Iracema

Jose de Alencar''s prose-poem Iracema first published in 1865 is a classic of Brazilian literature--perhaps the most widely-known piece of fiction within Brazil and the most widely-read of Alencar''s many works. Set in the sixteenth century it is an extremely romantic portrayal of a doomed love between a Portuguese soldier and an Indian maiden. Iracema reflects the gingerly way that mid-nineteenth cenury Brazil dealt with race mixture and multicultural experience. Precisely because of its nineteenth-century romanticism Iracema strongly contributed to a Brazilian sense of nationhood - contemporary Brazilian writers and literary critics still cite it as a foundation for their own work.