Dinah Silveira de Queiroz, Literature and History: Some Concepts

Abstract

Dinah Silveira de Queiroz (1911-1982), in a literary career spanning more than 40 years, wrote novels, short stories, theater, science fiction and children's literature. One of the literary genres that brought her the most notoriety, however, was historical fiction. An example of this is The women of Brazil (1954), which has as background the Emboabas War. Another example is Os invasores (1965), a plot based on the events surrounding the French invasion of Rio de Janeiro in 1710. The author's connection with historical fiction, however, is not restricted to these two novels: Queiroz also reflected, through different texts for the press, on the relationship between literature and history and on the concept of the historical novel itself. Thus, the main objective of this work is firstly to recover these author’s reflections. Hence, her notes will be compared with the proposals of scholars such as Hayden White and Paul Ricoeur, and also with what Dinah in fact accomplished in The women of Brazil and Os invasores.