Literatura, capitalismo e burguesia: convenções nos romances Senhora e Sonhos d’Ouro, de José de Alencar

Abstract

The life of the bourgeois and popular classes in Rio de Janeiro at the end of the 19th century was a valuable subject in José de Alencar's urban novels. Alencar developed a profile of Rio society where he depicted an elegant society marked by the emergence of the underclass. The objectives in this dissertation include analyzing the habits of these classes, observing the historical events of the time in the novels Senhora and Sonhos d’Ouro. Accordingly, this work also aims at analyzing the development of capitalism and social classes in this period. The novel Sonhos d’Ouro, published in 1872, raises in its plot issues such as modernization, industrialization and the English influences in the country, besides the problem of money in the social relations of Rio de Janeiro. Two years later, the novel Senhora was published, addressing social life in Rio de Janeiro and explaining the misery of capitalist society, revealing inner conflicts and bourgeois individualism. In a country where economic occurrences are always related to setbacks and overcoming, it is possible to observe in these novels how economic and sentimental relations are juxtaposed, with money contaminating less favored positioned subjects and degrading morality.