The Use of Ekphrasis in the Historical Genre of seventh-century

Abstract

The article discusses some uses of ekphrasis in the writing of historical narratives of the seventeenth century. It demonstrates how seventeenth-century literati updated the descriptive poetic genre, by perceiving it as general elocutive procedure. By understanding the ekphrasis as descriptio, they use it in the description / illustration of topics such as place, person, physic, actions, character, etc. The technique amplifies the discourse and becomes, in the use, instructive ornate. The discussion is particularized by reading clippings of stories, annals, daily lives and diaries of the Dutch Wars in the State of Brazil (1624-1654). The mimetic assumption of the studied Historiographic practices dismisses the realistic / naturalistic reading by understanding that imitation / emulation, in the clipping, is not done by means of empirical realities, but by narrative / pictorial models. It studies, therefore, their genres and historical styles, instead of singular projects of history authors.