Abstract:
This paper highlights the epic and novelistic characteristics of Teodoro de Almeida’s hybrid narrative O feliz independente (The Happy Independent, 1779) against the backdrop of eighteenth-century literary theory and Mikhail Bakhtin’s theses on literary genres. For contemporaries, Almeida’s work was an “epic poem in prose”. Today we classify it as a “novel”. Examining the meta-literary reflections of the author and the literary criticism that accompanied its publication, I demonstrate the volatile status of some paradigms of the epic genre, for example, the use of verse, of heroic deeds relating to a collectivity, and the conception of the hero. My analysis shows that late eighteenth century Portuguese epic poetry laid the groundwork for the historical novel of Romanticism through this process of renewal and transformation.
Keywords:
Teodoro de Almeida; Mikhail Bakhtin; epic poetry; novel