O Brasil no divã

Abstract

This essay discusses Goethe’s West-eastern Divan and examines it through the prism of its relationship with a foreign literature/culture. I discuss aspects of the genesis, authorship, reception and translation of/in this book, and in the same movement I criticize Goethe’s appropriation of an image of the Persian poet Hafiz and reflect upon the actual translation typology proposed in Divan. Lastly, the reader is invited to think about the Brazilian national identity from the viewpoint of what I call here a “transplanted foreigner”.