Luiz Gama. Life as incontestable proof of history

Abstract

The life of Luiz Gama has been appropriated, interpreted and fictionalized. The convergence, superposition and overlapping versions of Luiz Gama, the historical subject, inserted in the Second Reign, and a fictional Gama have given rise to fiery disagreements among his critics and commentators. In the letter written to his friend Lúcio de Mendonça, a memorial and autobiographical outline, Luiz Gama sums up his origin and background. Based on this letter, Lúcio de Mendonça rewrote Gama’s biography and published it in two identical versions. One as a biographical draft in the Almanach literário de São Paulo para o ano de 1881 and another, titled "Folhetim," in the Gazeta da Tarde. We resort to the ideas presented by Rancière (2014), primarily regarding the homonymy of ‘História/história’ (History/story), to make a critical reading of that publication and the reception of Luiz Gama’s letter.