Guardiões do Éden: narrativas de encontros com criaturas maravilhosas na América Portuguesa – Século XVI

Abstract

The research deals with the reported encounters with wonderful creatures in Portuguese América during the sixteenth century. From the concepts of representation, narrative and wonder, we analyze how the wonderful universe was seized and represented by the European traveler from their travel accounts to the New World. Initially, it was necessary to know the tradition that was built from Antiquity about the monsters and wonderful creatures. Therefore, some authors who were more important for future periods, constitute the so-called Old World authorities, were identified from its main contributions to this tradition. Similarly, we follow the development of the wonderful representation throughout the Middle Ages, also from the main subject of the authorities, who appropriated the ancient tradition and have adapted to the Christian representation. In addition, about the Middle Ages we analyze two travel accounts that were most important to the sixteenth century, which were the narratives of Marco Polo and Mandeville, always with a view to the wonderful representation expressed in these sources. From the European overseas expansion, we analyzed the reports of many European travelers who visited the portuguese colony in America during the sixteenth century: Vespúcio, Goneville, Pigafetta, Thevet, Léry, Staden e Knivet. From their narratives, we seek the influences of tradition and appropriations of the New World, the changes and continuities about the wonderful representation, especially in view of Paradise and descriptions of encounters with monsters and other wonderful beings.