On the Portuguese intellectuals in the »nineteenth century (from the «Twentism» up to the Regeneration)

Abstract

In the first half of the nineteenth century, the Portuguese society saw a series of remarking events (the French invasions, the English domination, the liberal revolution of 1820, revolts and counter-revolts between 1834 and 1851), during which a new intelligentsia was formed: its ideological and political activity, in a significant way, helped to deepen the organic crisis of the «ancien régime», to consolidate the acess of the bourgeoisie to political power and to express the aims of its different fractions. The recruitment, formation and action capacity of this new intelligentsia had different phases and changes, that were a step forward sometimes and a step backwards other times in the struggle with the traditional intelligentsia. Progressively the speech of the latter was been put aside by a new speech (new, first, by its contents and, only later - from the thirties on - by its form). For its elaboration and diffusion, it was necessary to create new cultural headquarters, different from those that the traditional intelligentsia succeeded in keeping as a monopoly. In certain zones, those new headquarters had to be organized in a clandestine way. But the engagement of Portuguese intellectuals in several fights within the above-mentioned period, from the Vintismo («twentism») up to the Regeneration, defined at the same time and through the different configurations it took, whole way more or less uneven: the way of its making as a social category quite distinct. It is exactly concerning such a way that one tries to trace, in this article, the main features by means of a division into phases that one considers to be suitable and is distinguished by the undertitles used in the division of the text: revolution and counter-revolution; exile; liberals in power.