Abstract
Gilberto Freyre has already been portrayed by the same words he himself used to describe Brazil: a display of antagonisms in balance. The multiple ways of interpreting his work contribute to this coincidence. For instance, when considering his career’s opening book, Masters and slaves(1933), what draws attention is its impact on the Brazilian literature for its methodological perspective as well as his positivistic interpretation of the, at the time considered unfortunate, Brazilian identity. Nevertheless, there is a key to an alternative – but not exclusive – understanding: the freyrian narrative about the formation of the national patriarchal society. This narrative, greatly if combined with the other two volumes of his trilogy: Mansions and shanties (1936) and Order and progress (1958), contains elements which lend him affinity with Arthur de Gobineau, at first sight, or to a certain degree, an antagonist. This is done by shifting aside the racial question and putting up front their shared narrative, revealed by their common eulogy to institutions that can be traced historically to the feudal world, especially the family.
Keywords
Arthur de Gobineau; Brazilian social thought; conservative thought; Gilberto Freyre