What literature and culture in the 16th and 17th centuries hold?

Abstract

From the theme proposal of Letras journal – “Literatura e cultura nos séculos XVI e XVII” [Literature and Culture in the 16th and 17th centuries] – this text seeks to reflect on the existence of those two concepts in the above mentioned period. Brief notions of culture are brought up to back the statement that in the 17th century such concept can be alike to the idea of mastering a knowledge, which in the Letters translates as language techniques. The notion of literature is typical of the universe of the modernity of arts, subsequent to the 18th century. Through literature concepts such as subjectivity and expression of the self, author’s rights, originality and creative freedom supersede or intertwine with ancient rhetoric orders such as commonplace, imitation, authority and authorship, combinatory “novelty”, wit. This work is grounded on the proposals for text interpretation by João Adolfo Hansen.