The noble Charlotte de La Tour appeared in France in 1819, The language of flowers, a piece that gave every sort of flower a particular meaning associated to the experiences of romantic love. The success of La Tour’s book in Europe and the nations of the American continent spanned the nineteenth century and inspired the publication of different titles with related content material. It did not take lengthy for the language of flowers to reach in Brazil. Here, nonetheless, it took on the guise of a fast dictionary targeted primarily on the social observe of courtship.
In The sentimental language of flowers and secret courtship in nineteenth century Rio de Janeiro (Editora Unesp, 2022), the anthropologist of Alessandra El Far reveals the presence of this love code in the day by day life of the imperial court docket, in a society characterised by many different covert methods of courtship. The research was supported by FAPESP.
The book, additionally printed with the help of FAPESP, analyzes the presence of a highly regarded literary style in each Europe and Brazil in the nineteenth century, the so-known as The Language of Flowers, which was a sort of love dictionary wherein every flower corresponded to a phrase or brief phrase associated to the universe of courtship and wooing.
“For instance, in these books a white rosebud meant ‘I’ll by no means cease loving you’ and a yellow carnation meant ‘contempt’; a cane-coloured dahlia requested the query: “Is my love in useless?” – exemplifies El Far in his interview with Agência FAPESP.
According to the anthropologist, particularly in the metropolis of Rio de Janeiro, throughout the time of the imperial court docket, this symbolic language was intently associated to the day by day routine of secret courtship and courtship. “This is as a result of in a society nonetheless marked by patriarchy, mother and father have selected the marriage of their youngsters, and at this level the official courtship should happen in the presence of relations, and courtship have to be brief and essentially courtship. marriage,” he explains.
The work additionally exhibits that flowers weren’t the solely courtship technique. “After in depth analysis in the archives of Rio de Janeiro, I concluded that, parallel to social conventions, there have been numerous methods of conquering love and secret encounters by way of languages and codes that used objects equivalent to flowers. , fruits and leaves, however every thing that was half of on a regular basis life, equivalent to followers, canes, colours, hats and even physique actions to create a silent and secret dialogue between two folks,” feedback El Far.
In order to acquire the vital information detailed in the book, he emphasizes the help of FAPESP: “The monetary help obtained from FAPESP was important for finishing up the analysis. First to analysis the archives of Rio de Janeiro, equivalent to the Biblioteca Nacional and the Royal Reading Room of Portugal, then to survey the huge assortment of the Bibliothèque Nacionale de France in Paris, the place I stayed for 2 months, in its dozens of editions The language of flowers”.
The anthropologist additionally emphasizes that the research supplied him with a historic studying of the universe of love: “The analysis allowed me to glimpse the complete vary of emotions associated to the universe of love, which may be very particular in the historical past of personal life. in Brazil. For instance, the overwhelming pleasure of merely having the ability to see the individual you love, the fixed pleas for flexibility in the face of the difficulties of lovers who haven’t obtained their mother and father’ permission to see one another, the remorse and the agony of lacking and hoping for a doable reunion”.
The book has 248 pages and will be bought at Editora Unesp’s digital retailer for R$68.