THE CONSTRUCTION OF AN AUTHOR: SELF-WRITING, HISTORY AND POLITICS IN MARIA GRAHAM’S JOURNAL OF A VOYAGE TO BRAZILThis paper aims to address Maria Graham’s travel report to Brazil, Journal of a voyage to Brazil, published in 1824, as an attempt by the author to build a place of authority as a historian, political analyst and intellectual. In the case of Graham, the visit to Brazil is of greater interest insofar as it witnesses the construction of a new independent nation seen by a direct, educated observer who directly participates in this construction through her relations with Lord Cochrane and the emperors. Through the direct and internal experience of the independence process, of a decrease in Luso-Brazilians and the British colony in Brazil, Graham overcomes her class and gender limits, presenting herself as a competent observer and a cultural and political agent in the process of independency from Brazil.
Keywords:
Maria Graham; Politics; Travel Literature; Travelers