THE REVERSE OF MEMORY AND THE MULTISCALE EFFECT OF THE FRONTIER. CULTURAL RECONFIGURATIONS BETWEEN PORTUGAL AND BRAZIL (1888-1934)

Abstract

This paper analyses the memory and expectation games observed between Portuguese and Brazilian intellectuals in observance of their apprehension linked to a putative luso-brazilian relationship. It is focused on two specific historical contexts: the Brazilian Republic Proclamation (1889) and the First Colonial Exposition in Porto (1934). Beyond the importance of those events, it is interested on the dimensions of the tightening of memories projected about the future
of the Lusitanian brand in America and Africa. In both cases, the land unity related to the identity hermeneutics stands out. The fear of lack of unity in American scale, in XIX century, or the fear of its unfolding in Africa in the future, in XX century, touches the understanding of the Lusitanianness. The frontier, as a concept, reveals itself as a machinery that condensate expectations and requests different scales and dimensions (Europe, America, Africa) in a contextual and discursive process that makes national identities.