PORTUGAL IN THE BALANCE OF EUROPE ? PHILOSOPHIC AND POLITICAL TREATISE BY J.B. DE ALMEIDA GARRETT AS A BASIS OF HIS NOVEL TRAVELS IN MY HOMELAND

In this article two writings by J.B. de Almeida Garrett, Portuguese writer of the 19th century are retrospectively considered: the philosophical and political tractate "Portugal in the balance of Europe" and the novel "Travels in my Homeland", which address the difficult issue on civilization development of society contemporary to the author. As an active participant of violent political events of the first half of the 19th century in Portugal, J.B. de Almeida Garrett reinterprets and reappraises many of these events in his novel. The reading of the novel "Travels in my Homeland" is suggested from the point of view of the philosophical and political discourse which are in the picture not only in the writer's theme but also in work composition. To the antagonistic philosophical categories of idealism and materialism two principles of political system of society correspond ? the absolutism and liberalism which are presented in the novel by generalized characters of the monk and baron on the narrative level and on the subject level by the characters of friar Dinis and Carlos.