Literary lists and their indications: the dissemination of Brazilian literature abroad

Abstract

Umberto Eco (2010), in The Infinity of Lists, ponders that it is possible to study literature through its lists: the set of authors and works that act as reading indicators for the dissemination of what has become a social legacy, in so far as they have constituted aesthetic representations. Outside Brazil, Brazilian literature also depends on such divulgations, as in 501 Great Writers, by Julian Patrick (2009). This article investigates how Patrick’s work establishes an image of Brazilian literature that is recommended for contact mainly with ordinary foreign readers, not specialists in literary studies. Thus, first, we analyze the book under the prism of Eco (2010), observing the set formed by Brazilian authors; then Carpeaux (2012), who considers the relation between the history of literature and the canon as indications of reading; and finally Chartier (2009), to understand the appropriation of cultural objects by readers.