Imperial Culture and Colonial Projects

Beyond the immeasurable political and economic changes it brought, colonial expansion exerted a powerful effect on Portuguese culture. And as this book demonstrates, the imperial culture that emerged over the course of four centuries was hardly a homogeneous whole, as triumphalist literature and other cultural forms mingled with recurrent doubts about the expansionist project. In a series of illuminating case studies, Ramada Curto follows the history and perception of major colonial initiatives while integrating the complex perspectives of participating agents to show how the empire’s life and culture were richly inflected by the operations of imperial expansion.

“As all of the articles are very well researched and highly academic, this work will be of greatest interest to graduate students and scholars of advanced Portuguese colonial studies.” • Choice “Professor Curto’s command of the literature is vast and truly impressive. As a result, beyond his multifaceted and complex objectives, this work is an important historiographic resource and guide. If a reader wanted to know the importance or background of a specific early modern work, this would be a good place to start.” • Bulletin of Spanish Studies

Diogo Ramada Curto is full professor and a coordinator of the doctoral program on Global Studies at the New University of Lisbon.