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The article examines the influences that European intellectual constructions exerted on the formulation of socio-political projects in Brazil in the nineteenth century. The analysis centers on Romanticism-based literary publications of mid-century, paying additional attention to the propositions advanced by the Positivism of the last quarter of the century. Even though nineteenth-century Brazil intellectuals saw Europe as the main source of influence for their own cultural projects, in Brazil the intellectual field was much less developed and members of local elites believed the future of their country depended on their direct involvement in leading the construction of an autonomous national identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]