Uma epígrafe em movimento: a tensa relação entre literatura e técnica na obra de João do Rio

Abstract

In the 80s, the researcher Flora Süssekind already indicated some trails of the technologies from the beginning of the 20th century, such as the panorama, the cosmorama, the stereoscope, the photograph and the cinematograph, in the works from João do Rio. Further, in the 90s, the professor Renato Cordeiro Gomes ended up corroborating this idea, up to a point, of a dialogue between the literary language and new technologies, which resulted in changes in the literary text. Inspired by the studies from Flora Süssekind (1980) and Renato Cordeiro Gomes (1996), the reflection that developed in this paper is about the tense dialogue of the writing with the new technologies in two moments, before and after the cinematograph. It was sought to show how João do Rio dealt with the modern ambience, marked not only by the arrival of technical innovations, but also by the urban renovation, the changes in the senses of speed, time and space, which besides altering the writing, also changed the perception and sensitivity of the subjects. In an attempt to compete with a series of images that were taking place in that moment, the literary text needed to become more provocative, affecting the reader, generating effects similar to those that the new technologies produced, mainly the cinematograph. The alteration in literature and its ways of writing has already been occurring even before the arrival of the cinematograph, yet it gained momentum as of that forthcoming as this apparatus condenses the vivid and intense sensations that the subjects were exposed to in the modern life. The collection of chronicles A Alma Encantadora das Ruas (2012), Cinematógrafo (2009), Vida Vertiginosa (1911) and A cidade (2017) was the analyzed material in order to identify how the impact took place in the writing from the dialogue with the new technologies. For the research some readings were taken about the modern sensitivity; sensationalism; urban renovation in the city of Rio de Janeiro; the history of the chronicles; the arrival of the cinematograph in the carioca city and its impacts in the life of subjects; the association of literature and technique. Among the authors who were read, there are: Ben Singer, Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht Marshall Berman and Walter Benjamin with texts that deal with matters such as the urban experience and modernization; Flora Süssekind, Giovanna Dealtry, Julia O'Donnell and Renato Cordeiro Gomes about literature and modernity in João do Rio; Jane Santucci and Nicolau Sevcenko about the new pace of life in the carioca city; Hermetes Reis de Araújo, Valéria Guimarães about literature and sensationalism, and Edgar Morin, Flávia Cesarino Costa and Jean Epstein about the history of cinema