TIRANA, April 22 – Brazil is highly popular in Albania for its football, Carnival festivals and Samba dances, but few people have in-depth knowledge of its history, society and culture.
Two books on Brazil’s history, “The Roots of Brazil” by Sergio Buarque de Holanda and “A Concise History of Brazil” by Boris Fausto are now available also in Albanian providing readers with two of Brazil’s best historical books translated into several languages. Promoted in launch ceremony at the Albanian Ministry of Culture on April 10, 2013, the publications by the Albanian Institute for International Studies (AIIS) were supported by Brazilian Embassy in Tirana, open since 2010.
Speaking at the promotion ceremony, Anthony W. Pereira, professor of Brazilian Studies and director of the King’s Brazil Institute in the UK elaborated on the books’ lively descriptions and key moments in the history of Brazil through analytical comments.
“In A Concise History of Brazil, Professor Fausto combines vivid description of some of Brazil’s key historical periods and moments with analytical commentary on debates about Brazilian history. The book’s organization clearly shows the reader the seven principal periods of Brazilian political history: colonial rule; the Empire; the first republic; the period dominated by President Vargas; the second republic; the military dictatorship, and the democratic period that began with the foundation of the “new republic” in 1985,” said Pereira.
Angꭩca Madeira, the author of the preface to the “Roots of Brazil” in the Albanian version said that In Ras do Brasil, interested in studying the Brazilian’s stance vis ࡶis his political institutions, S곧io Buarque constructs a dense and articulate summary of the decisive facts in the history of Brazil, a topic he mastered in terms of both depth and breadth. “Although it does not follow a chronological order, this narrative covers the colonial (1500-1822), monarchic (1822-1889) and republican (1889) periods, up until the actual historical moment in which Buarque de Holanda lived and wrote, the 1930s, a time of crucial political definitions for Brazil’s destiny.”
Culture Minister Visar Zhiti hailed the iconic publications by the renowned Brazilian authors saying that the books bring the message that European culture managed to develop also in Brasil. “Albanians are very curious of Brasil, especially in sport because they know its football icons such as Pele quite well,” said the Minister.
Brazilian Ambassador to Albania Ruda Gonzales Seferin and AIIS director Albert Rakipi also praised the publication of the two historical books in Albanian as a novelty being offered to the public in Albania ahead of the World Book and Copyright Day on April 23.
Understanding the soul of Brazil
Prof. Gjergj Sinani of the Department of Philosophy of the University of Tirana says “The Roots of Brazil” by S곧io Buarque de Holanda is a book which makes you think and at the same time, makes you notice that many problems raised by the author have a universal value. “Taking into consideration that he wrote this book when he was 34 years old, sympathy and respect grow fonder. If we used a more philosophical language, the book makes you understand the existence of Brazil’s being, so it makes you understand the soul of this nation and also understand the road to freedom on which Brazil passed by Holande’s work, complies entirely with what Dilthey, the German philosopher, said that the task of history is not only to explain, but to understand. And this book makes you understand the soul of Brazil.
Three centuries of colonial rule, four centuries of slavery, independence and the road to republic make the chronology of history and the cultural social political development of Brazil,” says Sinani.
Roots of Brazil by Sergio Buarque de Holanda
S곧io Buarque de Holanda’s Roots of Brazil is one of the iconic books on Brazilian history, society, and culture. Originally published in 1936, it appears here for the first time in an English language translation with a foreword, “Why Read Roots of Brazil Today?” by Pedro Meira Monteiro, one of the world’s leading experts on Buarque de Holanda.
Roots of Brazil focuses on the multiple cultural influences that forged twentieth-century Brazil, especially those of the Portuguese, the Spanish, other European colonists, Native Americans, and Africans. Buarque de Holanda argues that all of these originary influences were transformed into a unique Brazilian culture and societyء “transition zone.” The book presents an understanding of why and how European culture flourished in a large, tropical environment that was totally foreign to its traditions, and the manner and consequences of this development. Buarque de Holanda uses Max Weber’s typological criteria to establish pairs of “ideal types” as a means of stressing particular characteristics of Brazilians, while also trying to understand and explain the local historical process. Along with other early twentieth-century works such as The Masters and the Slaves by Gilberto Freyre and The Colonial Background of Modern Brazil by Caio Prado J
