Nísia Floresta

Nísia Floresta Brasileira Augusta, pseudonym of Dionísia Gonçalves Pinto, (October 12, 1810 in Papari, Rio Grande do Norte – April 24, 1885 in Rouen, France) was a Brazilian educator, translator, writer, poet, philosopher, and feminist.

She is considered the "first Brazilian feminist" and possibly the first still in the 19th century to break through public-private boundaries by publishing her works in newspapers, when the local press was just beginning. She also coordinated a girls' school in Rio de Janeiro and wrote a book in defense of the rights of women, Native Americans and slaves.

Personal life Dionísia Gonçalves Pinto was born October 12, 1810 in Papari, in the north eastern province of Rio Grande do Norte. She created the name Nísia Floresta Brasileira Augusta as pseudonym under which she published her written works. The name Nísia Floresta Brasileira Augusta was an act of self-construction under which she wrote, taught, and lived. Each component of the name was intentional and significant. ‘Floresta’ after her parents’ land where she was born, ‘Brasileira’ as a patriotic statement of her identification with the newly independent Brazil, and ‘Augusta’ in homage to her late husband, Manuel Augusto de Faria Rocha.

Floresta was a public intellectual who achieved international recognition during her lifetime. Her work extends well beyond her free translation of Mary Woolstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Woman for which she is mostly known (made in 1832 when she was only 22 years of age), and includes poetry, travel writings, and philosophical essays on morality and education. Most of these works have autobiographical content and are concerned with female virtues and moral upbringing. While the majority of Floresta’s works are in Portuguese, she also wrote in French and Italian, and some of her works were translated to English, Italian, and French during her lifetime, ensuring that her ideas circulated well beyond Brazil.

There were many significant events in Floresta's early life that shaped her work and future. In 1823 Floresta married at the age of thirteen, but quickly returned to her family. Five years later in 1828 Floresta's father was assassinated at the command of a powerful member of the state's elite. That same year, she married Manuel Augusto de Faria Rocha, who she had two children with. She returned to Brazil in 1852 and dedicated herself to writing newspaper articles, which were later compiled into her Opúsculo humanitário, as well as other works such as Dedicação de uma amiga and Páginas de uma vida obscura. She volunteered as a nurse during a 1855 cholera epidemic in Rio de Janeiro before leaving for Europe again in 1856. She was in Brazil from 1872 to 1875 during the abolitionist campaign led by Joaquim Nabuco, although little is known about her life during this period. She returned to Europe in 1875 and stayed in London, Lisbon, and Paris. She published her last work, Fragments d'un Ouvrage Inédit: Notes Biographiques, in France in 1878. In 1841 she published her second book, under the title of Conselhos à minha filha, which was a twelfth birthday present for her daughter Livia. Starting in 1847, her works began to include more thoughts on education while still focusing on gender equality. That year she also published Daciz ou A Jovem Completa, Fany ou also known as Modelo das Donzelas e Discurso, which was directed at her students. and favorably speaks about Auguste Comte, the father of positivism. The book discusses the author's thoughts on female education, in addition to addressing pedagogy in a general way. It also criticizes the teaching institutions of the time and their lack of focus and support for women.

Throughout her works, Floresta discusses many aspects of her personal life, including herself, her childhood, her deceased husband, and her family. There are also various travel stories within her writings. Among them are the itinerary of a trip to Germany, information about her three years in Italy, and discussion of a trip to Greece. The first of these travel accounts was published in Paris, France in 1857 and translated into Portuguese in 1982. The second, also published in Paris in French, was in two volumes published in 1864 and in 1872. Only the first volume was translated to Portuguese in 1998. Competing educators were especially critical of Floresta and her teachings. Access to education would help women recognize and address their unequal social standing. Floresta also believed that an ignorant population could be more easily manipulated by its government, and that was something she hoped to avoid by advocating for education for marginalized groups. Her philosophies around teaching and gender equality were guided by liberal, progressive, and positivist ways of thinking. However, it is necessary to consider the politics of the author's own time and the context that she worked within. Scholars have criticized her somewhat ambivalent feminist views for not being militant enough and for shifting between avant-garde and conservative. For Constância Lima Duarte, author of the book Nísia Floresta: Vida e Obra (Nísia Floresta: Life and Work), Floresta fits into what she calls “good feminism.” This means that she did not intend to substantially change social relations, keeping women within the ideological limits of the private sphere. Floresta suggested several ways to maintain this traditional family system and keep a home, husband, and children in her various works.

Scholars have also acknowledged the ideological shift that Floresta underwent as a writer and a feminist. In her first work, she rejected radical changes to the present social order. She made it clear that she wanted things to stay in their current state and was not trying to impose any major changes. After her travels in Europe, however, her second work on the subject was more sharply analytical of the current education system and called for large-scale reform. She also expressed concerns about an ignorant population being open to manipulation.