Stefan Zweig in the land of the future: A Stateless intellectual as seen by the Brazilian Press, 1936-1943

Abstract

The life and death of Stefan Zweig, one of the most celebrated German-speaking writers exiled in Brazil, are seen as a symbol of the drama of the intellectuals persecuted by Nazism. Although Zweig’s physical presence as an exile in the country he called “the land of the future" was relatively brief, along the period comprised between the first visit in 1936 and his suicide in Petrópolis in 1942, his name was present in the Brazilian written press almost uninterruptedly. The way his figure was portrayed in the country’s newspapers during those six years, however, was by no means unanimous and evolved according to the rhythm of the political-historical struggles of the time. This article, by means of a range of selected articles published in the Brazilian press, aims at exposing part of those developments with a special focus on three moments: his first trip to the country in 1936; his second visit in 1940, when he carried out research for Brazil, Land of the Future; the months between the last arrival in August 1941 and his suicide in February 1942.