Alteridade na Carta de Pero Vaz de Caminha sobre o achamento do Brasil

Abstract

Pero Vaz de Caminha’s Letter to King Manuel of Portugal is reread in the light of post-colonial theory. Emphasis is given to the colonial encounter between the Tupinambas and the Europeans. The former are analyzed as “others” or colonized objects whereas the Portuguese are investigated as colonial subjects with panoptican and universalist ideology. Information generation, utopian notion of the “good savage”, body details, agency and mimicry show not only the worldling of the natives but also their reaction to objectification