The Minas Gerais of the XVIII century: national identity and territorial training under the look of Cláudio Manuel da Costa

Abstract

This work, the result of the dissertation of Master, aims to rescue and understand the way in which the construction of the national identity and the Brazilian territorial formation in the context of the Minas Gerais of the XVIII century was processed, this time it was sought to do so in the light of the literary works of the poets of the Inconfidência Mineira. In this sense, the book Vila Rica by Cláudio Manuel da Costa fulfills the role of allying Geography and Literature by enabling the dialogue between the artistic manifestations of the poet and the spatial and temporal components that composed the mining society of the eighteenth century. To reach the proposed objective, it was fundamental to analyze some elements, such as the concept of sertão and its condition of occupation and isolation for the period, directly related to the development and decay of the so-called "gold cycle", besides the formation of that society and of the establishment of a "national identity", responsible for outlining for Minas Gerais the possibility of composing an independent nation of Portugal. In this way, the literary plot allowed to observe what understanding of the intellectual Cláudio Manuel da Costa about that space and time. His vision of the world was reflected in the lines of the literary text, revealing different perceptions, opinions and positions about that reality, fundamental aspects of the process of construction of Brazilian nationality and territoriality.