Uma “viajante de letras” no Império do Brasil: relações de gênero e redes de sociabilidade nos relatos de viagem de Maria Graham (1821-1825)

Abstract

The 19th century was marked by the undertaking to journeys from Europeans to the American continent, especially Englishmen, looking for new spaces for commercialization, natural resources extraction and working conditions. Many travelers have written reports of their impressions of people and places visited. It is in this context that we find Maria Graham, an English traveler who became the subject of this research. She was the daughter and wife of British Navy members and, since she was a child, she had contact with seas. Throughout her life she published several literary genres, traveled to India, Italy, Brazil and Chile, and carried out works about natural history. This dissertation aims to analyze the networks and sociability spaces of the traveler during her stays in the Empire of Brazil and, based on gender concept, to understand the “feminine” and political narrative of the author. We are interested in observing the role of sociability networks in the private and political spheres, and the English imaginary in its look at women, Independence and slavery. To carry out this research, we used the biography published by Rosamund Brunel Gotch, Maria, Lady Callcott: the creator of Little Arthur; the book Journal of a voyage to Brazil and residence there during part of the years 1821, 1822, 1823; the manuscript Escorço biográfico de d. Pedro I, com uma notícia do Brasil e do Rio de Janeiro em seu tempo, and some letters exchanged with Empress Leopoldina, both translated and published by National Library Annals. By proposing to investigate its insertion in the private environment and in the political debate, our work looked for to contribute to the field of studies of women history and gender, illuminating the possibilities and limits of an English traveler performance in a period marked by patriarchy.