Nas entrelinhas da cidade: a reforma urbana do Rio de Janeiro no início do século XX e sua imagem na literatura de Paulo Barreto

Abstract

Rio de Janeiro was the first Brazilian city to undergo a comprehensive urban reform, as early as the first years of the 20th century (1903-1906). This was not only a structural and architectural reform but also ideological and cultural. It aimed to transform the city and to involve it in a larger framework of modernization, adding to its attractiveness at a moment of high demand for european investments, technicians and immigrants. Bearing this context in mind, the core of this dissertation lies in the analysis of the idea of city the proposers of the urban reform wanted to see realized. The materials employed for the aforesaid analysis were the official documents produced for the undertaking and those chronicles of Paulo Barreto – best known as João do Rio – published in the Gazeta de Notícias’ Cinematógrapho column from 1907 to 1910.