1 Maria Amália Vaz de Carvalho: Cultural Mediator between Portugal and Brazil

The aim of this chapter is to analyse the contributions of the Portuguese Maria Amália Vaz de Carvalho to the Brazilian newspaper O País (Rio de Janeiro, 1884–1934).1 The complete newspaper collection can be found at: https://hemerotecadigital.bn.br/acervo-digital/paiz/178691. In order to understand the writer’s trajectory, we must reflect on the technical and social transformations that marked the transition from the nineteenth to the twentieth century. On the other hand, her refined education, her family’s social standing, the constant support she received at home, and her marriage to an intellectual are some of the aspects that supported her inclusion in the world of writing, though it should be noted that her work was always reviewed by her peers under the shadow of the clearly expressed gender hierarchies of the time. Her favourite themes can be ascertained from a careful reading of her contributions to the widely circulated Brazilian daily: her conservative stance towards the feminist demands that were gaining strength at the time, but also her role as a cultural mediator, since she introduced and commented on myriad writers, philosophers, legal experts, historians, scientists, and visual artists, be them contemporary or classic figures.