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Bien avant que les thèses racialistes promeuvent le blanchiment au rang de théorie politique sous la République, la littérature brésilienne façonnait déjà dans les années 1840-1850 une représentation de la nation fidèle aux vœux des élites impériales, au prix de l’invisibilisation des masses métisses et noires du pays ; une tendance hégémonique dont certains auteurs ont cru pouvoir s’affranchir, au risque de la censure.

Brazilian literature had been representing the nation in accordance with the imperial elite’s wishes well before racialist assumptions erected racial whitening as a political theory in the Republic. The cost was that the mestizo and black masses were rendered invisible. Some writers, though, thought they would be able to avoid this hegemonic trend, risking censorship.

Muito antes de as teses raciais terem promovido o branqueamento ao estatuto de teoria política durante a República, a literatura brasileira já forjara, nos anos 1840-1850, uma representação da nação fiel aos ideais das elites imperiais, condenando à invisibilidade uma multidão de negros e de mestiços ; tendência hegemónica que alguns autores tiveram a veleidade de contrariar, sofrendo a ação da censura.