Guida e Aurélia: a complementaridade das protagonistas alencarianas

Abstract

This dissertation starts with a dialogue between Roberto Schwarz's work Ao vencedor as batatas and the gap left by the author in his analysis of José de Alencar's work Senhora, in its relationship to the depth and representation of aesthetic change during the transition period of Brazilian Romanticism within the literary corpus of the 19th-century author. To this end, the dissertation aims to bring three main discussions: the relevance of Schwarz's analysis of the importation of European models into Brazilian literature and their role in the construction of intellectualism in the post-independence period; the Brazilian intellectuals' response to Schwarz's essays, the definition of José de Alencar's literary project; and finally, the use of Schwarz's own methodology to analyze the works Sonhos d’Ouro and Senhora from the perspective of the complementarity of their protagonists. The guiding question throughout the work was: how are European ideas assimilated in Brazil during José de Alencar's period? Is it possible to analyze an author's work in comparison to another, or should their work be analyzed internally? The hypotheses that guided the discussion were that, before comparing the works of different authors, it is necessary to understand the context in which that author writes and what literary project they defend, if any; and the need to analyze the works of the same author before moving on to an "evolutionary" analysis of literary movements within the production of transitional authors. After discussing the hypotheses presented in the chapters, it was possible to understand the characteristics of the misalignment in implementing liberal ideas in Brazil and the importance of understanding José de Alencar's literary position in order to analyze Sonhos d’Ouro and Senhora in perspective, showing how changes occur within the same set of works by the author. In this analysis, it was also possible to present reasons to include another work in the "female profile" style for the analysis of the complementarity of Alencarian protagonists.