A nonconformist reader: Álvares de Azevedo and 19th century journalism

Author(s)

Natália Gonçalves de Souza Santos

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: São Paulo.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH/SBD)
• Defense date: 2018-06-05

Examining board members

Eduardo Vieira Martins; Vagner Camilo; Jefferson Cano; Cilaine Alves Cunha; Wilton José Marques

• Advisor: Eduardo Vieira Martins

Abstract

This doctoral thesis aims to analyse the essay production set of Manuel Antônio Álvares de Azevedo (1831-1852), made up of Literatura e civilização em Portugal; Lucano; Alfredo de Musset: Jacques Rolla and George Sand: Aldo o rimador. The study compiles the main questions raised by the author as a literary reviewer and delineates the polemics in which each one of those four essays gets engaged. Simultaneously, the analysis identifies the formal and stylistic characteristics of those texts, in which it can be noticed a recurrent element that unifies them: the quotation practice. The gathering of the quotations done by Álvares de Azevedo on his essays allows us to relate them to another set of texts, mostly of international origin, comprised of newspapers, magazines, books and literature manuals that were circulating in the XIX century Brazil. The systematic investigation of the extensive material consulted by Álvares de Azevedo brings to light the important role of Revue des deux mondes, undoubtedly one of his main bibliographic sources, in which he had contact with the theoretical and critical apparatus of foreign literature, in vogue in France since 1830. The cosmopolitan view that guides the articles of the writers such as Jean-Jacques Ampère, Xavier Marmier e Edgar Quinet, helped the Brazilian poet to shape his critical viewpoint. Based on philological research, the works done by those French experts of foreign literature suggest innumerous ramifications among the participant cultures of the indo-european root and seem to have provided an important theoretical tool so that Álvares de Azevedo could equationate his own position related to the nuclear problem of the contemporaneous romantic review: refuting the hegemonic thesis, that defended the autonomy of the Brazilian literature from the Portuguese literature, the author of the Lira dos vinte anos, from an internationalist perspective, stood up for the union of both literatures and for the relation of the local poetic production to the rich heritage of the western tradition. The dialogue with the journalism of the XIX century, mainly with the foreign literature articles, ancestors of the comparative literature, allows to place the debate proposed by Álvares de Azevedo on the wider panorama of the international discussions and helps to understand his yearning for the participation of the local literature on the cultural circulation movement glimpsed by him on the works of matric literature analysed on his essays. This doctoral thesis continues an investigation initiated in the Master´s degree, dedicated to the study of the prefaces and the letters in which Álvares de Azevedo reflected on his poetic and fictional production. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 13/15809-0 - A nonconformist reader: Álvares de Azevedo and 19th century journalism
• Grantee: Natália Gonçalves de Souza Santos
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate