As apropriações da literatura antissemita no romance As Minas de Prata, de José de Alencar: o povo judeu no processo identitário da nação

Abstract

This study analyzes the representations of the Jewish people in the novel As Minas de Prata (The Silver Mines), by José de Alencar, from the historical image of the Jews as marginal people and stateless, challenging the identity ideals. Alencar's work between 1862 and 1865 establishes a dialogical process with what other literary manifestations and especially the circulation and reception of the feuilletonistic novel O Judeu Errante(The Wandering Jew) present as typifying aspects of the Israelites. The formulations of Jews within the national-international dialectic rethink the composition of their stereotypes, built on the core of the Christian myth, and resize the myth of the conspiracy of such people. Sensitive to his time, José de Alencar reappropriates anti-Semitic literature and fictionalizes the Jew as a conspirator and traitor character, questioning the participation of Israelin the civilizing process.