ORIENTALISM AND SOCIAL CRITICISM IN WORKS OF ARTUR AZEVEDO AND EÇA DE QUEIRÓS: THE CASE OF TWO THE MANDARIN

Abstract

China has been under the spotlight from the West throughout the nineteenth century. This is probably one of the reasons why nineteenth century literature has frequently depicted the o3en-stereotyped image of the ‘Mandarin’ as the representation of the Chinese who holds political, economic or cultural prestige in his country of origin. In Portugal, for example, the novel O Mandarim, written by Eça de Queirós, was published in Diário de Portugal in 1880. In Brazil, a play authored by Artur Azevedo and Moreira Sampaio and staged four years later in Rio de Janeiro was also called O Mandarim. The closeness between both titles and the proximity of dates may raise a series of questions: how far are these two “The Mandarim” similar or different from each other? Could Eça’s novel have been a kind of inspiration to Azevedo and Sampaio’s play? How have these authors dealt with the representation of the Chinese who has lent both texts their title? Thiss article will try to answer these and other questions arising from our comparative reading.