The article focuses on Joaquim Nabuco's autobiography Minha formação (My education), published in 1900, in which Nabuco tells us about his formative years as a politician and statesman. In this book we find a powerful and exemplary narration of the process of formation, or Bildung, of a member of the Brazilian elite in the 19th century. The article pinpoints the meaningful articulation of the notion of formação (education, formation) in the way it is operated by Nabuco. It is stated that the notion of formação has a double meaning. On the one hand, it means the process of learning the canonical (or universal) cultural values from the dominant center of civilization, Europe and the USA. On the other hand, formação is the Bildungsroman of a system of affections molded by the memory of Black slavery. The role of the literature is very important as the cement that holds the two sides together.
Joaquim Nabuco; Brazilian thinker; Abolitionism; Political autobiography; Formação