Mussa Kuraiem a Border Intellectual Between the Translation of the Arab World and Orientalist Stereotypes

Abstract

Based on an analysis of the themes that permeate the trajectory of the magazine O Oriente — edited uninterruptedly from 1927 to 1974 by the Brazilian journalist of Syrian origin Mussa Kuraiem — this article aims to highlight its contributions and contradictions in the process of constructing the imaginary about Arabs in Brazil. The magazine’s contributors sought to explain to the local audience the history and geopolitical struggles of Middle Eastern countries, but often relied on exoticizing perspectives to narrate and interpret events. Authors from the second generation of Arab immigrants active in the twentieth century, such as Mussa Kuraiem and Jamil Almansur Haddad, acted as messengers between worlds in the dialogue between Arab countries and Brazil, also using orientalist narratives as a strategy to convey hedonistic images. This article further seeks to raise preliminary reflections on the reasons why these frontier intellectuals are scarcely mentioned in major works of Brazilian literary historiography, despite the breadth of their production, their role in translating knowledge about the Middle East — albeit with limitations — and their impact on the process of renewal of Arab literature.