Confortavelmente entorpecido: produção e consumo de romances de folhetim na obra Rocambole, de Ponson du Terrail

Abstract

The aim of this work is to analyze the set of novels that have the character Rocambole as protagonist, a work written by an author who today fell into ostracism, but who during the Second French Empire (1852-1870) was a true reading phenomenon, Ponson du Terrail (1829-1871). The novels we will analyze were published between 1857 and 1870 and printed in small daily doses in the footnotes of some Parisian newspapers. This way of marketing literary productions was called roman-feuilleton. The widespread consumption of serials novels is permeated by several factors, such as industrial development and the significant increase in relation to the social classes that were able to consume newspapers. It is worth noting that another determining condition for the popularity of this type of novel was the way in which they were written, as a light reading work, which could be consumed at any time of the day, whether at work or at some leisure time. With this work we hope to develop the complexity that encompasses the French serial novel that runs through the years 1850 to 1870, focusing on the work Rocambole and the reasons for its great success, to the point that Ponson du Terrail succeeded in overcoming renowned authors of his time, as was the case with Eugène Sue (1804-1857) and Alexandre Dumas (1802-1870). It is important to emphasize that this work will take into account not only the physical changes and class ascension by which the city of Paris was inserted during the Second Empire, but also narrative and stylistic factors, having as its concept of mass culture, which permeate the work Rocambole and that would be one of the main ways to understand its great popularity among 19th century readers. Finally, we intend to show that the novel written by Terrail was in charge of effectively expanding the literary productions that are part of mass culture, in which the Parisian newspapers that published Rocambole's adventures reached print runs never recorded before.