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University Daily Kansan Wednesday, April 17, 1963
Humanities Lecturer Cites French Influence In Brazil
The French language has been a tremendous influence on Brazil, but the greatest influence in the South American country today is provided by the English language, a visiting associate professor from Brazil said here last night.
Wilson Martins, visiting associate professor of Brazilian and French literatures, spoke of the French influence upon Brazil in his address at the Humanities Forum.
Prof Martins, who is a professor of French literature at the Universidade de Parana in Cubituba, Brazil, said English has become the main language because of its technical and political uses.
Wilson Martins
He called French the "social language" of Brazil.
"The influence is all American now. That's why I think these misunderstandings are superficial. We have more reasons to have understanding than psychological misunderstandings between the two countries."
Prof. Martins told how the U.S. influence had extended to the sports, theater, cinema and literature of Brazil.
Prof. Martins is a literary critic for O Estado de San Paulo, a leading newspaper in Brazil. He has written five books, three on literary criticism, one on European immigrants in Brazil and one on the history of language.
"However paradoxical it seems, French literature is not the source of French influence in Brazil and in the world," the visiting professor said in his speech, "the knowledge
of literature is a consequence and result of that influence.
"It can even be said that the love and understanding of French literature is a by-product of the influence that French civilization exercised or exercises.
"And if that civilization is, more than anything else, a product of the language—then it is the language, more than any other factor that is found in the origins of that complex and delicate phenomenon."
Prof. Martins spoke of the nationalist and the internationalist principles in the intellectual and artistic life of Brazil and said:
"Whatever be the motives. Brazilians fluctuate at all times between those two irresistible temptations.
in the idea and the national sentiment constitute an enigma which is renewed every day and is born again from its own ashes, the generous and mysterious attraction of internationalism places them with extraordinary frequency in the
enigmatic port from which all foreign adventures depart."
Prof. Martins said the cultural relations between France and Brazil began in the 16th century with French pirates who traded brazilwood. This "cultural contact," he said, has not always been intact.
After the discovery of Brazil, the policy in the Portuguese colony was "anti-French," according to the visiting associate professor.
Noting that it has been said that Brazil has "received more than she gave" in its cultural relationship with France, Prof. Martins concluded;
". but, in reality, what Brazil received was more the consciousness of her own profound nature, both in its good and bad aspects; the imaginative contribution that permitted her to see what was hidden behind a more immediate realism."
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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — (UPI) — Freshman Rep. Bill Bosford performed with a flourish yesterday when given the honor of introducing pretty Gloria Brody, Miss Florida, to the legislature.
But he stumbled when he sought an escort to the rostrum for her and said, "I move that a committee be named to execute here."
Try It Out—Kansan Classified
A Committee for Everything
913 N.H.
VI 3-6844
Sidney Lumet's Brilliant
A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE
From a play by Arthur Miller
BALDWIN ART THEATER
with
RAF VALLONE, CAROL LAWRENCE, JULIAN SOREL April 16,17,18 7:30 GEM THEATER Baldwin, Kansas
1. 下列关于物质的说法，错误的是（    ）