Ideologies of Empire (1496-1773). Rhetoric of Difference in Portuguese Visual Culture

Ideologies of Empire (1496-1773). Rhetoric of Difference in Portuguese Visual Culture

The absence of research on the ideologies of the Portuguese empire during the Early-Modern period is a matter of concern, especially in a period when the Word «empire» is frequently used in Social Sciences, but also in the media and in the common sense. The frequency of these uses is related with attempts to explain - among other things - the emergence of new political forms and of new types of social relations within the community, namely, the growing existence of communities constituted by people living in, and from different perspectives, a post-colonial condition.
Concentrating on the rethorics of otherness that operated during the Early-Modern imperial period, this project aims at tracing the historicity of Portuguese imperial ideologies of otherness, and the ways they penetrated in the Portuguese society, constituting its common sense tissue, and therefore, structuring the social basis for the perceiving and the understanding of these different post-colonial conditions.
Its chronology is limited by two specific dates: the year of 1496, when the king D. Manuel signed the decree leading to the expulsion of the Jews from the Portuguese kingdom, and the year of 1773, when D. José abolished the purity of blood statutes. This option is based on the belief that the «Jewish question» was central to the definition of otherness that operated in Portugal during the Early-Modern period, contaminating, in a first moment, the perceptions, understandings and representations of «other others», which centrality was complemented by the emergence of other paradigms of distinction.
Different problems sustain this enquiry: Can we find among these rhetorics the roots of luso-tropicalist common sense? Which were the roots of reference of these rhetorics? Are they related with the Roman and Greek experiences? Or they borrowed themes and topics from the imperial experiences of the early-modern period?
If the theme of study are the ideologies of empire, and among these, the rhetorics of otherness, the objects that will be analysed will be mainly constituted by visual texts (print, painted, built images, descriptions of images and ceremonies, and visual references in written texts).

Estatuto: 
Participant entity
Financed: 
No

The absence of research on the ideologies of the Portuguese empire during the Early-Modern period is a matter of concern, especially in a period when the Word «empire» is frequently used in Social Sciences, but also in the media and in the common sense. The frequency of these uses is related with attempts to explain - among other things - the emergence of new political forms and of new types of social relations within the community, namely, the growing existence of communities constituted by people living in, and from different perspectives, a post-colonial condition.
Concentrating on the rethorics of otherness that operated during the Early-Modern imperial period, this project aims at tracing the historicity of Portuguese imperial ideologies of otherness, and the ways they penetrated in the Portuguese society, constituting its common sense tissue, and therefore, structuring the social basis for the perceiving and the understanding of these different post-colonial conditions.
Its chronology is limited by two specific dates: the year of 1496, when the king D. Manuel signed the decree leading to the expulsion of the Jews from the Portuguese kingdom, and the year of 1773, when D. José abolished the purity of blood statutes. This option is based on the belief that the «Jewish question» was central to the definition of otherness that operated in Portugal during the Early-Modern period, contaminating, in a first moment, the perceptions, understandings and representations of «other others», which centrality was complemented by the emergence of other paradigms of distinction.
Different problems sustain this enquiry: Can we find among these rhetorics the roots of luso-tropicalist common sense? Which were the roots of reference of these rhetorics? Are they related with the Roman and Greek experiences? Or they borrowed themes and topics from the imperial experiences of the early-modern period?
If the theme of study are the ideologies of empire, and among these, the rhetorics of otherness, the objects that will be analysed will be mainly constituted by visual texts (print, painted, built images, descriptions of images and ceremonies, and visual references in written texts).

Objectivos: 
Besides what is already referred above, in the short description of this project, there are two types of goals it aims at: <p>a) Historiographical goals: to contribute to a better knowledge of the Portuguese imperial experiences in the early-modern period, namely the ideologies of empire, and the intelectual culture of the agents involved in these experiences</p><p>b) «Political» goals: to contribute to a better understanding of images and meanings of otherness that operate in the Portuguese society, and, in that sense, to contribute for a better understanding of the Portuguese post-colonial condition.</p>
Coordenador ICS 
Start Date: 
01/09/2006
End Date: 
01/12/2009
Duração: 
39 meses
Closed