FATHER CALDAS’ ELEGIA À AMIZADE, AN OUTLIER CASE

Abstract

The objective of this work is to show how the Elegia à amizade, a poem published by Antônio Pereira de Sousa Caldas in 1821, stands out from the long picture of elegies written in Portuguese between the 16th and 18th centuries by the atypical approach to a theme foreign to what has been agreed to call “elegiac poetry” in modern times. For that, I divide my argument in two parts: in the first, I trace a brief overview of the transformations undergone by the Portuguese-language elegies until the moment when Sousa Caldas’ work was published. In the second, I look at the Elegia à amizade aiming to highlight its exceptional characteristics and the points in which it dialogues with the Latin and vernacular traditions.