Conceptual Oppositions in the Poetry of Camões

Abstract

Abstract: Camões was the first major European poet with direct experience of alien cultures, gained during his seventeen years in Africa and the East. His poetry explores conceptually opposed ideological viewpoints, injecting new meanings into the literary language of the European tradition. By giving greater emphasis to experience than to belief, both in his lyric poetry and in his epic, Camões suggests new ways of understanding the world in which he lived.