Ecos fluminenses: França Junior e sua produção letrada no Rio de Janeiro (1863-1890)

Abstract

The current dissertation realizes a survey and an analysis of Joaquim José da França Junior’s literate output. He had been a Brazilian playwright, painter, journalist, who lived between 1838 and 1890 and started writing from 1860 on. The main purpose of this survey is to recover his professional trajectory, analyzing the different moments of his literate output and the place that this output had taken up in Rio de Janeiro during the three last decades of the 19th century. Pieces of information about his education, vocational training and social networking, mainly after his marriage with Clotilde da França, who was Angelo Tomas do Amaral’s daughter, shows that the author belonged to a privileged social class and was motivated by his father-in-law’s money and political contacts. After a general survey of his work on newspapers and stages, I point out some relevant aspects in his work concerning the most important social and political subjects of that time: women, slaves, progress, and Brazilian people. Producing in a period that the world of Arts have gained political importance and strength, we realize that besides his large output, his work received an important disclosure and a reasonable reception by that time, being shown at the principal newspapers and theaters of the Court. This indicates that the images released by the author in his works, found acceptance among his readers, members of the audience, including among his literate pair workers.