PLCS 25 (2013)
Essays

British Novels in Nineteenth-Century Brazil

DOI: https://doi.org/10.62791/wghphj11

Published 2017-03-21

Abstract

ABSTRACT: From the most celebrated novelists to the most popular feuilleton-romans, French literature played an indisputable role in the making of Brazil’s literary past. The aim of this essay is to argue that, though not fully acknowledged, British novels also were widely available in nineteenth-century Brazil, enabling the establishment of some links between their narrative paradigms and techniques and the making of the Brazilian novel, mainly with reference to common themes and conflicts. My hypothesis is that the presence of these novels in Brazil contributed to the formation and consolidation of the genre on Brazilian territory, resulting in the acclimatization of forms and procedures.

KEYWORDS: theory of the novel, circulation, acclimatization, comparative literature, book trade