Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Introduction to Volume 3
- 1 The literary historiography of Brazil
- 2 Colonial Brazilian literature
- 3 Brazilian poetry from the 1830s to the 1880s
- 4 Brazilian poetry from 1878 to 1902
- 5 The Brazilian theatre up to 1900
- 6 Brazilian fiction from 1800 to 1855
- 7 The Brazilian novel from 1850 to 1900
- 8 Brazilian fiction from 1900 to 1945
- 9 Brazilian prose from 1940 to 1980
- 10 The Brazilian short story
- 11 Brazilian poetry from 1900 to 1922
- 12 Brazilian poetry from Modernism to the 1990s
- 13 The Brazilian theatre in the twentieth century
- 14 Brazilian popular literature (the literatura de cordel)
- 15 Literary criticism in Brazil
- 16 The essay: architects of Brazilian national identity
- 17 The Brazilian and the Spanish American literary traditions: a contrastive view
- Bibliography
- Index
- References
7 - The Brazilian novel from 1850 to 1900
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2008
- Frontmatter
- Introduction to Volume 3
- 1 The literary historiography of Brazil
- 2 Colonial Brazilian literature
- 3 Brazilian poetry from the 1830s to the 1880s
- 4 Brazilian poetry from 1878 to 1902
- 5 The Brazilian theatre up to 1900
- 6 Brazilian fiction from 1800 to 1855
- 7 The Brazilian novel from 1850 to 1900
- 8 Brazilian fiction from 1900 to 1945
- 9 Brazilian prose from 1940 to 1980
- 10 The Brazilian short story
- 11 Brazilian poetry from 1900 to 1922
- 12 Brazilian poetry from Modernism to the 1990s
- 13 The Brazilian theatre in the twentieth century
- 14 Brazilian popular literature (the literatura de cordel)
- 15 Literary criticism in Brazil
- 16 The essay: architects of Brazilian national identity
- 17 The Brazilian and the Spanish American literary traditions: a contrastive view
- Bibliography
- Index
- References
Summary
Brazilian novels and short stories of the second half of the nineteenth century reflected the complex and infinitely larger fictions which served as the basis of Brazilian society as a whole during the period. The most basic of those fictions, that Brazil was a progressive and essentially European nation which happened to find itself on the other side of the Atlantic, was an article of faith among the miniscule Brazilian elite – those who could read and write, those who voted, those who controlled government, economics, and society.
It has been estimated that those actively involved in cultural and political matters at the time of Independence in 1822 numbered about 20,000, out of a population of some 4 million. By 1871, when the total population had reached 10 million, only 147,621 children were enrolled in primary schools, and only 9,389 attended secondary schools. Ten years later, in 1881, only 147,000 Brazilians-out of a total population of around 13 million – were qualified to vote. To talk of progress, of politics, of literature during the nineteenth century, therefore, is inevitably to talk about this small elite; the other Brazilians, perhaps 97 or 98 percent of the population, remained outside what the elite defined as the mainstream of national society, isolated from politics, from culture, and from meaningful progress, by poverty, illiteracy, and racial discrimination. This last factor was of particular importance, for Brazil’s population remained overwhelmingly non-white throughout most of the century.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge History of Latin American Literature , pp. 137 - 156Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1996
References
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