Abstract
This article provides an overview of some of the most prominent universalist historiographical models in the study of the circulation of literature and literary theory. Pierre Bourdieu’s conference “Les conditions sociales de la circulation international des idées” (1989) coincides chronologically with Haroldo do Campos’O sequestro do barroco na formação da literature brasileira: o caso de Gregório de Matos. In this work, Campos put forward a critical reading of Antonio Candido’sFormação da literature brasileira(1959). These coordinates allow the isolation of another “kidnapping of the Baroque” inworld literature-through the reading of Pascale Casanova’sLa République mondiale des Lettres(1999). This “kidnapping” must be traced back to a much earlier time and it has been rendered visible in works such as Leyla Perrone-Moisés and Emir Rodríguez Monegal’sLautréamont austral(1984). These works are not examined here in themselves, but insofar they keep repeating themselves and continue to question the present. The monological models and practices are transmitted from national histories to world or universal histories of literature and are still currently in use.
Keywords:
Antonio Candido; Haroldo de Campos; circulation of literary theory; World Literature; baroque