De Miranda Nogueira Coelho, Maria Cecília

Special Issue, 45:3, pages 225-236

António Vieira between Greeks, Romans and Brazilians—Comments on Rhetoric and the Jesuit Tradition in Brazil

Abstract: This article uses a short reflection on the life and work of Father António Vieira (born Portugal, 1608 – died Brazil, 1697) to draw our attention to the need to account not just for the dynamic interplay between colony and metropolis, but also the colony’s impact on the teaching, theory, and practice of rhetoric since 1492. Specifically, my reflection focuses on Vieira’s Le Lacrime d’Eraclito, a text which suggests that for rhetorical theory and practice the colonial encounter had ramifications on the European continent as profound as those on the American. We cannot speak of an American or Western rhetorical tradition and history without considering this interplay in which the American colonies were active participants, not passive subjects.