil, where the author enjoyed a lot of prestige.\u00a0 Similarly, practically all that was known in Brazil about English and German literature during the period had been translated from other translations done into French\u2014which also happened with books sold among the European countries.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn terms of genre, what was new at the time was the introduction of the folhetins<\/i><\/em> (serialized stories), which took place in the same decade, the 1830s, in both Brazil and France,\u201d Abreu recalls.\u00a0 Reading was becoming popular and an audience looking for readily available texts with action-packed plots developed.\u00a0 Most of the novels published as books started out as folhetins<\/i><\/em>, although not all folhetins<\/i><\/em> became books.\u00a0 Publication in newspapers, which cost little to publishers, served as a test for publication in a more lasting format.\u00a0 \u201cA story that was well accepted could even quadruple a newspaper\u2019s circulation.\u201d\u00a0 Since technical limitations dictated that every novel would be released in three or four volumes, publication as a book could begin even before the story came to an end on the pages of newspapers.<\/p>\n

\"cicula\u00e7\u00e3oDaniel Almeida<\/span>Interest in indigenous topics <\/b><\/strong>
\nAnother episode that revealed the multiple directions taken by the circulation of 19th<\/sup> century cultural goods, highlighted by M\u00e1rcia Abreu in the project, is that of poet Tom\u00e1s Ant\u00f4nio Gonzaga (1744-1810) and his best-known work Mar\u00edlia de Dirceu<\/i><\/em>.\u00a0 Because of his role in the Inconfid\u00eancia Mineira<\/i><\/em>, a Minas Gerais conspiracy to establish a republic, Gonzaga found himself banished to Mozambique when, probably without his knowledge, the book was published in Lisbon in 1792 and met with huge public success, resulting in three more editions by 1800.\u00a0 It was probably that impact in the \u201cmetropolis\u201d that persuaded French-Brazilian bookseller Paulo Martin Filho, established in Rio de Janeiro, to republish the book in 1810, enabling copies of the Brazilian edition to circulate once again in the Portuguese market.\u00a0 In 1825, the poem was translated into French and published as Marilie \u2013 Chanta \u00e9legiaques de Gonzaga.\u00a0 <\/i><\/em>Translations into other languages followed, from Italian to Latin.\u00a0 \u201cOne of the interesting things about this story is that no one knows who took the work out of Brazil, since Gonzaga was isolated in a distant country from which he would never return,\u201d says Abreu.<\/p>\n

Highly appreciated in Europe was literature on indigenous topics and works that would later be called \u201cregionalist,\u201d represented by Inoc\u00eancia <\/i><\/em>(Innocence) by Visconde de Taunay (1843-1899), translated into several languages.\u00a0 \u201cThe urban novels by Jos\u00e9 de Alencar (1829-1877) such as Senhora<\/i><\/em> (Madam), set in the Court, were not translated, probably because Europeans thought they were already well known,\u201d says Abreu.\u00a0 \u201cBut his novels O Guarani, Ubirajara, <\/i><\/em>and Iracema<\/i><\/em> made Alencar our biggest success outside Brazil i<\/u>n the 19th<\/sup> century.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cContradicting the common impression that Brazil was culturally backward and had no readers, several families of booksellers came from abroad and set up their businesses here,\u201d the researcher says.\u00a0 Since the 18th<\/sup> century France had been exporting publishers to various parts of the world.\u00a0 In the second half of that century, 14 of the 17 booksellers in Lisbon were French.\u00a0 However, until the Portuguese royal family moved to Brazil (1808) every publication in Brazil had to be produced clandestinely.\u00a0 Thereafter, publishers depended on the initiative or authorization by the Royal Press or, in some cases, use of its print shop on a rental basis.\u00a0 However, in the Second Empire (1840-1889) publishers received direct help from Emperor Pedro II.\u00a0 The first Frenchman to arrive in Brazil and go into the publishing and bookselling business was Paulo Martin Filho, whose father, Paul Martin, was in that business in Lisbon.\u00a0 He became the most important bookseller in Rio de Janeiro in the early 19th<\/sup> century, but actually almost never got to Brazil: fearful of competition, the Portuguese Commercial Registry had tried to prevent authorities from issuing him a passport.<\/p>\n

Illustration <\/b><\/strong>
\nThe most important foreign publisher\/bookseller in Brazil was Baptiste Louis Garnier (1823-1893), whose brothers were publishers in Paris.\u00a0 He arrived in Rio de Janeiro in 1844.\u00a0 \u201cHe was the one responsible for setting the standard for Brazilian literature,\u201d says L\u00facia Granja, a professor of Brazilian literature and culture at the S\u00e3o Jos\u00e9 do Rio Preto campus of Unesp, responsible for coordinating the studies about booksellers and publishers within the international cooperation project.\u00a0 \u201cGarnier published the leading Brazilian authors of the time, fulfilling an important aspiration by the intellectuals of that era,\u201d Granja observes.\u00a0 It was the French publisher who converted Brazilian authors, Machado de Assis among them, into paid writers.\u00a0 The bookseller also published the Jornal das Familias <\/i><\/em>(Journal of the Families) printed in France, in which Brazilian intellectuals inveighed against the foreign presence in the country\u2019s literature.\u00a0 \u201cHe made money on translations from the French and published the Brazilians who boosted his reputation,\u201d Granja says.\u00a0 Garnier also published educational, religious, and specialized textbooks.\u00a0 \u201cIts output followed the European pattern, releasing every book in two editions at the same time, one cheap, the other lavish.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even before that intense circulation of books, magazines and newspapers were already experiencing vigorous and diversified acceptance.\u00a0 \u201cThe press of the 19th<\/sup> century was internationalized at birth, with titles and models that repeated themselves,\u201d says Tania de Luca.\u00a0 \u201cWhat was really new in that century was the incorporation of images,\u201d a novelty that would be reflected in publications such as the Revista Ilustrada <\/i><\/em>(Illustrated Review) founded in Rio de Janeiro by the Italian-Brazilian cartoonist Angelo Agostini, which circulated from 1876 to 1898.\u00a0 It was predominately a periodical of satirical and playful humor: the editorial line defended the Republic and the abolition of slavery in a period when both campaigns were on the agenda.<\/p>\n

In those days publications that debated political and philosophical ideas were common.\u00a0 \u201cMany magazines and newspapers selected and translated texts from other publications, and on a global scale,\u201d Abreu says.\u00a0 \u201cCauses such as the formation of nation-states and the Republic were the subject of texts that had been translated, reprinted, and assimilated, forming a large community in harmony with the new developments of the era, including scientific novelties.\u201d\u00a0 The same would occur with magazines devoted to fashion and the female readership that also contained games and charades, as well as news from the world of entertainment.\u00a0 Some fashion magazines published patterns for dresses designed in Europe and included suggestions for adapting them to the hot climate of the tropics.<\/p>\n

A thread that certainly could not be neglected by the publishers and print shops was theater.\u00a0 \u201cAt the time, the texts of plays were a literary genre that circulated in book form,\u201d says Orna Messer Levin, a professor at the IEL-Unicamp, responsible for the theater part of the project.\u00a0 Brochures, posters, librettos and other by-products of theatrical shows also earned money for publishers.\u00a0 \u201cTheater was tremendously important for European countries in the 19th<\/sup> century because it was a tool for national affirmation.\u00a0 Italians published texts in their language but also French plays, and the Portuguese brought works to Brazil that had been translated from French.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tours in the Americas<\/b><\/strong>
\nTheatre companies took a businesslike and highly professional approach.\u00a0 Agents traveled ahead of time to the destination countries to determine the suitability of the theaters for the shows that the companies would present.\u00a0 To survive in the summer, a season when theaters in Europe were dark, the groups made tours that started in the north of Brazil, came down along the coast, arrived in Uruguay and Argentina, and often continued around the southern tip of the continent, arriving in western South America and later proceeding on to the United States.\u00a0 In Brazil, they were the primary program for the capital\u2019s elites\u2014companies were getting subsidies from the imperial State until the 1860s.<\/p>\n

A favorable review by critics or an extended engagement in Rio de Janeiro earned praise for the show in other countries, even in those where the company originated.\u00a0 Divas from the European stage, such as the Italian Eleonora Duse and the French Sarah Bernhardt, came to perform in Brazil.\u00a0 According to Levin, many artists, especially actresses, married and remained in Brazil.\u00a0 The local theatre benefited from this active environment.\u00a0 The 19th<\/sup> century was the era of great actors, like Jo\u00e3o Caetano dos Santos, and assimilations like \u201cburlesque,\u201d satirical-musical productions by Artur de Azevedo (1855-1908) seen as a \u201cresponse\u201d to the European operettas, an example of a sort of cultural cannibalism that occurred years before the term was coined by the modernists in 1922.<\/p>\n

Project<\/strong>
\nThe transatlantic circulation of printed matter: the globalization of culture in the 19th Century (n\u00ba 2011\/07342-9<\/a>); Grant Mechanism<\/b><\/strong>\u00a0Regular Research Grant\u2013 Thematic Project; Principal Investigator\u00a0<\/b><\/strong>M\u00e1rcia Azevedo de Abreu; Investment<\/b><\/strong> R$ 741,770.00.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Project reveals an intense circulation of cultural goods in the 19th century","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[165],"tags":[220,241,245],"coauthors":[137],"class_list":["post-219891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-humanities","tag-communication","tag-history","tag-literature"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/38"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219891\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219891"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=219891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}