Considerations on the Philosophy of Portuguese Literary History
Quental, Antero de, 1842-1891Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019
Rating 3.8- Word count
- 56K words
- Chapters
- 6
Tags
Foreign Language Books Literary Appreciation Historical ReappraisalPhilosophical ReflectionWestern ThoughtAcademic StudyIntellectual CommentaryLiterary CriticismCultural ChangePortuguese LiteratureSummary
Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971, and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today. Considerations on the Philosophy of Portuguese Literary History by Quental. Author: Quental, Antero de, 1842-1891. Language: Portuguese. Class: PQ: Language and Literatures: Romance literatures: French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese. Release Date: Jun 13, 2010Editor's review
This book is an important essay by the renowned Portuguese poet and thinker Antero de Quental on the philosophy of Portuguese literary history. Drawing on his deep literary cultivation and philosophical reflection, the author examines the development of Portuguese literary history and explores the methodology and spiritual orientation of literary-historical study, reflecting the nineteenth-century Portuguese intelligentsia's reconsideration of the national literary tradition. The essay is short but densely argued and intellectually substantial; it can serve both as an entry point to Quental's literary views and as valuable material for the study of Portuguese literary historiography. Because it is a theoretical discussion, reading it requires some grounding in Portuguese literary history and a patience for philosophical argument. Published by Project Gutenberg in the original Portuguese, this book is suited to researchers and advanced readers as specialized study material rather than an introductory general-reader text.Who it's for
A good fit for
- Upper-level students and scholars studying Portuguese literary history or the history of literary criticism
- Advanced readers interested in Antero de Quental's thought and literary criticism
- Comparative literature researchers with Portuguese reading ability and an interest in literary-historical methodology
- Specialized readers who wish to understand nineteenth-century Portuguese intellectuals' views on literature
Not a good fit for
- Beginners with no grounding in Portuguese literary history encountering the field for the first time
- Casual readers who prefer light reading and are unwilling to engage with theoretical texts
- Readers with no Portuguese ability and no available translation
Reading tips
- Before reading, review the basic periods and representative authors of Portuguese literary history to better understand the subjects discussed
- Read it alongside Quental's other essays or poetry to appreciate the continuity of his thought
- Mark arguments and evidence as you read, and after finishing try to restate the main thesis in your own words
- Given its limited length, read it through once before returning to key passages, rather than getting bogged down sentence by sentence and losing the overall picture
About the publisher
Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.
Contents
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
FAQ
What is this essay roughly about?
The essay centers on the philosophical foundations of Portuguese literary history, discussing how literary history should be understood and studied and touching on issues such as the inner logic of literary development and the national literary tradition. It is a reflection at the level of literary-historical methodology.Can I read it without any background in Portuguese literary history?
You can try, but your understanding will be limited. The text involves many specific subjects and contexts from Portuguese literary history; without that background, it is easy to grasp the arguments without knowing what they refer to. It is advisable to acquire some basic literary-historical knowledge first.How does the difficulty of this book compare with Quental's poetry?
This is a theoretical essay focused on speculation and argument, with a relatively dense style, and the reading experience differs from that of poetry. If you are already familiar with Quental's intellectual style, reading will be smoother; otherwise, it requires more patience.This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.
About the author
Quental, Antero de, 1842-1891 AuthorAntero de Quental (1842–1891) was a Portuguese poet and thinker who holds an important place in nineteenth-century Portuguese literature and intellectual history. He is best known for his sonnets, and the works listed here—Sonetos de Anthero, Os sonetos completos de Anthero de Quental and Sonetos—show him returning to this form again and again, with a concentrated poetic thought that combines philosophical depth and lyrical tension. He also wrote reflective prose, such as Considerações sobre a Philosophia da Historia Litteraria Portugueza and Portugal perante a revolução de Hespanha, discussing Portuguese literary history and Iberian political questions, and he produced critical works on figures such as Sá de Miranda and Oliveira Martins. His poem Raios de extincta luz also appears in the collection. Public information on the details of his life is limited, so this entry confines itself to a brief account of his subjects and style.