Refining intersections: reading novels in France, Portugal and Brazil in the mid-19th Century (1830-1870)

• Grant number: 12/04515-2
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctorate
• Effective date (Start): July 01, 2012
• Effective date (End): February 28, 2013
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Literature - Literature Theory
• Principal Investigator: Márcia Azevedo de Abreu
• Grantee: Mariana Teixeira Marques
• Host Institution: Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem (IEL). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 11/07342-9 - The transatlantic circulation of printed matter: the globalisation of culture in the 19th Century, AP.TEM
• Associated scholarship(s): 12/20083-5 - Refining intersections: reading novels in France, Portugal and Brazil in the mid-19th century (1830-1870), BE.EP.PD

Abstract

This project is part of the wider context of studies concerning the history of the novel in its various crossings between Europe and Brazil in the 19th century. In this sense, the proposed study initially has 4 precise objectives. The first one is strictly quantitative, referring to the establishment, through research at different library collections, of an inventory of the novels with the greatest circulation in France, Portugal and Brazil between the decades of 1830 and 1870. The second objective, immediately associated to this, refers to the investigation and to the qualitative analysis of the evaluation criteria used for these novels, chiefly considering the production subsequently considered "canonical", through the study of the critical texts that accompany these publications, especially in periodicals. In the third place, it is important to compare, with the aid of the inventory organized in the first part, the preferences of the reading audience, as well as establishing comparisons between the arguments used in the judgment and reception of these novels during the period mentioned in the three literary markets in question - French, Portuguese and Brazilian. As the last objective, it is interesting to observe how these arguments relate to the ideas about literature and reading in each national context. Put in perspective, the particular points of view referring to local literature acquire new common meanings and can be informative of the consolidation of the novel as the genre of modernity on both sides of the Atlantic. (AU)