The Formation as national-occidentalization

Abstract

The main goal of this article is to present a discussion on the many facets and meanings of the concept of formação in Antonio Candido´s work. One can understand the concept as both the structuring of a literary system (historic-sociological function) and the establishment of a literary canon (works of great literary value) and, depending on the criteria of evaluation, the formation can be deemed as satisfactory or unsatisfactory. In this article, we try to grasp a third dimension of the concept: that of literature as a constitutive agent of the national-occidentalization of the country, through a process of subalternatizationof the non-western people.