At first, this article deals with the relationship established between culture, nature, society, history and literature in the critical essay Benção paterna, by José de Alencar. The essay express his concerns about the edification of a Brazilian literature, with "local color" and a national identity. Next it focuses the descriptions of the nature from the region surrounding the city of Rio de Janeiro in the novel Sonhos d'ouro, noticing the cultural ways of individual's interaction with the physical and natural aspects and the appreciations about them in the production process of an imaginary which is responsible for the nation and city's identity, in which are pointed out its singularities, beauties and monumentallies.
Culture and nature; History and literature; Imaginary and national identity; José de Alencar