Jacinto, Fradique e Gonçalo: impasses oitocentistas sob o olhar do último Eça

Abstract

The phase known as the ultimate Eça is a controversial period at Eça de Queiros opus. A ilustre Casa de Ramires (1900; translated as The illustrious House of Ramires), A cidade e as serras (1901; translated as The city and the mountains) and A correspondência de Fradique Mendes (1900; The Correspondence of Fradique Mendes) are usually considered minor texts. Some people see Gonçalo Ramires as an empty character; for others, Jacinto s saga is a reactionary text; only Fradique Mendes relishes the affinity at queirosian studies. Nevertheless, at the most recent studies, there is a recovery of this period and, for this researchers, such books point out a new ideological position of the author that, through historical, symbolic and mythical elements leads to a dialogue with the themes and values discussed at the European culture at the end of the century. With these elements, Eça exposes in the three books the necessity of the society to adopt a position of original thoughts aiming at intellectual independence and the elimination of decrepit concepts. So, the three pieces are seen in this work as a trilogy and the protagonists represent the Eça de Queiros s proposals: Gonçalo is the rural Portuguese that seeks for the strength to change in the past; Jacinto is the cosmopolitan Portuguese that returns to his origins to, in a single way, put himself in dialogue with his country and the world he knew in the capital of the 19th century (Paris); Fradique is the global Portuguese that easily circulates through the continents, still loving Portugal. The trilogy presents proposals to a new century: release man from chains that tie him to romantic nationalism, to the blind belief at science, to the power of church and to the great philosophical systems