Nísia Floresta and Still the Translation’s Controversy of the Book Direitos das mulheres e injustiça dos homens

Abstract

This essay intends to present itself as a brief intellectual biography of the Brazilian writer Nísia Floresta (1810-1885), whose documentary records are frequently reproduced with gaps and inaccuracies. It places itself, though, especially around the publication of her first book, entitled Direitos das mulheres e injustiça dos homens (1832), which was considered until very recently a non-literal translation from the French version of A vindication of the rights of woman (1792), work of the English writer Mary Wollstonecraft. Despite the vicissitudes about the literary origins of Nisia’s first book, her translation turned out to associate Wollstonecraft’s name to the still incipient feminist ideology in the country at that time. The underlying intent of this work consist of highlighting an old academic break through regarding the origin of the referred book, which, even nowadays, is not much assimilated amid further Brazilian academic research.