Contradictions and paradoxes in the peripheries of modernity: otherness and belonging in nineteenth-century Brazil

Abstract

The essay observes the relationship between modernity, difference and slavery in Brazil in the 19th century. Modernity is understood as a phenomenon characterized by functional differentiation, the multiplication of otherness and the paradox of inclusion. In the peripheries of modernity, such as 19th century Brazil, contradictions and paradoxes explode and are particularly visible, as in the case of the silence of the 1824 Constitution regarding slavery.