Pelas “zonas” da Belle Époque: a literatura pornográfica nos Contos rápidos do Jornal Rio-Nú (1898-1916)

Abstract

The end of the 19th century marked the advent in Brazil of so-called "books for men", a euphemism for pornographic literature, as a recognizable part of a lucrative book market. The appearance of the Rio-Nú newspaper in 1898 was an important stage in the popularization of pornography, not only for the regular editions until 1916, which were cheap and sent by post to all regions of the country, but also for the publication of volumes of pornographic novels and short stories, such as Contos Rápidos, in 1914, the focus of this dissertation. We have selected six short stories for study: “Na Zona…”, “A Pulga”, “O brinquedo”, “O cachorro”, “O Marcante”, and “O menino do Gouveia”, signed by various pseudonyms and some previously published in the newspaper. In our reading of the corpus, we emphasize its link with the previous libertine and pornographic tradition, such as Saturnino, o porteiro dos frades bentos, anonymous from 1842; and Os serões do convento, from M. L. (1860), the most important licentious book on the portuguese-brazilian circuit at the end of the 19th century. The Contos Rápidos were heirs to these books and consolidated the production of pornographic literature in Brazil