Como correu a pena: a gênese do romancista José de Alencar no Diário do Rio de Janeiro

Abstract

This paper intends to highlight the importance of José de Alencar contributions to the Brazilian literary scene. It is intended not only to emphasize who is the remarkable novelist in his process of formation in Rio de Janeiro periodicals, but also to point out that the absence of critical exercises on his work, added to the misleading readings on his texts often feed inappropriate stereotypes concerning to an author who really contributed to Brazilian literature during the nineteenth century. To do so, it will be considered the the time of the author s preparation concerning his composition, his difficulties and facilities until he becomes the author of the novel O Guarani . We will discuss how his experience as a journalist contributes to the novelist formation since journalistic narrative practices such as suspension, for example, have been used in his text since his early writings. Furthermore, his technical criticism skills on his letters about A Confederação dos Tamoios , an epic poem by Domingos José Gonçalves de Magalhães will be stressed out. We will notice the significance of the author s major work has been published in the newspaper pages of Diário do Rio de Janeiro as well as his works are directly associated to the newspaper way of production and diffusion. Since that journals used to have an important social role both by means of communication and entertainment, there was the space thar José de Alencar practised his writings and has contributed to develop a public of readers who named him as a respected Brazilian novelist. Plus, the purpose of mentioning his writing path in Diário do Rio de Janeiro, from his chronicles to his romances, it will be also pointed that the chronicler s journalistic task of narrating everyday life, contributes to the literate background from the one who searched for a different form to portray nacional culture. This study is organized in four parts. The first one is an Introduction that includes several aspects throughout the author s life, which is going to support the following chapters. Second and third chapter considers the chronicler and critic moments of Alencar s career, respectively. Finally chapter number four discuss the novelist José de Alencar. Therefore, we will focus on José de Alencar s career in Diário do Rio de Janeiro from 1855 to 1858 and how his inclusion in this media has contributed to his prominence in Brazilian literary scene as one of the most recognized national writers.