ENTRE OS BOSQUES DE JOÃO DO RIO: LEITURAS DE CONTOS DE DENTRO DA NOITE

Abstract

This dissertation proposes some reading possibilities to four short stories, from the book Dentro da Noite, published in 1910 by João do Rio, Paulo Barreto’s pseudonym. In this regard, we have considered some informations about author’s life and literary work, as well as its synchronic and diachronic reception critics, in order to indicate the most relevant lines of the reception of his production. Sequentially, we’ve discussed about the end of the century context, historic moment when theses narratives were written, considering some decadent aesthetic aspects from Oscar Wilde and J. K. Huysmans’ texts. Then, some concepts and figurations about the reader were presented from H. R. Jauss, Vincent Jouve, Umberto Eco and Wolfgang Iser, approaching three different instances: the story, the diegesis and the text’s structure. Considering these theoretical-analytical prepositions, we have analyzed the following short stories by João do Rio: “Dentro da noite”, “Emoções”, “O bebê de tarlatana rosa” and “História de gente alegre”, discussing their structures, narrators’ roles and the texts’ different ways of fictionalizing readers. Finally, specifically in each tale, we have indicated some reading possibilities estimated by the narratives’ structures, evidencing the multiplicity of meanings from the selected examples.