Two Europeans in Rio de Janeiro: Stefan Zweig and Paulo Rónai. Registered Impressions in Brasil, País do Futuro and Travel in Brazil magazine

Abstract

This article aims to compare impressions of Rio de Janeiro recorded in texts, both published in 1941, by two foreign writers, Stefan Zweig and Paulo Rónai, who were refugees in Brazil during Vargas’ Estado Novo government in the Nazi’s persecutions context in Central Europe. From Zweig, we selected fragments from Brasil, um País do Futuro, which show impressions of his arrival in Rio de Janeiro in 1936, the idealization of the Country as “Eden Rediscovered” and the fl ânerie through the city, observed from several perspectives. From Rónai, we extracted excerpts from Travel in Brazil’s article “A European’s Impression of Rio in 1941”, which reveal Rio’s associations to a image of “Promised Land” image and the author’s path between mourning work and homesickness.