The novel-essay in Eça de Queirós: critical study about A ilustre casa de Ramires and A cidade e as serras

Author(s)

José Carlos Siqueira de Souza

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: São Paulo.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH/SBD)
• Defense date: 2012-02-08

Examining board members

Helder Garmes; Benjamin Abdala Junior; Aparecida de Fatima Bueno; Ricardo Iannace; Maria Rosa Duarte de Oliveira

• Advisor: Helder Garmes

Abstract

The last two novels by Eça de Queirós, A ilustre casa de Ramires (1900), and A cidade e as serras (1901), both of them published in book form only after the author\'s death, continue to challenge the criticism, because of their content and form, which point to a dissociation between them and the previous work by this Portuguese writer. The present study has examined these two novels based on methodological point of view of critical theory, according to Frankfurt School. We searched to verify if the form adopted in these narratives would be an anticipation of the novel-essay, a genre whose maturity would occur in the European avantgarde in the twentieth century. The results of this research have indicated that the use of mise en abîme structure in the first novel, and of essayistic strategies in the second one confer the writer a very high literary and ironic result, by which the astute reader are able to explore a critical presentation of the neocolonial project, and bourgeois ideology that justifies it. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 08/01390-9 - The essay-novel in Eça de Queirós: a critical study on 'A Ilustre Casa de Ramires' and 'A Cidade e as Serras'
• Grantee: José Carlos Siqueira de Souza
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate