AMÉRICA DAS MIRABILIA: UMA IDADE MÉDIA RESIGNIFICADA

Abstract

The present paper aims at matching the concepts of the Medieval marvelous and the so-called marvelous real, trait of the Latin-American literary boom of the 1960’s, with the purpose of discussing the marvelous identity of America in the long duration. It unravels, thus, the fundamental link between Colonial America and Medieval Europe, which makes up its very matrix, suggesting for the former the symbolic statute of locus for the projection of the European imaginary, as well as a repository for Middle Ages’ traditions, permanently resignified in the long duration. For such goal, it focuses on the mental board belonging to the sailors who acted the conquest and colonization of America, in the light of the concept of marvelous. Furthermore, it establishes a relationship of contrast and continuity between the feudal-marvelous identity of Colonial America and the marvelous real character of contemporary Latin America, based on Alejo Carpentier.