Tomás Antônio Gonzaga
Tomás Antônio Gonzaga (born August 11, 1744 in Porto , Portugal , † February 1810 in Mozambique ) was a Brazilian poet of Portuguese descent. He is considered one of the most important Arcadian poets in Brazil.
life and work
Gonzaga was born as the son of the Brazilian magistrate Dr. Born João Bernardo Gonzaga and Dona Tomásia Isabel Clark. He spent his childhood in Recife and Bahia , where his father was a councilor. He also began his studies at the Jesuit college there , which eventually brought him to the University of Coimbra in Portugal, where he finished his law studies in 1768. From 1778 to 1781 he worked as a judge in Beja . In 1782 he returned to Brazil and from then on lived in Ouro Preto , where he worked as a civil servant. Because of his criticism of the conditions of the colonial government and especially of the Governor General Luís da Cunha Meneses , he was banished to the Ilha do Cobra (Cobra Island) near Rio de Janeiro for three years in 1789 , after which he went into exile in Mozambique, where he too married and his sons were born. He died in Mozambique without ever having seen his homeland again.
As a poet he stood out under the pseudonym " Dirceu " for his strong love poetry. In it he sings about the 16-year-old " Marilia ", who refuses his advertising. It is considered to be one of the main works of Arcadismo brasileiro , the neoclassical-exotic "Arcadism in Brazil". During his stay in Portugal, a philosophical work was created entitled “ Tratado de Direito Natural ”, which - dedicated to the Marquês de Pombal - is the first ever treatise on natural law in the Portuguese language. His critical and satirical comments in the anonymously published “ Cartas Chilenes ”, in which he bluntly and openly criticized the colonial government, are politically significant .
Gonzaga was chosen by the co-founder of the Academia Brasileira de Letras Hernando da Silva Ramos as the namesake of the Academy Chair No. 37.
plant
- Marilia de Dirceu (no year), love poetry.
- Cartas Chilenas (Critical and Satirical Letters on the State of Brazil), (around 1786), published in 1845 and 1862.
- Tratado de Direito Natural (Natural Law), treatise, without year.
- Obras Completas. 2 volumes. Rio de Janeiro 1957.
Web links
- Biography of Tomás Antônio Gonzaga on the Academia Brasileira de Letras website (Portuguese, accessed November 27, 2012).
- Literature by and about Tomás Antônio Gonzaga in the catalog of the Ibero-American Institute of Prussian Cultural Heritage, Berlin
- Source collection in the São Francisco portal (Portuguese, accessed November 27, 2012).
Individual evidence
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Gonzaga, Tomás Antônio |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Dirceu (pseudonym) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Brazilian lyric poet of Portuguese descent |
| DATE OF BIRTH | August 11, 1744 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Porto , Portugal |
| DATE OF DEATH | February 1810 |
| Place of death | Mozambique |