Os artifícios da voz: Francisco de Paula Brito e a Sociedade Petalógica

Abstract

Avoiding the dichotomy between orality and writing, we address the historiography of the press and literature, pursuing evidence of "voice" or "word", as suggested by Paul Zumthor and Michel de Certeau. Thereto, we have investigated how the pioneer editor Francisco de Paula Brito (1809-1861), whom we wish to characterize as the voice editor, has transformed it, from the quotidian polyphony to the nineteenth-century printed matters, especially by publishing reports about the sessions of the famous "Company Petalógica" between 1853 and 1858. By means of the artifice of petas (lies), the members of this fun society aimed at "counteracting the liars, lying to them"; something that truly constituted an indirect political action. By analyzing this example of literary sociability, we intend to demonstrate that both the editing and the performing conditions of the text are relevant to trace relations between literature and everyday reality, especially if we think of the little favorable conditions for diffusing literary texts in the mid-nineteenth century.